https://www.money.pl/gospodarka/polskie-lasy-znikaja-w-oczach-nie-wiadomo-co-dzieje-sie-z-drewnem-a-ceny-szaleja-6766271778044736a.html
Representatives of the timber industry accuse the State Forests of predatory timber management in Poland, and Polish wood is exported on a larger scale than the state organization reports. In their opinion, the policy pursued by the State Forests is driving up wood prices. As a result, there is a shortage of wood, and prices in Poland are currently the highest in Europe. For this reason, construction materials are also becoming more expensive and the prices of firewood are rising. Ecologists and social activists, on the other hand, believe that mass logging has been going on in Poland for many years. In addition, foresters themselves do not know what happens to the cut wood.
The timber industry wants an export ban
The lack of access to information is not the only problem. The timber industry has been warning for several years that it is not possible to buy enough wood from the State Forests.
According to representatives of the sector, this is the result of the policy pursued by the State Forests, which is driving up wood prices. The reasons include new rules for the sale of wood, i.e. reducing the pool for regular recipients to 70 percent of purchase history. This means that only 30 percent. wood goes to auctions, where you can buy without restrictions.
As a result, today we have the highest wood prices in Europe. The price of pine wood at auctions reaches up to PLN 1,000 per cubic meter.
In total, in the last year, wood prices have increased by 200-300 percent in some cases. In addition, it is now starting to be scarce, which makes them even more expensive.
Since last year, OSB boards, among others, have drastically increased in price. Data from the PSB group show that in September 2021 they were almost 125 percent more expensive than a year earlier. The window joinery industry has also felt the increases. In the first quarter of last year, the price of so-called square timber, necessary for the production of windows, was PLN 2.1 thousand per cubic meter, and at the end of the year, prices rose to PLN 4.5 thousand.
Forests cover over a quarter of Poland’s area. Forest complexes play an important role – they protect us, among other things. from the negative effects of climate change, including droughts, floods and heat. Therefore, they should be protected as our common heritage.
In recent years, however, huge amounts of cut trees arranged in piles have become an everyday sight in Polish forests. The scale of felling is also causing increasing controversy. Especially since it concerns both suburban forests and landscape parks or reserves. Trees are also cut down en masse in primeval forests.
The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the CSRD Directive impose a number of requirements on companies related to financial and non-financial reporting in the context of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. The new obligations will cover both large companies employing over 500 employees and some entities from the SME sector. The submission of reports by the first group of companies will be mandatory as early as 2025. What specific areas of activity will the reporting cover? We invite you to read.
SDGs, ESG, CSR are abbreviations that have recently gained publicity in the context of the responsibility and obligations of companies, including legal and accounting, management, as well as development and strategic, relating to sustainable development. This is related to the need for a different approach to the development of societies, management, production and use of goods, due to the unfavorable climate changes taking place in the world and social inequalities for which humans and their activities are responsible.
Currently, humanity must face many environmental challenges, such as the shrinking of non-renewable resources, the loss of biodiversity, the degradation of the Earth, limited access to clean drinking water. And also cope with the growth of many social problems such as hunger, social unrest or even conflicts over access to shrinking resources. The above problems overlap with other unfavorable phenomena: poverty, inequality, lack of access to education or basic health care. We can say with full responsibility that as humanity we are at a turning point, when we must choose a different path of development, based on respect and well-being for the environment and people.
UN unanimously adopts Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for implementation
The above problems and threats motivate governments to take legislative steps, and the most important decision on a global scale to change the approach to actions taken by citizens was the adoption at the New York summit in 2015 by the UN General Assembly of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, i.e. development that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. All UN countries (193) have committed to meeting the goals to change the direction of world development to one that is responsible for the Planet, People and the Environment. The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) along with 169 detailed tasks from five areas – people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.
The Sustainable Development Agenda is a direction and concept of socio-economic development based on conscious decisions, i.e. decisions that take into account not only the economic aspect (not limited to profit), but also the social aspect concerning high quality of life, health and well-being with social justice, the environmental aspect related to maintaining the Earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity and broadly understood corporate governance, which support each other.
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