Remaining funds from the now defunct German Timber Promotion Fund (GTPF) will be used for the benefit of the country’s timber and forestry industries.
The federal government’s budget committee resolved to direct remaining funds of the GTPF (Holzabsatzfonds) towards measures that promote sales of German wood products.
“This decision of the budget committee is an important step for the forestry and timber industry,” said George Schirmbeck, president of the German Forestry Council.
Mr Schirmbeck said any other use of the funds would have been unfair and would have ignored the views of forestry companies.
A forthcoming meeting of the federal government will formally decide on the dissolving of the GTPF.
The organisation was forced to stop operating in 2009 after a court ruled that its funding system, which required mandatory contributions from sawmills and forest owners, was “unconstitutional” and violated entrepreneurial freedom.
