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Status and challenges of small-scale private forest management in actual ecological and social circumstances - Croatia case study

The forest management in Croatia has been focused and adapted to state forests for decades. Unlike state forests, private forests have not been embraced with consistent and sustainable system of forest planning and management on satisfactory level. This is consequence of relative small share of private forests and historic circumstances of forestry development. Past restrictions on size of forest property, encouragement of negligence for forest property and absence of active and appropriate forest management during the second half of 20th century resulted with large number of forest owners with very small forest estates scattered in several parcels. Recent process of restitution to former owners is intensifying which results in appearance of larger private forest property. There is also an increase of medium size forest estates partially as a result of property resumption as well as afforestation of agricultural land due to depopulation of rural areas. Therefore, the share of private forests is expected to reach 30% of area, with concurrent increase of their structural quality, as indicated in the results of first Croatian NFI. These facts enforce requirements for more active and efficient private forest management trough implementation of an appropriate forest guidelines and forest management models within consistent system of forest management planning and forest strategy. Thereat, challenges such as optional management prescriptions, uneven-aged and multi-aged management systems, large number of inactive forest owners, right of individual perception of forest management, low quality and degraded structures of private forests, problems with land register etc. are relative new for Croatian forest profession. The recognition of an actual status, analyses and models of possible solutions from Croatian perspectives are presented in this work.

forest management, property size, forest owners

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