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Northern Europe was, by many accounts, the birthplace of much of modern forestry practice, and for hundreds of years the region's woodlands have played an outsize role in international relations, economic growth, and the development of national identity. Across eleven chapters, the contributors to this volume survey the histories of state forestry policy in Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, and Great Britain from the early modern period to the present. Each explores the complex interrelationships of state-building, resource management, knowledge transfer, and trade over a period characterized by ongoing modernization and evolving environmental awareness.
List of contents
List of tables, maps and Figures
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: State Forestry in Northern Europe
Richard Hölzl and K. Jan Oosthoek
Chapter 1. Forestry in Germany, c1550-2000
Bernd-Stefan Grewe and Richard Hölzl
Chapter 2. State Forestry in the Netherlands: from Liberalism to Nature Creation
K. Jan Oosthoek
Chapter 3. State forestry in Belgium since the End of the Eighteenth Century
Pierre-Alain Tallier, Hilde Verboven, Kris Vandekerkhove, Hans Baeté and Kris Verheyen
Chapter 4. Origins and Development of State Forestry in the United Kingdom
K. Jan Oosthoek
Chapter 5. State and Forestry in Denmark from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twenty-First Century
Bo Fritzbøger
Chapter 6. State Forestry in Norway
Lars Helge Frivold and Asbjørn Svendsrud
Chapter 7. Swedish State Forestry, 1790-2000
Per Eliasson and Erik Törnlund
Chapter 8. Finnish Forestry in a Long-Term Perspective
Heikki Roiko-Jokela
Chapter 9. The History of State Forests and Forestry in Poland
Anna Majchrowska
Conclusion: National Histories, Shared Legacies: State Forestry in Northern Europe in Comparison
Richard Hölzl and K. Jan Oosthoek
Glossary of terms
Index
About the author
K. Jan Oosthoek is an environmental historian and education specialist in the humanities based in Brisbane, Australia. He is author of Conquering the Highlands: A History of the Afforestation of the Scottish Uplands (2013). He has also served as vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History (2005–2007) and manages the website ‘Environmental History Resources’ (www.eh-resources.org).
Richard Hölzl is a provenance researcher at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich and teaches Modern History at the University of Göttingen. He is the author of books on nineteeth-century scientific forestry in Germany (Umkämpfte Wälder, 2010) and on Catholic missions in colonial East Africa (Gläubige Imperialisten, 2021).
Summary
Northern Europe was, by many accounts, the birthplace of much of modern forestry practice, and for hundreds of years the region’s woodlands have played an outsize role in international relations, economic growth, and the development of national identity. Across eleven chapters, the contributors to this volume survey the histories of state forestry policy in Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, and Great Britain from the early modern period to the present. Each explores the complex interrelationships of state-building, resource management, knowledge transfer, and trade over a period characterized by ongoing modernization and evolving environmental awareness.
Additional text
“The juxtaposition of these cases from across northern Europe allows for fruitful comparisons and reflection on the evolution of states and their forests in the modern period…the editors’ concluding essay does a good job of drawing the articles together. Overall, this is a valuable work for those interested in forest history and environmental studies.” • Central European History
“All in all, this volume, thoroughly edited, richly illustrated as well as having a helpful glossary and an equally useful index, offers a substantially new and innovative contribution to the history of forests in Europe. It is well worth reading and exemplary for other areas.” • Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
“This comprehensive and truly transnational collection provides fascinating comparative studies of the history of forestry. It will be of wide interest to environmental historians and students of silviculture everywhere.” • Tom Brooking, University of Otago
