Georg Rappold

Dr. Georg RAPPOLD is chair of WoodPoP and Co-leader of the Working Group Governance. He currently also serves as Head of Directorate Wood Policy and Bioeconomy Director of Deparment of Forest Policy and Innovation at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management.

He has envisioned the establishment of a pan-European timber policy platform since his appointment in 2019 as Head of the Timber Value Chain Division at the then-named Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management in 2019.

Fate later brought him together with Petri Heino, leading to the creation of the Austrian-Finnish WoodPoP initiative in 2021. What began as a bilateral cooperation between Austria and Finland on the sustainable use of wood gradually expanded into a platform that includes numerous like-minded countries and stakeholders, with a broader focus on wood and wood-based products as a contribution to the circular bioeconomy.