In Sylvicultura oeconomica, Hanns Carl von Carlowitz advances a remarkably modern idea: the forest is not only nature, but a key economic resource whose availability shapes the stability and development of an entire region.

As Chief Mining Officer in the Ore Mountains, he faced a situation that was strategically critical for Saxony at the time. Mining and smelting required vast amounts of timber, while many forests were already heavily overexploited.

Carlowitz did not frame this scarcity as an abstract environmental issue, but as a supply risk with direct consequences for the economy, infrastructure, and the state’s ability to act.

His approach went far beyond reforestation. He called for planned forest management with clear rules, long time horizons, and the principle of harvesting only what the forest can replenish through growth and regeneration.

He combined practical guidance on forest care, restoration, and use with a governance perspective: sustainable use does not happen by chance, but through steering, responsibility, and consistent implementation.

This is precisely why the work remains relevant today. It shows that economic returns and resource preservation are not opposites, but two sides of the same task: safeguarding productive foundations over the long term, reducing risk, and keeping value creation possible.