Editorial
ON THE 114th ELECTORAL MEETING OF THE CROATIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
Branimir Prpić
; Hrvatsko šumarsko društvo
Abstract
In the past mandate period, the Croatian Forestry Association (hereinafter: CFA) has addressed avariety of topics, ranging from the impact of forests on erosion and water protection, global climatewarming, environmental effects of the Multipurpose Danube-Sava canal, forests and the developmentof tourism in the Republic of Croatia, the contribution of Croatian forestry and wood technology to theEU, water as a factor of forest improvement and protection, forest certification – dead trees and biolo gical diversity, the relationship between forestry and the official Natura 2000 protection in Croatia,organizational structuring of the company Hrvatske Šume, to the cooperation of forestry, water mana gement and meteorological service in celebrating Forest Day, World Water Day and World Meteoro logical Day, and many others. In this double issue of the Forestry Journal we will discuss the 114thelectoral assembly of the CFA “The first national forest inventory in the Republic of Croatia”, bywhich Croatia has been included into the exchange system of forest monitoring data that are compati ble and exchangeable at the international level. For the first time, data on the condition of forest re sources have been obtained by using a uniform method across the entire state territory.
Forest land, its use and conversion have been discussed by the Croatian Forestry Association onseveral occasions. In his report on the activities of the CFA during the four-year mandate period, Mr. Jurjević, M.Sc, president of the Croatian Forestry Association, reviews this issue, observingthat “we have expressed strong dissatisfaction with some solutions set down in the laws and sub-laws.Namely, we can understand the intention to use bare forest land for the establishment of multiannualplantations, but we cannot accept the regulation of the Forest Law which states that maquis can alsobe used for this purpose. We should stress over and over again: maquis is forest. It is a fact that in theareas in which the demand for forest land is the highest there are thousands, even hundreds of thou sands hectares of bare, abandoned agricultural land, the source of over 50 % of forest fires that per manently threaten the surrounding forests”. It is according to a sub-law that the currentcompensations for forests and forest land are “symbolic, rather than realistic. As a result, the size ofthe area for the establishment of new forests does not even remotely approach the size of the area thathas been converted” (compensation of 1,000 kuna/ha as opposed to 30,000 to 100,000 kuna/ha, whichis the cost of establishing a new forest). Therefore, we wholeheartedly support the conclusion in thereport, which states that “forests and forestland should be redefined in the new categorization andtreated accordingly. In this way, cases in which agro-cultures, olive groves and vineyards are establis hed on absolute forest land, only because the owner has been defined, would be avoided”.
The acts and sub-acts mentioned above deserve a special discussion in one of the future double is sues of Forestry Journal. The forestry science and profession insists on participating in the creation ofboth legal and sub-legal regulations; as a rule, these are passed administratively, but actually theyshow their full potential only when applied in practice. Croatian forests are unique in Europe in termsof naturalness, diversity and stability. For these reasons, they require special attention and highly re sponsible treatment.
Professor Emeritus Branimir Prpić, Ph.D.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
57000
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2010.
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