Bundesforste, Österreichische, ÖBf AG

Bundesforste, Österreichische (ÖBf AG - Austrian Federal Forests), largest Austrian forestry enterprise, founded in 1925 as an independent economic entity by the Republic of Austria, transformed into a public limited company in 1997 after being hived off from the public administration. The enterprise controls a total area of around 862,400 hectares with 525,300 hectares of forest (this corresponds to approx. 15 % of the wooded area in Austria); annual timber harvest amounts to 2.1 million cubic metres solid on average (1998: 1.95 million). The Austrian Forestry Authority is subdivided into 25 forestry administrations and 150 forest ranger districts, as well as 2 national Park Forestry Administrations with 3 forest ranger districts each. The enterprise also has 3 technical operations specialised in felling and road maintenance, a sawmill. In the alpine regions local farmers have forest and grazing rights on70% of the areas of the Austrian Forestry Authority. In 1998 the Austrian Forestry Authority employed 1,696 people and had a turnover of more than ATS 2.02 billion.