from the party to classes from housing to feel good time this is. welcome to the 77 percent. this week v.w. . thing. forests are so much more than just a collection of trees they are the lungs of our planet they remove c o 2 from the atmosphere and produce the oxygen we brings they also written biodiversity of vast range of plants and animals live in the forest habitats in fact 80 percent of the world's to reskill species inhabit them since time immemorial they also have

provided us with animals to hunt for to eat and wood to burn and build but now the world's forests are under massive pressure from logging agriculture and pollution that's our topic today on made the forest let's start in germany where foresters face problems ranging from erosion to drought to storms and flooding and insect pests around the country water tables are falling and the forestry business in some places is on the ropes changing conditions are proving a major challenge for many small companies who live off the forest. martin haselbach is a forester who tends to 140 hectares of woods in northeastern germany mostly conifers with some deciduous species conditions have been exceptionally dry for several years now and the trees are suffering dozens of pits have been dug to

monitor soil quality and moisture levels. last year we had rainfall of just 300 liters per square metre that's the same as in the savannah woodlands of the serengeti and with that zebras rhinos and elephants the forests here and brandenburg now have to cope with the same conditions. the lack of water increases the risk of forest fires and weakens the trees that makes them easy prey for pests like pine bark beetles. and then prove cause. when a large number of beetles invade a weakened tree it'll die it's been shown that that is closely linked to climate and to higher temperatures and lower rainfall. trees attacked by the past have to be felled. in 201870 percent more timber ended up on the market than in an average year over abundance was bad for business.

through. the enormous amounts of spruce on the market meant prices 1st drop by 50 percent and then have began we've now reached price levels that aren't even a quarter of what we would normally get. in the hearts mountains in central germany about a 5th of all trees are so damaged they'll probably die this region has been harder hit than many others in the country. treeless patches are growing larger and it would take decades for new plantings to fill the gaps. some trees still look healthy but apparent things can be deceptive foresters are alarmed. at the moment in the scene could what you can't see is that many more trees are affected including ones that still have green leaves very 2 are doomed to die. the situation

is truly catastrophic and we don't know how to rectify it manpower alone won't hold the dying. the only way to stop it is with the help of nature. of the forest that both gone let's see manages used to make a modest profit of between one and 300000 euros a year but last year it went deep into the red. here and there are huge piles of felled trunks all damaged by beetles nobody wants to buy them so they just remain here exposed to the elements the enormous enormous economic consequences are enormous. as from selling timber last year dropped to 50 percent and our losses look set to continue to grow dying as a thing for less than the whole without value. this sawmill in southern germany processes timber from local far this stuff the area normally gets

lots of rain but more and more of the wood arriving at the mill shows signs of damage due to lack of water. profits have fallen by 10 percent a year since 2017 other mills in the area report even greater declines. the old slow your disease cheaper this is blue rot caused by fun guy carried by beetles and the wood is just as stable as unaffected all right but doesn't look good so you can't use it everywhere prices for trunks and sawed playing so fallen by a quarter. monocultures like this spruce forest in the hearts mountains help the beetle spread very quickly more so than forests with a mix of deciduous and can never astri's forests or votes come let's see in says that in order to root out the insects all the sick trees should be felled and have their bark peeled off but he doesn't have the capacity to do that or to remove them

afterwards. the piles of rotting wood in the forests of the hearts are not only a sorry sight they are an urgent warning. a warning that all is not well with all forests and financial losses are not the only problem as we heard earlier forests also act as havens for biodiversity and store carbon long term that's why they are a resource that has to be managed carefully let's look at the world's forests in overall terms for a moment is that the how much are they worth while here's a spoiler that priceless. for centuries our species has have a close relationship with the forest forests are more than a backdrop for fairytales they provide us with food fresh air and clean water and played key roles in biodiversity and climate their essential habitats that are now under threat. every single 2nd a wooded area the size of

a football field is destroyed. and almost always we are the destroyers there are no monetary reasons why humans would want to protect wooded areas on the contrary when turned into raw materials forests can bring in big profits. wood products are growing in popularity whether it's for paper furniture or chopsticks in some regions of the world it takes up to 7 trees a year per person to meet demand. many of these wood products come from illegal sources up to 17 percent of the global trade and timber is illegal in brazil that number jumps to 80 percent an estimated 19 percent of you timber imports come from illegal logging and that's not all humanity also destroys forests to create farmland for the production of other raw materials like palm oil soybeans

sugarcane or beef billions of dollars' worth of those products are bought and sold every day and how many of the companies that depend on these raw materials are trying to participate in what's called the green economy which seeks to ease humanity's impact on nature only around 13 percent. if humanity needs more farmland or space for new cities the forest always has to give way. as our numbers grow the forests shrink. worldwide 40 percent of them have already been cut. with no thought for how much we owe them they've given us life saving medicines paper corks. and one of humanity's favorites chocolate. well many countries have replanted their forests with monoculture the whole concept of ecosystem management

is in dire need of an overhaul my colleague ben physical and mental with peer eavis who has spent his life researching forests and he thinks we're going about it all wrong. forests are needed in germany for cooling the landscape for food drink water and these ecosystems services have not been valued in the past and now we will need them ever more so on the climate change. forest as do not trust anymore they argue now yes we have to do a more active management and we have climate change and we have to do something but why are they so sure that they have better knowledge on the system than the system itself. germany has 300 years of experience of managing its forests and getting a lot out of them resource wise i mean i would think they would say what ecosystems are working at least since the last ice age for 5000 years and more so tens of

thousands of years and the whole biological ecological evolution is looking that at millions of years so there is knowledge and trust me. ready ready i'm concerned and very it's about the approach or the cleaning area that has been impacted by wind throw fires or so buckbee truths which now all over germany lead to disastrous forest diabetic and then of course you can worsen the situation by by management by. driving on the soil spike cutting down everything and extracting the rest of biomass which is needed by the system to be fed the government is doing something and has reacted very quickly. to a problem that's urgent but we have to be careful that we do not run into action ism and just do something for for showing that we are doing something and the

alternative would be looking at at the mitchell ecosystem and leave a little bit of the work to the system as we can see here nature is working on recovery all these trees here on this. a clear cut area have come spontaneously and little bit of the new forest and what all the money that the government invested in you trees what happened to that yeah it's worse like we're standing here on an area of reforestation happened and again all the green trees you can observe on the plant it but if you look closer we would see that brown pines what these these ones here exactly are these have been planted in springtime in of course did not survive this hot and dry summer as far as the business goes it employs over a 1000000 people we're talking about $100000000000.00 euros in total over a year it sounds like an extremely successful business model what where is it

failing to certain degree we may see the system is not entirely sustainable this is one thing but then we also have very obvious social economic costs when something like this but it's all this is not paid by by the forest service or by the forest onus but by society ready ready ready. what would you like to see the german government actually do we need more of these untouched and undisturbed systems for learning how far is reacting spontaneously how much will i would say at least double the number let's talk about 10 percent is that doable of course it's doable . but then again we have to talk about how much we use for what kind of purpose of course this should not be compensated by then importing more timber from other countries where the harvesting is even less sustainable but would you

like to see forest artist compensated for not cutting down a tree exactly exactly and i feel as a rich industrialized country we can't afford that. i wonder if people in the timber industry would agree to that as a building material wood has a lot going for it in the us it's been popular and houses for centuries here in central europe on the other hand houses are usually made from bricks and mortar but that's changing there are even the skyscrapers made from wood now we went to visit a timber tower project in germany. high rises and schools made of wood marking new departure and contemporary architecture. for wood is gaining popularity as a building material we need more of it in large scale construction such as apartment buildings. here an exterior wall is

being put together in a factory for modular prefab units he hits like this are then taken to a construction site and put together to create entire buildings in this case a school in berlin timber technology has been developing fast is a bit better with the cross laminated timber that is crisscrossed layers of solitary but glued together is really revolutionized construction because it's very sturdy and stable and that is a major advantage. for. the modular units are equipped with as much as possible in the way of pipes cables and interior surfacing in the factory. the aim is to reduce the amount of work to be done on the building site. that saves time and money. so building with timber can compete with standard steel and concrete construction. here they can complete 6 units a day. delivering

a wooden module to the building site is easier than delivering the equivalent and concrete. it's much lighter. the units are then screwed together on site. berlin aims to build 21 schools of temper and the authorities make a point of using sustainable sources. the timber for this school is said to have been sourced in austria. but the austrian timber industry has faced criticism for importing illegally. and selling it as its own. in this case we're told that everything seems above board. the contract specified that a large chunk pine used here are from europe and from sustainable sources. that is new trees have been planted to replace them once. we assume that our partners

fulfill their contractual obligations. over and hurt. in temper buildings acoustic insulation is a challenge. sound absorbing flooring poured on top of the structural layer will help. the gem is also mostly made of wood. many people assume that would burns easily and that it's dangerous to build with. but the architect and the project manager say that's not the case. it can give us a thought if it is a widespread concern we all know that would burns and a bus in fact fire safety can be assured because it takes quite a while for wood to burn down it's time enough to evacuate a building with a steel structure the heat alone can cause it to collapse much faster if you find it out some might still civil. what is gaining ground in a residential architecture is well. 6 or 7 stories are no longer so uncommon in

berlin but in new building in hype and holds the record for now. you've got it as we've just built germany's 1st temper high rise it's 10 stories tall and a temper hybrid constructions were used almost 1500 cubic meters of wood which sucked westerners as much carbon dioxide as 500 cars are made in a year new growth forests in germany replace that volume of void in just 6 minutes . concern for sustainability is one reason for the turn to temper this apartment block in hamburg was commissioned by a co-operative of $29.00 would be homeowners it too is a hybrid tender concrete construction of this is made of massive wood 20 centimeters thick it's a load bearing exterior wall that supports a wooden floor the. the building is made up of load bearing timber modules. which move. even the balconies are made mainly as a way. to ensure your ability to temper has to be protected from oyster and rain

and. a house built of wood is every bit as good and durable as a conventional one made of concrete and masonry but it's not. timber buildings are still rare but that's changing. to build an sustainably we need healthy forest to supply the wood. sustainability is the buzzword and the way we are living is not sustainable climate protesters take to the streets of veteran reporter all of krieger has decided he too can no longer just sit by and watch he went to see teen activist give a thought tune back recently and came back with a strange glow in his eyes. i have to dig deeper.

yes we need to plant 1000000000 hector's of trees. doesn't that full size of the united states. and the beech trees live for hundreds of use we need them if we go in to save the climate. you need lots of shoes a lot sometimes. i need 1000000 hectares of trees a huge area enough for us to capture all the carbon we've put into the atmosphere. all these young people here it's their future that's at stake.

when you're trying to do. is this really a young time activist you can often people might think well if you show them well the best you're showing this might be some bad and. i'm sad to be honest i haven't done much often nothing there must be doing something not one of us. just mature enough talking yes this is on that side time to get our hands dirty name. we need a lot more. if you've got space in your garden start digging. but here in germany forests are being put under pressure by a riot of factors but the most pressing one is drought for several consecutive

years simply hasn't been enough rainfall across the country reforestation schemes aim to help bristow and diversify their parched woodlands. planting expedition in the southern german state of the barrier were at an altitude of 900 metres these volunteers according to help when forestry commissions need to replace trees something that's happening more and more often this with. partners that we've worked with for years are suffering major losses so they're asking us if we can do more than the usual 2 or 3 weeks in one place for next year we already have requests coming from many parts of germany because they urgently need to plant new trees and don't have enough people to do it was. the very in state forest on the austrian border it's one of the most densely wooded parts of

germany. it's a popular recreational area and a key source for the timber industry. it's mostly a monoculture of spruce with just a few deciduous trees here in there so local forest is looking to introduce new species. mixed forest can be very profitable firstly you actually get more wood from the same surface area of a mixed forest than a monoculture. and the other aspect is that we're planting a forest now with raw materials for the future. we want to provide a well sorted warehouse so that in 100 years they'll be spruce for the construction industry beach sycamore furniture. so not just one type of tree but a warehouse if you like featuring a range of different words. but

what happens if one day that warehouse is empty heat and lack of rainfall that claimed 100000 hectares of forest in germany they now need to be replanted plenty of work for this nursery. normally we have an annual production volume of between 700001 point 5000000 plants that we grow ready for planting out. we are now double that we normally have 10 to 15 people planting the saplings working in 3 or 4 teams will also double those numbers in order to meet the high demand that the nursery is also growing different species in future mediterranean tree could be a key source of timber in germany as they're more drought resistant. one tree which has a big future and is being grown here increasingly is the suite of chestnut from france

and italy it's extremely drought resistant so that's likely to be a tree of the future and it provides a good heeled. the new coming here include douglas turkish hazel. trees. walnut tree sweet chestnut princess tree still tree and shiny redwood. a native alpine silver fir is also a key part of the reforestation project in the bavarian forest along with the deciduous trees those planting the saplings are from a nonprofit organization funded by donations today there are 15 volunteers that work. we don't see ourselves primarily as a low cost forestry company we use our work as a way of encountering and interacting with the forest and bringing others into the 2 we're basically like

a big educational facility. they're here to help build up the forest as a functioning carbon sink one of the best ways to slow climate change they'll spend a week here. and i study mechatronics so this is a nice change i love being outdoors and here i can do some good too. it definitely makes me think but i mainly see it as an inspiration to do something not just for myself but for the benefit of the whole of society. i believe it's really our generation that will have to decide the direction things will go so i see this as my responsibility to do something as part of that generation you know. the forest where kids are ready with the lack of rainfall continuing to cause problems they're preparing to reforest much larger areas in the future. that means they'll need many more volunteers ready to do that bit to help.

and that's it for me and i'm a team this week's. the

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this is g.w. news live from berlin a possible setback fold benjamin netanyahu off diversion gains in israel with the rice too close to coal exit polls show the prime minister and his hotline allies shoulder all of a column entry majority following a strong challenge by centrists the pentagon's what's next for israel also on the program business owners too scared to call it finished shelves we look at how all this xenophobic violence in south africa is on doing good today kind of if it's true 5.