Sustainable use of forests
Authors: Danilović Milorad , Antonić Slavica , Stojnić Dušan 
Published: April 2024

Globally, the demand for wood as a raw material, but also for non-wood forest products, is growing year by year. Therefore, the question arises how to sustainably use forest resources, taking into account on the one hand the constant needs of society, and on the other the existence of a sustainable ecosystem. There are many practical steps that forest management companies need to take to protect forests, while at the same time making adequate profits from the production and sale of both wood and non-wood forest products. So, theoretically, sustainable use of forests means such felling of trees to meet the needs of the market without endangering ecosystems. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to adhere to certain principles, such as: development of a detailed implementation plan with special emphasis on identifying and marking those areas that may be endangered by erosion or fire, restoration and preservation of natural ecosystems, then application of "reduced impact" cuts "in order to reduce the damage to the remaining trees and stands to the minimum, training and protection of employees at work, etc. In addition to the application of appropriate methods and techniques in cutting trees and making wood assortments, in the phase of their transport, an appropriate network of forest roads is necessary, because without them this potential could not be properly used. The most remote forest complexes are opened on forest roads, which ensures their connection with public roads and centers for processing and consumption of forest products. The special importance of forest roads is reflected in the preventive and reactive protection of forests from fire and other destructive phenomena. In addition, forest roads are extremely important for rural development and retention of the population in the countryside, development of tourism, sports and recreation, construction and maintenance of other infrastructure facilities (underground and overhead power and telecommunications lines, repeaters, relays, water supply facilities, observation posts, fire-fighting railways, etc). When choosing the appropriate work technology, in addition to technical and economic, other aspects are increasingly taken into account, such as environmental, ergonomic and energy. The biggest focus today is primarily on the ecological aspect, ie the attempt to reduce the impact of felling trees, but also the transport of wood assortments on the environment to a minimum. In general, the use of forests with poor planning of works, inadequate work technology and insufficient control during the execution of works results in negative consequences for the young, ie the natural regeneration of forest stands. Damage that occurs in the stand during felling and transport also depends on the felling method, the density of forest roads, the condition of the terrain, etc. However, damage to the stand can be reduced by adopting and applying certain guidelines such as: targeted felling of trees to reduce damage to land, saplings and remaining trees, the establishment of buffer zones and protected areas around the basins, using new technological solutions to reduce damage to the land caused by the attraction of logs, careful opening of forests with the primary and secondary network of roads, limiting the transverse and longitudinal slope of roads to prevent erosion. These simple steps can reduce damage to the remaining trees and offspring in the stand after felling, reduce erosion, enable faster "recovery" of the forest and reduce the risk of fire. Apart from the fact that it is possible to adhere to certain guidelines in order to take into account other aspects (primarily environmental and ergonomic), the other direction is the procurement of new funds. The sophisticated machines in use in forestry today now have surprising capabilities - a number of performances that have been developed or improved in the last two decades. Today's mechanization in relation to the one that was in use 20 or more years ago has primarily improved the safety of workers, increased production performance that directly affected the performance that these machines can potentially achieve, but also improved the characteristics to impact on life the middle was as small as possible. It should be noted that in our region, the degree of mechanization is still relatively small due to relatively difficult field conditions, and in addition, the selective way of management does not allow space for highpower machines.Forestry has a rich tradition of developing decision support tools using a combination of simulation and optimization techniques. Information and communication technologies have a wide range of impacts on the forest sector, which will be even greater in the future. Thus, today there is a principle called precision forestry, which promotes the use of modern tools and technologies to obtain as much quality information as possible, in order to improve the decision-making process and ensure the achievement of current and future forest management goals. Precision forestry is equally related to meeting current and future forest management goals from an economic, social and environmental perspective, and uses a variety of tools and techniques. In addition to innovations in the field of information and communication technologies, in the last twenty years, work has intensified in the field of application of innovations in the field of mechanization. Today, there are also so-called ecological vehicles because their use has a small impact on the environment and contributes to reducing the presence of harmful gases in the atmosphere. In addition to innovations in the field of transport, there are new, improved technologies in the phase of cutting trees and making wood assortments. Here we will refer primarily to manual felling. These are battery-powered saws, which have a battery charger instead of a petrol one. They represent the latest technological solution in the field of cutting trees with chainsaws. Some of the advantages of these saws over classic saws are the following: reduced noise, reduced vibrations, no exhaust gases, reduced workload of workers. However, these saws also have their drawbacks, such as: relatively low power, adapted only for trees of smaller diameters (eg pruning branches) and relatively short battery life. In the phase of planning and designing forest roads, the period from the end of the 20th century is also important, ie the period of intensive development of information technologies, especially with the introduction of software based on GIS and CAD technology. Planning the development of the forest road network is a process that begins with an inventory and analysis of the current state of the forest road network, and ends with the development of a long-term plan for the construction of forest roads in a particular area. Forest road inventory is performed by various terrestrial methods based on the application of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). In recent years, laser scanning of the terrain (LiDAR technology) from the ground and from the air has become increasingly important for the purpose of mass collection of geoinformation from which objects such as forest roads are extracted by software. Given the large number of influencing factors, it is considered that planning the network of forest roads is one of the most complex tasks set before forestry engineers. Due to the strong impact on the forest ecosystem, high construction costs and numerous users, forest roads will always be the subject of interest of a large number of stakeholders, which opens space for conflicts between them, especially in protected areas and near urban areas. In order to reduce the occurrence of conflicts to a minimum, modern planning of the forest road network is moving in the direction of involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, with different methods of multicriteria decision-making reaching a compromise solution. The introduction of these work technologies into the production process is a way to reduce the harmful effects of mechanized means. The application of new work technologies includes trained operators, as well as engineering staff for operational planning. The work of forestry workers, especially those workers who are engaged in cutting trees and making wood assortments, is one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs. In addition, workers employed in forest use have a risk of injury at work almost every day. With the introduction of mechanized means, this problem is partially solved, because new technological solutions have, as already mentioned, a number of advantages (reduced impact of noise, vibration, exhaust gases, comfort, etc.), but also disadvantages such as monotony and great mental strain. When building forest roads, it is necessary to follow on the one hand a series of regulations and recommendations that ensure the durability and usability of the forest road, and on the other hand to anticipate possible environmental impacts, as well as measures to prevent or reduce them. In order to keep pace with developed countries, in the coming period it is necessary to work on educating not only workers but also forestry engineers, but also those who make decisions about the importance of investing in new funds, because a large part of not only funds for work, but also the approach to the use of forests, is unfortunately quite outdated. Prospects for the development of the forest road network are moving towards the creation of a multifunctional network of forest roads built in accordance with environmental, economic, social and technical criteria, which will meet all the needs of integrated forest management, but also the needs of other forest users.