In general, wood utilization in Europe is strongly related to softwoods. Due to specific developments such as the increasing importance of semi-natural forest management, which also favours hardwoods, climatic change etc., the share of broad-leafed trees (generally referred to as hardwoods) within the forest stock is increasing rapidly, reaching a percentage of 25 – 50% of the total forest area. We realize that the increasing stock and the potential harvest of hardwoods does not match the demand on the market. A significant share of harvested hardwoods is not allocated to proper utilization paths but is used as fuel wood. New and improved tracks for a competitive hardwood utilization need to be found based on hardwood research results.
The University of Sopron, the Wood K Plus Austria, the Georg August University of Göttingen and FATE (Wood Science Association, Hungary) are pleased to announce the call for abstracts for the 11th Hardwood Conference.