State of forest fund and planning in forestry
Authors: Medarević Milan , Govedar Zoran , Petrović Nenad 
Published: April 2024

In order to improve forest management and forestry policy development, the development of long-term plans for the development of forests and forestry, as well as other sectors related to forestry, requires reliable data and information on the state of the forest fund. The first forest inventory in BiH was conducted in the period 1964‒1968. years, and the second only a few decades later (2006‒2009). The area of forests in Europe has been steadily declining over the last 5,000 years as a result of deforestation. The area of forests in Europe is about 227 million hectares or about 35% of the total area of the continent and since 1990 it has increased by 9.0%. The total area of forests and forest land in the Republic of Srpska is 1,352,031 hectares or 54.3% of the total area of the Republic of Srpska, and the Republic owns 1,044,939 ha (77.3%), and in private 307,092 ha or 22, 7%. One inhabitant of Republika Srpska has about 0.8 hectares of forested land. The most represented in the forest fund of the Republic of Srpska are beech forests, which cover an area of 353,751 hectares or 37.3% of the total overgrown area without shrubs. Semi-natural areas are spreading to former agricultural lands, and the largest reductions in agricultural land areas have been recorded in areas with natural bushy forest vegetation. A special problem is the area of karst (174,662 hectares), where only in some places black pine afforestation has been successfully carried out. There are very few economically valuable forests in the karst area (about 22,000 hectares), and especially high accessible forests (only 3,617 ha). The size of the mine suspected area in BiH is 965 km2 or 1.97% with 8,525 suspicious micro-locations, which are estimated to be planted with about 79,000 mines. The total wood volume of the forests of the Republic of Srpska is about 250 million m3, and the forests owned by the Republic account for about 200 million m3 (78%), and the private ones about 50 million m3 or 25%. The average volume per hectare increased in all forest categories except high degraded forests. In relation to the basic production indicators, it can be stated that the most valuable part of the inventory in the forests of Republika Srpska is related to forests belonging to the complex of mesophilic types of beech and coniferous forests in the complex of frigorophilous coniferous types of mixed beech and spruce forests forest areas (without shrubs), of which the dominant part (92%) is owned by the Republic of Srpska. Most forests (about 60% of the total forest fund of Republika Srpska) are located in the mountain zone (1000‒1500 m above sea level) with a predominance of beech and fir forests with spruce (71%), slightly less (about 36%) is in the hilly zone (500‒1000 m above sea level) with the highest share of beech forests (47%), and the lowest (about 4%) in the lowland zone (lower than 500 m above sea level) where oak forests dominate sessile on the surface of 95%. For the territory of the Republika Srpska, 9 basic groups of forest vegetation, 27 subgroups and 169 basic types of forests have been recorded on its territory. Warnings of constant climate change (average temperature rise of 0.3 to 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last decade) indicate the great importance of forest ecosystems in combating global warming. It is estimated that the forests of Republika Srpska have a total carbon reserve of about 54 million tons, and an average net annual absorption of about 1.5 million tons of carbon (or 5.6 million tons of CO2. In private forests, the size of the realized etat is higher if the average area of cadastral parcels per owner is higher even if the area of pure stands in the ownership structure is larger.It is characteristic that the realized etat with increasing area of mixed stands decreases slightly on average (Govedar et al. 2018). are composed of spruce, white and black pine, and black pine was used to establish forest crops in almost all habitats. The condition of these forests is very complex and diverse in terms of overgrowth, quality (participation of III cultivation-technical class in forest crops greater than 40%), health status, productivity, settlement of primary vegetation and deterioration of edaphic conditions, which affects the relatively poor quality of yield and often pre cheating pure into mixed stands. These stands are characterized by a large spatial dispersion of relatively small areas (over 6,000 sections with an average area of 6.85 ha). In order to improve management, urgent and timely cultivation measures are needed, primarily thinning with the use of previous yields and shortening the production period by 20‒40 years in relation to high forests of the same tree species and habitat conditions. Forest management planning was strongly intensified after the Second World War, and then it was pointed out that forests should be managed according to the principle of sustainable yield, all in order to supply the people and the industry with wood products. The basic planning level for ensuring sustainability was the forest management area, and plans based on the principle of continuity of management were made for business units, management classes and departments using the project for the execution of works. The content of forest management plans in Republika Srpska has not changed since 1992. It is unified regardless of forest quality and management intensity, and biodiversity assessment and habitat indicators are not included in management plans. There is a clear need to change attitudestowards forests and the basis is the acceptance of the principle of sustainability and multifunctionality in forest management. At the same time, the necessity of integrated, integrated and participatory forest management planning imposes a close connection between forestry and other branches (sectors). Contemporary topics in the field of forestry planning are: broad participation of stakeholders, negotiations on the rights to use forest resources and decisions leading to sustainable forestry.