The Impact of Natural Disturbances on the Central European Timber Market—An Analytical Study
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsArticle is interesting. Few observations are given below;
Abstract need revision with some quantitative results.
Some more studies are required in the introduction section to further highlight the importance of this study.
Namazi, E., Mohamad, H., Jorat, M. E., & Hajihassani, M. (2011). Investigation on the effects of twin tunnel excavations beneath a road underpass. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 16(1), 1-8.
Jusoh, S. N., Mohamad, H., Marto, A., Yunus, N. M., & Kasim, F. (2015). Segment’s joint in precast tunnel lining design. J Teknol, 77(11), 91-98.
Section 2 is poorly written, more details are requed to clearly sate the methodology.
Section 3 must be seprated into subheadings.
As such, authors presented very limited results. There is no significant results in this study.
Authors must summarized results in more systematic way with reference to the previous studies.
Also, Conclusions are too limited to proof the significant outcome of this study.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
Minor editing of English language required
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 comments – 1st
First of all, we would like to thank the reviewer for comments. The comments were really helpful and absolutely on point. We hope that we have kept all necessary corrections and the paper is now better than before the review.
1) Abstract need revision with some quantitative results.
Response 1: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
2) Some more studies are required in the introduction section to further highlight the importance of this study.
Namazi, E., Mohamad, H., Jorat, M. E., & Hajihassani, M. (2011). Investigation on the effects of twin tunnel excavations beneath a road underpass. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 16(1), 1-8.
Jusoh, S. N., Mohamad, H., Marto, A., Yunus, N. M., & Kasim, F. (2015). Segment’s joint in precast tunnel lining design. J Teknol, 77(11), 91-98.
Response 2: Thank you for suggesting possible studies that might provide a different perspective on this issue. However, your proposed addition of articles does not correspond thematically with the context we have presented on the impact of forest disturbances on the Central European timber market.
3) Section 2 is poorly written, more details are requed to clearly sate the methodology.
Response 3: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
4) Section 3 must be seprated into subheadings.
Response 4: Partially accepted. The results for individual countries were distinguished by bullet points to make it easier to distinguish the presented results.
5) As such, authors presented very limited results. There is no significant results in this study.
Response 5: Thank you for your opinion on the results presented, but it is not clear from your comment why you do not consider the results we present to be significant. In the article, we have added several parts in which we also point out the relevance and importance of the results presented by us not only for the scientific community, but also for the wider public.
6) Authors must summarized results in more systematic way with reference to the previous studies.
Response 6: Unfortunately, we state in the introduction of the article that the issue is very relevant and the professional public does not register comprehensive conclusions on the issue we are studying. We would greatly appreciate it if you could provide us with recommendations for studies that we could follow up on in the article.
7) Also, Conclusions are too limited to proof the significant outcome of this study.
Response 7: In the case of comment 6, it would be very helpful for us to specify your request for improving the results. As authors, we have long been involved in the analysis of the timber resource base and the research topics and articles we cover are directly related to the subject. As an example:
Analytical Study for the Determination of the Energy Use Potential of Forest Dendromass in the Czech Republic. 2023. Forests. 14(9), ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091744
Potential of Forest Biomass Resources for Renewable Energy Production in the Czech Republic. 2022. Energies. 15(1), ISSN 1996-1073. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/47
Sustainable Development Model of Performance of Woodworking Enterprises in the Czech Republic. 2021. Forests. 12(6), 1--22. ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060672
The importance of this issue is based on practical experience from a country where the timber trade is currently crucial (the Czech Republic) and for other selected Central European countries this country represents a strategic partner. At the same time, the commercial interactions on the timber market of the Central Europe countries also influence the downstream processing of timber throughout Europe and, to some extent, other important world markets (USA, China).
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1- The motivation, purpose, and originality of the study should be mentioned in the abstract. A raw abstract should be avoided.
2- Analytical work is used by people from various disciplines to determine the most appropriate material during research. Please highlight the most appropriate material in this study in the abstract.
3- The authors should explain in more detail why they have chosen central European countries such as Czechia, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria.
4- The authors have done an analytical study by interpreting numerical results from different databases. Although this study is not fully analytical, the interpretations and recommendations are interesting. However, it would have been of more interest to the readers to produce an analytical model showing the effects of data on natural disaster impacts (volume of disasters, volume of natural disasters, range of damage from hurricanes, range of wind disasters in Europe) on the volume of raw timber production and exports. They could have used artificial intelligence for this.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThere are minor grammatical and punctuation errors.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 comments – 1st
First of all, we would like to thank the reviewer for comments. The comments were really helpful and absolutely on point. We hope that we have kept all necessary corrections and the paper is now better than before the review.
1) The motivation, purpose, and originality of the study should be mentioned in the abstract. A raw abstract should be avoided.
Response 1: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer. The text has been revised based on the reviewer's recommendation. We have added motivation and originality to the methodology section, while adding background information on the data to the abstract to highlight the importance of this analysis in the selected countries.
2) Analytical work is used by people from various disciplines to determine the most appropriate material during research. Please highlight the most appropriate material in this study in the abstract.
Response 2: Partially accepted. It is not entirely clear from the Reviewer‘s comment what is meant by "appropriate material". We would very much like to comply with the request for supplementation, but unfortunately a more specific requirement is needed. Additions have been made to several parts of the document, so please try to consider whether we have covered your request with some of the additions.
3) The authors should explain in more detail why they have chosen central European countries such as Czechia, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria.
Response 3: Partially accepted. Part of the explanation is included in the Abstract, and the remaining arguments for the choice of countries are given in lines 92-96 and then in lines 150-159 and then also in lines 162-169.
4) The authors have done an analytical study by interpreting numerical results from different databases. Although this study is not fully analytical, the interpretations and recommendations are interesting. However, it would have been of more interest to the readers to produce an analytical model showing the effects of data on natural disaster impacts (volume of disasters, volume of natural disasters, range of damage from hurricanes, range of wind disasters in Europe) on the volume of raw timber production and exports. They could have used artificial intelligence for this.
Response 4: A very interesting suggestion to extend other results that we have partially discussed in this paper. Working with artificial intelligence is still an unexplored area for us, but we have already covered the creation of prediction models in other published articles. As an example:
Analytical Study for the Determination of the Energy Use Potential of Forest Dendromass in the Czech Republic. 2023. Forests. 14(9), ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091744
Potential of Forest Biomass Resources for Renewable Energy Production in the Czech Republic. 2022. Energies. 15(1), ISSN 1996-1073. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/47
Sustainable Development Model of Performance of Woodworking Enterprises in the Czech Republic. 2021. Forests. 12(6), 1--22. ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060672
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsArticle on the impact of disturbances affecting European forests on the timber market is interesting, however, it needs improvement before publication.
The research aim is very concise and should be clarified, "impact of disturbances on which aspects of the market?" Please justify the need for conducting the research.
The research methodology includes general information, please specify the information regarding research methods and analyses.
Please clearly indicate the sources of data (regarding the acquisition of storm-damaged wood) as referencing literature positions 28-38 is not sufficient. There is a clear lack of data sources on how many m3 of wood were obtained due to specific storms. It is necessary to precisely specify the data source (statistical, literary data) in places where numerical values are provided. This is crucial in scientific work so that the recipient can verify the data and be sure they are correct. Opening the literature positions/websites provided by the authors (from 28 to 38), it is difficult to find information on how much wood was damaged and obtained due to specific storms in individual countries.
The research results are presented according to a certain scheme, which is the same for each country. It is recommended to include information about countries such as forest area (%), richness, extraction in the description of the "Research Object" chapter or briefly characterize the analyzed countries in the subsection - Introduction section.
The results are the presentation of statistical or literary data in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, please specify the sources of this information concretely (for readers to be able to familiarize themselves with the source materials). Is the increasing % share of timber exports due to disasters (bark beetles, hurricanes)? In the case of the Czech Republic - yes, but what about Slovakia, Poland, Austria? It seems that higher influence on export/import in these countries was due to wood prices on the European market, policies and adopted wood sales rules, and the influence of the wood industry on decision-makers. It is necessary to specify and detail the information in the discussion, to make it compatible with the research assumptions (lack of connections).
Lack of units in table 4 and table 5.
Lines 254-271… It is unclear what is under analysis, the primary timber market or wood processing? Lines 306-327, Lines 333-353, Please clarify the analyses.
Line 403, "State Forests as the majority owner of forests in Poland" instead of "owner," please use "manager."
In the conclusions, the limiting factors of the conducted analyses should be listed (there are many, as numerous factors affect the timber market situation in Europe: economic, political, and strategic).
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 comments – 1st
First of all, we would like to thank the reviewer for comments. The comments were really helpful and absolutely on point. We hope that we have kept all necessary corrections and the paper is now better than before the review.
1) The research aim is very concise and should be clarified, "impact of disturbances on which aspects of the market?" Please justify the need for conducting the research.
Response 1: Partially accepted. Despite agreeing that the title of the article is slightly generic, its content and explanation of the context is sufficiently specific. The different parts of the article explain why we have focused only on selected countries (the largest timber exporters in Europe), illustrating the impact of natural disturbances on the selected countries and also their importance in terms of secondary wood processing. As authors, we have long been involved in the analysis of the timber resource base and the research topics and articles we cover are directly related to the subject. As an example:
Partially accepted. Although we agree that the title of the article is somewhat general, its content and explanation of the context is suitably specific. The sections of the article explain why we have focused only on selected countries (the largest timber exporters in Europe), illustrate the impact of natural disturbances on the selected countries and also their importance in terms of secondary processing of timber. As authors, we have been involved in the analysis of the timber raw material base for a long time and the research topics and articles we deal with are directly related to this issue. As an example:
Analytical Study for the Determination of the Energy Use Potential of Forest Dendromass in the Czech Republic. 2023. Forests. 14(9), ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091744
Potential of Forest Biomass Resources for Renewable Energy Production in the Czech Republic. 2022. Energies. 15(1), ISSN 1996-1073. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/47
Sustainable Development Model of Performance of Woodworking Enterprises in the Czech Republic. 2021. Forests. 12(6), 1--22. ISSN 1999-4907. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060672
The importance of this issue is based on practical experience from a country where the timber trade is currently crucial (Czechia) and for other selected Central European countries Czechia represents a strategic partner. At the same time, the commercial interactions on the timber market of the Central Europe countries also influence the downstream processing of timber throughout Europe and, to some extent, other important world markets (USA, China).
A short explanation has been added to the Introduction section, also by the author, which could be a compromise proposal to accept your comment.
2) The research methodology includes general information, please specify the information regarding research methods and analyses.
Response 2: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
3) Please clearly indicate the sources of data (regarding the acquisition of storm-damaged wood) as referencing literature positions 28-38 is not sufficient. There is a clear lack of data sources on how many m3 of wood were obtained due to specific storms. It is necessary to precisely specify the data source (statistical, literary data) in places where numerical values are provided. This is crucial in scientific work so that the recipient can verify the data and be sure they are correct. Opening the literature positions/websites provided by the authors (from 28 to 38), it is difficult to find information on how much wood was damaged and obtained due to specific storms in individual countries.
Response 3: Explanation. We greatly appreciate thoughtful and fair comments that follow the standards of scientific practice. Unfortunately, the data presented in the table actually come from 10 sources. The primary data source: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/dark.side/viz/EvD_2020_08_Lesyastromy/Vichice-dashboard (European database processed in the Czech Republic) represents national data project that serves the wider public to work with all types of data (economic, social, sectoral). The final source for this database is listed in the links. The data from which the database "Europe in data" drew data inputs comes from Timber-online: https://www.timber-online.net/blog/biggest-windthrow-volumes.html. I do not dispute the relevance of these two sources, as in both cases the terms of data handling and publication are stated on the site. Timber-online outputs also appear frequently in the journal: https://www.forestscience.at/ Austrian Journal of Forest science, which is part of the media managed by timber-online. These two sources are primarily for the compilation of the data table in Table No. 2, which is followed by the content of the article.
As a collective of authors, we have been involved in the scientific community for more than 10 years and have completed more than 20 research projects, following the principles of scientific ethics and verifying sources in our work. This is why, although we have identified two "correct databases" with complete data, for the countries we have selected for analysis we have also worked with national databases, which are an additional guarantee of the objectivity of the data.
Since we chose 5 Central European countries, we worked with sources from 5 countries that annually evaluate sectoral data from the field of forestry (including the timber market):
Slovakia: Zprava_o_stavu_lesa_2021_web (eagri.cz)
Czechia: Zelená správa 2021 - Národné lesnícke centrum (nlcsk.org)
Poland: Statistics Poland / Topics / Statistical yearbooks / Statistical Yearbooks / Statistical Yearbook of Forestry 2021
Austria: Facts and Figures 2022 (bml.gv.at)
Germany: Ergebnisse der Waldzustandserhebung 2021 (bmel.de)
All of the sources mentioned are included in the references in the article. Unfortunately, since we were working with a time series of almost 20 years, we would have to explicitly cite the sources of all these publications duplicated 5 to 10 times for each country and each year (some statistical reports also cite time series for several previous years). Unfortunately, as representatives of the scientific community, we consider this to be an unnecessary expansion of the number of sources, and we do not consider referencing a specific line or section of a document to be a necessary standard unless we cite that section of the document in specific text. At the same time, we have been publishing forestry and timber trade data for several years and our analyses have been reviewed by tens of peer reviewers.
The FAO database is also listed among the sources, which is unfortunately interactive and the target values we worked with are not saved in the source link. However, by simply clicking on the statistics for the selected countries, it is possible to verify the data presented by us. The link is a direct link to the "Forestry Production and Trade" section. The last mentioned source 38 is a link to a professional article that directly deals with the issue of disturbances and served us to compare some of the statistics we present. When comparing the conclusions of the articles, we came to the conclusion that in two cases the statistics are slightly modified compared to the original source (asterisks under table no. 2). In addition, we worked with tens of other articles in the media and professional journals, which served as a basis for the conclusions presented by us, but were not reflected directly in the text (empirical base).
4) The research results are presented according to a certain scheme, which is the same for each country. It is recommended to include information about countries such as forest area (%), richness, extraction in the description of the "Research Object" chapter or briefly characterize the analyzed countries in the subsection - Introduction section.
Response 4: Accepted. The characteristics that you propose to add are already mentioned in the article, see lines: 240/241; 268/269; 295/296; 319/320; 346/347. The term "Production" in the selected tables 6;7;8;9;10 represents the extraction of raw timber felling of the analyzed countries. For better clarity, we have provided the data you requested directly in the article.
5) The results are the presentation of statistical or literary data in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, please specify the sources of this information concretely (for readers to be able to familiarize themselves with the source materials). Is the increasing % share of timber exports due to disasters (bark beetles, hurricanes)? In the case of the Czech Republic - yes, but what about Slovakia, Poland, Austria? It seems that higher influence on export/import in these countries was due to wood prices on the European market, policies and adopted wood sales rules, and the influence of the wood industry on decision-makers. It is necessary to specify and detail the information in the discussion, to make it compatible with the research assumptions (lack of connections).
Response 5: Partially accepted. From the part of your comment, we refer to the explanation in comment No. 3. The data come from freely available statistical reports on forestry of selected countries and the FAO stat database. Unfortunately, it is not possible to list the sources for each number in the table separately. The proposed addition in the discussion section would require you to confirm your interpreted claims with data on the impact of timber prices on the volume of exports and possible dependencies in selected countries. Unfortunately, such data are not available to us as authors. Based on our knowledge of the market environment, we believe that timber market prices were mainly influenced by the exports of countries whose primary and secondary timber processing capacities were insufficient during the calamity period. Slovakia stabilised its calamity timber production last year and was more dependent on imports from other countries. In contrast, the Austrian market has been oversaturated with timber from the Czech Republic in recent years, exceeding the needs of the Austrian market, and the need to export calamity timber has almost completely stagnated. However, the comment certainly represents an important stimulus to expand the analysis and other key questions that will need to be answered for a higher level of comprehensiveness of recommendations to address the problems in the timber market in Central Europe.
6) Lack of units in table 4 and table 5.
Response 6: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
7) Lines 254-271… It is unclear what is under analysis, the primary timber market or wood processing? Lines 306-327, Lines 333-353, Please clarify the analyses.
Response 7: Accepted. An explanation was added to the methodology section, which is directly related to your request for clarification. Since the aim of the article is also to provide specific analytical conclusions from the presented results, we also interpreted the current consequences of the problems of the "timber market" on specific sectors of wood processing, since this situation is a cross-sectoral problem, not just a problem of forestry. Each of selected countries has its own market specifics and fulfills a special role in the entire market system (export, wood processing, secondary production, market stability, price policy). These specifics were also taken into account in the description of the specific country.
8) Line 403, "State Forests as the majority owner of forests in Poland" instead of "owner," please use "manager."
Response 8: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
9) In the conclusions, the limiting factors of the conducted analyses should be listed (there are many, as numerous factors affect the timber market situation in Europe: economic, political, and strategic).
Response 9: Accepted. The text has been reworked following recommendation of Reviewer.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
