Forest management plans are the key tool for controlling and planning within German for-ests, both public and private. These plans describe harvesting operations, thinning and regeneration measures for the next 10 years. The plans quantify the state of the forest and create forest cover maps. The aim of the management plans is to balance conflicting interests such as timber production and sustainability. They also integrate lessons learned based on an assessment of recent management. In private forests this instrument is also used to determine the tax rate. In 2017 the Forest agency of Baden- Württemberg commissioned UNIQUE to appraise 10 management plans for 700 hectares of private forest.

• Inventory of timber stock at stand level.
• Site-inspection with responsible foresters, new delineation of stands, actualization of stand data.
• Assessment of previous management and accounting.
• Coordination of operative planning.
• Data input and validation.
• Approval by forest administration, forest owner and tax administration.