About AFZ Der Wald

AFZ Der Wald

AFZ-DerWald is a German trade journal for forestry and forest science, published in Munich under the full title "Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift für Waldwirtschaft und Umweltvorsorge" (General Forestry Journal for Forest Management and Environmental Precaution). Published by the dlv Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag GmbH and appearing twice a month, it describes itself as the number one for research and practice in German forestry: the only association-independent forestry journal that reaches all state and municipal forest enterprises as well as large private forests nationwide, and the most important information medium for forestry research, experimental and teaching institutions. Its history stretches back to 1 August 1946, when the first post-war forestry journal appeared as the Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift.

Overview

AFZ-DerWald serves the professional world of the German forest: foresters in state and municipal forest administrations, managers of large private forest enterprises, scientists at forestry research institutes and universities, and the service providers and equipment manufacturers of the forestry sector. German forestry is a substantial economic and ecological domain — around a third of Germany's land area is forested, managed under the principle of sustainability that was formulated in German forestry science three centuries ago — and the journal addresses the people who practice it daily.

The magazine's content combines research transfer, industry news and practical information. Reports from forestry science — on silviculture, forest ecology, wildlife management, forest technology and forest economics — sit alongside product news, association announcements and reports from the forestry industry's events. The journal's claim to be "die Nr. 1 für Forschung und Praxis" (number one for research and practice) expresses its bridging function: it carries findings from the research institutes into the forest districts, and reports from practice back to the scientific community. Its association independence is a deliberate positioning — unlike journals tied to particular forestry associations, it addresses the entire sector across ownership types and organizational loyalties.

The journal appears twice monthly in print (ISSN 1430-2713) and, since 2021, also as a digital magazine, with subscribers able to read issues on computers and mobile devices — in some cases before the print edition arrives. The publisher's forstpraxis.de portal extends the brand online with news, an issue archive, annual tables of contents, downloads and media services for authors and advertisers.

History

The journal's origins lie in the immediate post-war period. On 1 August 1946, the Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift (AFZ) appeared in the Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag in Munich — the first forestry specialist magazine of the post-war era, aimed at forest administrations, forest owner associations and forest enterprises in the southern German states. In a country whose forests had been heavily exploited during the war and whose forestry administration was being rebuilt, the new journal provided a desperately needed forum for professional exchange.

Over the following decades, the AFZ grew into one of the established voices of German forestry, published from Munich as the Bavarian agricultural publishing house developed into a major specialist publisher. The German forestry press landscape, however, was fragmented among several titles serving different regions and constituencies. In 1995, the AFZ merged with the specialist journal DerWald, creating AFZ-DerWald — a consolidation that pooled readerships and editorial resources. In 2001, the publishing context changed again: the Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag merged with the Landbuch-Verlag of Hannover to form the Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag GmbH (dlv), which has published the journal since. A further consolidation followed in 2011, when AFZ-DerWald merged with the journal Forst&Holz, absorbing another established title into its pages.

The digital turn came in 2021, when AFZ-DerWald began publication as a digital magazine alongside print — a response to readers' changing media habits and to the practical needs of foresters who increasingly work with tablets in the field. Through eight decades, two mergers and the print-to-digital transition, the journal has maintained its core identity: the professional journal of German forestry, independent of associations and addressed to the whole sector.

Coverage and Content

Each issue carries the mix that defines the forestry trade press: reports, product news and industry updates. The research content is the journal's distinguishing feature — articles from forestry science institutes on topics such as long-term forest planning, forest and water scarcity, wildlife ecology (for example, studies of wildcat habitat use in Bavaria based on hair-trap analysis), seed orchard establishment for climate-adapted tree species, and silvicultural responses to drought and climate change. These are peer-level technical articles, often with full literature references, written by scientists for practitioners.

Alongside the science, the journal reports on forestry policy and administration: developments in forest law, funding programs, the organization of state forest enterprises, and the positions of forestry associations. Product and technology news covers harvesting machinery, measurement technology, software and equipment — the tools of the modern forest enterprise. Event reports document the industry's conferences, trade fairs and field days, and the journal is associated with the Deutscher Waldpreis (German Forest Prize), recognizing achievement in forestry.

Service elements round out the offering: the publisher provides an issue archive, annual tables of contents for research purposes, downloads, and manuscript guidelines for authors — infrastructure that supports the journal's function as a citable professional publication. The forstpraxis.de portal publishes selected content online, including literature references from current articles, making the journal's research output discoverable beyond the subscriber base.

Organization and Ownership

AFZ-DerWald is published by the dlv Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag GmbH, one of Germany's major agricultural and forestry specialist publishers, headquartered in Munich. The dlv was formed in 2001 from the merger of the Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag and the Landbuch-Verlag Hannover, and its portfolio spans agriculture, forestry, food and related fields. Within that portfolio, AFZ-DerWald is the flagship forestry title, complemented by sister publications serving the broader agricultural readership.

The journal's commercial operation follows the trade-press model: subscriptions from forest enterprises, administrations, institutes and individual professionals, combined with advertising from forestry machinery manufacturers, equipment suppliers and service providers. The publisher offers discounted combination bookings with related titles — Forst&Holz in Bavaria, Forst&Technik and Deutscher Waldbesitzer — allowing advertisers to reach the forestry audience across multiple publications. The reader service (Leserservice) handles subscriptions and the digital magazine access, which runs through the publisher's myDLV account system. Manuscript guidelines published by the journal formalize its relationship with the scientific community, setting standards for the submission and publication of technical articles.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is forstpraxis.de, the dlv's forestry portal, where AFZ-DerWald has its own section presenting the title, its subscription offers, issue archive, annual contents and author services. Selected articles and their literature references are published on the portal, extending the journal's research content to online readers. News items — such as the announcement of the 2026 Tree of the Year or updates on the German Forest Prize — appear on the portal between print issues, giving the brand a continuous online presence.

Since 2021, the digital magazine edition has been the journal's primary digital product: subscribers access issues through the digitalmagazin.de platform via their myDLV accounts, with optimized reading views for mobile devices and computers, full-text search, personal bookmarks and sharing functions — and availability in some cases before the print edition. The publisher's customer service supports the transition from older e-paper formats to the new digital edition. For a readership of foresters who work outdoors with mobile devices, this digital layer is increasingly the way the journal is actually read — while the twice-monthly print edition continues to anchor its identity as the established professional journal of German forestry, now in its ninth decade.