The province of South Tyrol is located at the northernmost point in Italy. The province is bordered by Austria to the east and north, specifically by the Austrian states Tyrol and Salzburg, and by Switzerland (canton of Grisons) to the west. The Italian provinces of Belluno, Trento, and Sondrio border to the southeast, south, and southwest, respectively. Entirely located in the Alps, the province's landscape is dominated by mountains. The highest peak is the Ortler (3,905 m) in the far west. Even more famous are the craggy peaks of the Dolomites in the eastern part of the region. The landscape itself is mostly cultivated with different types of shrubs and forests. About 42% of the South Tyrolian surface is covered with forest.

The Province of Bolzano-Bozen, also referred to as Alto Adige or South Tyrol, is an autonomous province. It is one of the two provinces that make up the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which is itself an autonomous region. The official names include the information that the province is autonomous. Unlike all other provinces of Italy, Bolzano-Bozen is granted a considerable level of self-government, consisting of a large range of exclusive legislative powers and a fiscal regime.

The province has an area of 7,400 square kilometers and a total population of 500,000 inhabitants. Its capital is the city of Bolzano/Bozen. The majority of the population speaks an Austro-Bavarian dialect of German. About a quarter is Italian-speaking and a small minority speaks Ladin as their mother language. In the wider context of the EU, the province is one of the three members of the Euroregion of Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, which corresponds nearly exactly to the historical region of Tyrol. In terms of GDP per capita the province of Bolzano is the richest region of Italy. The majority of people are employed in a variety of sectors, from agriculture – the province is a large producer of apples, its wines are also renowned – to industry to services, especially tourism. The unemployment level in 2009 was roughly 2.3 %.

South Tyrol has about 1.500 companies in the Forest product based sector. In numbers this is about 125 saw mills, 350 carpenters, 800 cabinet makers and 125 other wood working companies. Most of those are very small enterprises with an average of 3,4 employees.