This year’s important activities of the Cluster will be focused on the better promotion of wood as construction material by starting off promotional projects of a national and international character. One of the best partners is certainly Austrian ProHolz with whom the Cluster has already successfully cooperated in previous years. In Zagreb in April the

In recent years, most of the promotional activities concerning the use of wood in construction have been conducted in the northern parts of Europe, while the south has been partly neglected. If we take into account the historical facts, we can conclude that wood is a biblical material that was largely used in ancient Greece

Croatian Wood Cluster has developed a proposal for measures to Prime Minister Oreskovic in which appeals to the Government to determine the forest-based industries as a strategic area in which to apply relevant European policies and circular economy principles. Cluster commented on the contribution of past government policies, but it considers that the key measures

The European Forestry Strategy of 1998 was replaced by a new and modern document in 2013 that reflects the needs of the sector, and in 2014 the Strategy went through several stages of adoption. European forests are rich in terms of biodiversity, but they are increasingly under pressure because of the demand for raw material and partly because of climate change.

In 2013 this sector was worth around EUR 115 billion (USD 128 bn.) at the global level, and in 2014 recorded an evident increase. According to unoffi cial data from the Italian Institute CSIL, last year the furniture sector was worth around USD 140 billion (a growth of 9.5%). Also, the report points out that furniture comprises about 1% of

Europe is recovering after the recession and represents the engine for some areas of the entire world in the forest-based sector; here is the world’s largest pellet market, and Europeans are leading the way in sustainable management and forest certification. They are also giving legal assistance in the prevention of illegal logging. European companies have an active approach to increasing exports

Now that this sector has been fi nally included in the Industrial Strategy of the Republic of Croatia, wood processing and furniture production actively look for possibilities to draw on EU funds and to ensure the international competitiveness of the sector and its long-term growth. Sector companies, members of both the Croatian Wood Cluster and the Competitiveness Cluster, are vigorously

The New Forestry Strategy and other industry policies encourage member states to develop measures aiming to make better use of the potential of employment which this sector has, to improve the skills of workers in the sector and to improve working conditions. One of the most important elements of sectoral education and communication with the public is highlighting the need for

The Cluster supports the idea that the Croatian Rural Development Program should contain as many measures as possible associated with forestry, wood processing and energy from wood, and to promote those measures among sector companies in order to ensure better utilization of available funds from European sources. Forestry and the wood processing sector are of crucial importance for the development

Entering the Industrial Strategy is a big boost for the sector to work even better, to strengthen its domestic and international competitiveness and to meet the required criteria and objectives set out in the Strategy. In recent years, and especially during 2014, sectoral indicators have been truly encouraging. The wood industry has achieved a growth in exports 21 percent over