FOREST SPECIAL

The Black Forest

The Black Forest is one of the well-known forests and the largest forested mountain range in Germany. This 6000 km² gigantic Central Uplands in Baden-Württemberg gave us the inspiration to create this KangaROOS Coil R1 “Black Forest”. Unlike the “Mighty Forest”, this sneaker is not for sale. Limited to five pairs, you will only be able to get it through a raffle. The “Black Forest” is made of calf leather and calf suede as well but the upper is mainly black leather. To complete the look, this sneaker comes with black laces. It is a direct reference to the name and the many myths which surround this mighty forest.

Everybody who comes by at the release of the “Mighty Forest” is able to enter the raffle for the “Black Forest”. The winner of the raffle will get the chance to buy the “Black Forest”.

And for those who can’t come to our Store we are giving away a pair of the “Black Forest”. Therefore, we teamed up with Sneaker Freaker for this contest.

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PLANT-FOR-THE-PLANET

Back in 2007, the 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner and his classmates did some research on the climate crisis. During their research they read about Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. A Kenyan woman who founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977.An organization which among other things empowers women’s rights and plants trees to improve and increase the condition of the soil for the local farmers and residents. By now, the Green Belt Movement planted over 45 million trees. Fascinated by Maathai’s work, the young Finkbeiner starts to plant trees as well for the sake of the climate justice.

And it all began at his School...

Finkbeiner’s main idea is to teach children about the importance of trees. His project also aims to empower children and boost their confidence in public speaking and occurrence, so they can carry out their newly won message to the world. The goal is to have other children as Climate Justice Ambassadors to teach other Children in turn. The crucial Advantage of this: children actually listen to their peers more closely than to adults.

Go to Plant-for-the-Planet

FOREST FACTS

The following information are written by the European Forest Institute (EFI) and describe the current forests situation worldwide and in Europe.

Forests situation worldwide and in Europe

Reasons to worry

While forests in Europe, the US and Canada are relatively healthy, tropical forests worldwide suffer from deforestation and biodiversity loss. According to the FAO (Forest and Agriculture Organization), about half of the world‘s tropical forests have been cleared. The Earth loses 7.6 million ha of forest per year, states the WWF. Deforestation is the second cause of climate change. It is usually caused by conversion of forests into agricultural plantations (such as soybean, palm oil) or into land for urbanization. Illegal logging and related trade are still a worldwide problem, especially in (tropical) timber producing countries. They pose a significant threat to the sustainability of forest ecosystems, result in losses of government revenues, foster a vicious cycle of bad governance, and contribute to increased poverty and social conflict.

Reasons for hope

Through manifold political, environmental and social activities worldwide, we can observe rising awareness for the need to protect and sustainably use our forests:

- Forests play an important role for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

- Initiatives like REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) encourage developing countries to reduce emissions and enhance removals of greenhouse gases through a variety of forest management options, and these initiatives provide technical and financial support for these efforts.

- Afforestation campaigns like Plant-for-the-Planet and sustainable forest investments (e.g. ForestFinance) create new forests in order to increase carbon capture and carbon sequestration, accumulate greenhouse gases, improve biodiversity, reduce soil erosion etc.

There are still areas of indigenous forest located in Canada, Alaska, Russia, the Northwestern Amazon basin, Central Africa, Borneo and Papua New Guinea. Charitable organizations such as Greenpeace contribute to forest preservation. Consumer countries can help to prevent illegal logging by ensuring that the timber they are buying is legally sourced. Laws in Europe, the USA and Australia contribute to that effort.

European Forests

33% of Europe‘s land area is covered by forest: in total, there is 215 million ha of forest area, which is heterogeneously distributed, with Scandinavia being very heavily forested and Northwest Europe having a low forest cover. Since 1990, the forest area in Europe has continuously increased (approx. 0.4% annually).

Forests in Europe are a habitat for many forest dependent species and humans. They hold unique functions and provide a variety of benefits to our society: water supply and purification, flood and avalanche protection, recreation, wood and non-wood products (e.g. berries, game, and mushrooms) etcetera.

Forests are key in combatting and mitigating climate change. Between 2005 and 2015, the average annual sequestration of carbon in forest biomass reached 719 million tons in the European region, and 414 million tons in the EU-28. This corresponds to about 9% of the net greenhouse gas emissions of the European region and the EU-28. The numbers show the importance of forests in mitigating climate change.

Integrate nature conservation in forest management

Forest protection principles and actions are embraced into the concept of‚ sustainable forest management, which promotes the management of forest ecosystems based on a balance between ecological, environmental, economic and social values, related to all types of forests.

The integration of nature protection has become an increasingly important feature in forestry due to the actual decreasing biodiversity levels registered across European territory.

There are two main ways of integrating nature conservation into forest management:

- Creation of protected areas, with geographical boundaries defined by country legislation (e.g. National Park and Natural Reserve)

- Integrated Forest Management: Integration of biodiversity protection into active forest management (e.g. retention of dead wood and dying trees on the forest floor, cutting of trees with lower ecological value)

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) is a fundamental approach, applied worldwide. SFM is aiming to maintain and mainstream biodiversity protection, through cross-country collaboration and community involvement.

German Forests

Germany has a relatively large forest area, covering 11.4 million ha. Hessen and Rhineland-Palatine are the forest-richest federal states (42%). Today German forests are no longer primeval forests, but production forests shaped by humans. The concept of “sustainability” was born in Germany:

More than 300 years ago, in 1713, the Saxon mining chief Hans Carl von Carlowitz published his book Sylvicultura Oeconomica, which is considered to be one of the first treatises on sustainable forest management worldwide.

While the forest areas internationally are in decline, especially in the tropics of the southern hemisphere, a steady increase in German forest can be observed since four decades. German forests are in a comparably good condition due to close-to-nature forest management and measures for biodiversity protection. Overall, more than 70 percent of German total forest area is managed according to the criteria of independent certification schemes (FSC & PEFC).Forestry is an important economic factor: The forest and timber industry, including processing and paper as well as printing and publishing, accounts for nearly 1.3 million jobs with an annual turnover of about 170 billion Euro.

Most German forests are privately owned. About 48% of the 11.4 million ha of forest in Germany are private forests. 29% of forests are owned by Federal States, 19% owned by corporations, and 4% are owned by the Federal Government.

The most important common tree species:

spruce (26 %)
pine (23 %)
beech (16 %)

Sustainable forest use/bioeconomy

Wood is the only truly sustainable building material: it is renewable, and it stores carbon, thus mitigating climate change.

Crushed and compressed wood can be stronger than steel and it is much lighter than concrete: new technologies make it possible to build tall wood buildings that are safer and cheaper than concrete buildings.

One can produce clothes out of cellulose fibres made from cellulose extracted from wood. When sourced from sustainable tree farms, wood fibre is an environmentally friendly material, and often needs less harsh chemicals to transform it into a workable fabric.

Healthy cities need forests. They remove pollution and offer shade, apart from many other health benefits for citizens.

Forests offer many possibilities for recreation and tourism. Being in the forest has significant health benefits and is a great stress reliever: just 20 minutes in the woods lowers the blood pressure, the pulse and releases muscle tension as well as helps to recover from stress faster.

Forest products are useful in healthcare: There are non-toxic and biodegradable alternatives for a traditional plaster cast. The chemical compounds extracted from pine and birch can lower cholesterol levels and help people with cardio-vascular diseases. Resin from coniferous trees can be used to treat minor wounds.

In addition to more traditional paper and cardboard, wood can be also used to make bioplastics, biofuels and even stickers. Nanocellulose, the building material of the future that is still under development, could be used to construct even airplanes.

Forests provide various foods (berries, mushrooms, herbs). Game species also enrich our menu.

Go to EFI