(Serbia and Montenegro)
Area
The total area of poplars and willows, derived from new inventories, is 53 931 hectares, of which plantations of Euramerican poplars cover 37 444 hectares (70%), European poplar (black and white) 1 322 hectares (2%), and willow 15 205 hectares (28%). Native poplars and willows are found on 1.89% of the total forest area.
Inventory and economic data
Estimated standing wood volume of poplars and willows is 8.3 million m3. The annual felling cut in all forests of Yugoslavia is from 3.000.000 to 3.500.000 m3 gross wood volume and other yield of poplars and willows is about 355.000 m3, in total is about 11% of total annual wood volume cut in Yugoslavia.
Policy and legislation
Considering the substantial national potential for the development of forestry, a law on spatial planning of the Republic of Serbia was adopted in 1996, which planned that by the year 2050 the forest area should be increased from 27% to 41%. A great part of areas for afforestation was planned to be in plain regions of the republic, where the emphasis is on fast growing forest species with poplar and willows having the priority. Approximately 80 000 hectares of these areas should be used for planting poplars and willows.
Technical data
In this period three poplar clones were listed in the national register. Work on the identification of poplar clones is being carried out and a clone classification, based of the leaf morphogenetic parameters and the shapes of isoenzyme variability, was determined. The country, which participates in the EUFORGEN project on Populus nigra conservation, has established the distribution and size of populations in different regions.
General information
After the events of the 1990´s, the National Poplar Committee has not yet been formed, but it was initiated. In the same period, the Poplar Research Institute in Novi Sad continued the implementation of the scientific research program and organized several seminars in the period.
23 September 2000
