Where does your Christmas tree come from?

There is an undisputed number one: the Nordmann fir is the most popular Christmas tree in Germany, with a proportion of 90 percent of all trees sold during the Christmas period, the main reason for its popularity being that it sheds virtually none of its needles. However, the question where this tree originates is probably not easily answered by anyone. For they are planted, grown and harvested here, but the seeds are imported from Georgia.

Apart from the Nordmann fir, some spruces and even fewer pines are decorated for Christmas. Their low number is remarkable, considering both are homegrown German trees - which, again, is only partially correct. Spruces are grown in the local forests, "but Germany is not their natural habitat. They were imported to Germany by the Prussians," explains Simon Keelan, who represents Bonn University's botanical gardens, which have been organizing a special Christmas tree campaign for many years: In the Eifel - a nature park close to Bonn - coniferous trees in a mixed forest are chopped down to give more space to leaf trees. Other trees come in from conservation areas which are renaturated. The chopped-down trees are handed over to members of the public in exchange for a donation.

No longer a by-product of forestry

The Eifel Christmas tree campaign follows in the footsteps of traditional forestry practiced until the 1980s: Christmas trees were merely a by-product. Coniferous trees of "Christmas" size were removed in areas where they were growing densely, so that the remaining ones could thrive more easily. Over the last three decades, this has changed completely. Today, almost all Christmas trees are products of special Christmas tree cultures.

This approach makes use of large areas within forests, and occasionally beyond. Although their soil is ploughed up - in the same way as it is for growing field crops - and fertilizers as well as pesticides are utilized, in many German states those stretches of land are classified as forest areas, not as arable areas. "But if such a forest area is fenced in, wild animals can no longer pass through. Therefore, in my opinion, it no longer qualifies as forest area," Keelan states. There is a fundamental issue here, according to Keelan: "Is it necessary to reforest arable land with Christmas trees when it could rather be used to produce food or animal feed?"

Fatal profession

But let us return to the Nordmann fir. The seeds for about 45 million trees sold annually in Germany come primarily from the Georgian Caucasus mountains. In order to get to the sought-after seeds, in autumn Georgian cone pickers climb up to the top of the trees, which can be 60 meters high. They often do so without safety precautions, and fatal accidents happen frequently. The cone pickers take a high risk and have little to gain, their income being much lower than the Georgian average of about 2.200 Euros ($2,700) per year.

The alternative: fair trade

But there is a solution which involves the German Christmas tree buyer. It is called Fair Trade. People's increasing willingness to pay more money for fairly traded products is noticeable in Germany, too. In 2013, Germans bought Fairtrade-certified products worth in excess of half a billion euros ($612 million). Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 23 percent, the Fairtrade organization states on its web page.

Since 2012 fairly traded Christmas trees are on offer in Germany. The seeds for those trees are provided by the "Fairtrees" foundation, which was established by Danish fir seed trader and tree grower Marianne Bols in 2007. More than half of the seeds distributed by Fairtrees go to Germany, where they are used for growing trees.

Tree merchants pay 1.25 euros for each fairtree sticker, 67.5 cents of which are used by the Fairtree foundation for social projects in the region of origin of the Nordmann firs. The foundation provides the cone pickers with secure climbing equipment and pays for their labor insurance. All of this is achieved with "a small sum which almost all of us can afford and which makes a huge difference for the residents of that region in Georgia," Bols told DW.

More than 80,000 fairly traded Christmas trees were sold in Germany last year. Holding only one percent of the market share "Fairtrees" is currently little more than a niche. But Bols remains positive: "More and more consumers learn about our project. Due to increasing demand for fairly traded Christmas trees, more Christmas tree growers will join the project." She predicts a market share of ten percent for "Fairtrees" in the coming years.