Northern Europe was, by many accounts, the birthplace of much of modern forestry practice, and for hundreds of years the regions 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.

Richard Hölzl is a provenance researcher at the Museum Funf 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).

List of tables, maps and Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

Introduction: State Forestry in Northern EuropeRichard Hölzl and K. Jan Oosthoek

Chapter 1.Forestry in Germany, c1550-2000Bernd-Stefan Grewe and Richard Hölzl

Chapter 2.State Forestry in the Netherlands: from Liberalism to Nature CreationK. Jan Oosthoek

Chapter 3.State forestry in Belgium since the End of the Eighteenth CenturyPierre-Alain Tallier, Hilde Verboven, Kris Vandekerkhove, Hans Baeté and Kris Verheyen

Chapter 4.Origins and Development of State Forestry in the United KingdomK. Jan Oosthoek

Chapter 5.State and Forestry in Denmark from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twenty-First CenturyBo Fritzbøger

Chapter 6.State Forestry in NorwayLars Helge Frivold and Asbjørn Svendsrud

Chapter 7.Swedish State Forestry, 1790-2000Per Eliasson and Erik Törnlund

Chapter 8.Finnish Forestry in a Long-Term PerspectiveHeikki Roiko-Jokela

Chapter 9.The History of State Forests and Forestry in PolandAnna Majchrowska

Conclusion: National Histories, Shared Legacies: State Forestry in Northern Europe in ComparisonRichard Hölzl and K. Jan Oosthoek

Glossary of terms Index