ABSTRACT
Germany has a total federal area of 35.7 million hectares (ha). Agricultural raw materials and wood can potentially be sourced from 11.9 million ha (33 per cent) of arable land, 4.9 million ha (14 per cent) of grassland, 0.2 million ha (1 per cent) of permanent crop land as well as 10.7 million ha (30 per cent) of forest. Around 15 per cent of non-food crops and three-quarters of domestic
timber are used as industrial raw materials. The rest is used for bioenergy production. In addition to domestic resources, considerable quantities of agricultural biomass, timber and semi-finished wood products are imported from other European countries and from overseas for processing in Germany. Renewable resources for the production of materials and chemicals are
utilized predominately in chemical plants, in the pharmaceutical sector and in the wood processing industry. Biomass for bioenergy is used for heat and power generation, as well as for biofuels. Overall, the production of renewable resources for industry secures about 130,000 jobs in Germany. Jobs in the successive first stages of processing and biomass logistics have been estimated to be over 260,000 employees. 96,000 jobs are created by bioenergy. Beyond this, 98,000 people work in forestry and around 851,000 in the wood and paper industry.
