Country report - CZECH REPUBLIC

Dana Koderová, Tomáš Krejzar, Kateřina Trejbalová, Karel Vančura
Forestry Development Department
Ministry of Agriculture, Czech Republic

Executive Summary

The area of the Czech Republic is 78,866 km²; the area of forestland is 26,370 km², which represents 33.4%. Forest has increasingly become the important factor of socioeconomic development of society. Costs of the fulfillment of all social demands made on forests have to be covered to a large extent from income from timber sales. Due to a decline in timber prices and reduction of demand for roundwood, the share of the forestry sector on GDP, which in long term represents only about 0.6-0.7%, dropped.

Wood production remains one of the most important functions of the forests in the Czech Republic. Total annual fellings have been varying around 14 mil. m³ in recent years. That represents about 85 % of total mean increment. The government according to current legislation regulates neither exports nor imports of roundwood. In 2002, there was 2.764 mil. m³ of roundwood exported of which coniferous logs and pulpwood totalled 2 million m³. In comparison with the preceding year, exports of coniferous logs rose by 337,000 m³, while exports of coniferous pulpwood dropped by 181,000 m³. Imports of roundwood reached 1.255 million m³. Nearly 1 million m³ of this volume were logs and pulpwood. Imports of coniferous pulpwood fell by 118,000 m³ but imports of coniferous logs increased by 112.00 m³. Timber was traded in European countries only, predominantly in Austria and Germany.

Besides timber production, multifunctional forest management also fulfils a wide range of other ecological and social functions for the benefit of general public. Forests also represent a significant component of integrated policy of rural development, mainly for their contribution to income and job opportunities in the areas with a high rate of unemployment. The significance of forests in the future will increase not only as the most important element of the environment but also as a renewable resource of raw material and energy.

The processes of compensation, restitution and privatization have created very large numbers of private forest owners, many with small holdings and limited background in forest management. Adaptation of traditional forest management techniques developed for the previous large government-controlled forests must be assessed for their appropriateness for small private owners. The development of new ones may be required and this demands an integrated approach involving research, policy and extension, and real collaboration between government, stakeholders, scientists and foresters. New private forest owners may have a range of objectives for their forested lands. These may be social, recreational, environmental, or harvesting. An inventory of forest-owner's management objectives is needed for overall analyses of how the forested landscape is partitioned among the different management goals, and for integration of local objectives into a more holistic plan to meet national needs and adhere to international commitments.

Many forested lands and their soils have been degraded due effects of pollution or because of poor management (e.g. monocultural planting of inappropriate tree species).

The rapid changes in the nature of forest planning and ownership demands a new approach to analyses of social and economic aspects of forest management, the discipline that was largely stifled under the earlier central planning regimes. Furthermore, the commitment to sustainability requires a sound ability to assess social values. Forest legislation has embraced the concept and goal of sustainability of forest ecosystems. This necessitates that science and research has to play a role in selection and monitoring processes concerning criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management.

The conception of forestry in the Czech Republic proceeds from an international framework characterized as the so-called pan-European process. Another footing for the concept analysis are ,,The Basic Principles of the State Forest Policy", approved by the Government on the 11^th May 1994. The successive implementation of the targets of the state forest policy is currently documented in reports on the state of forestry.

The continued advance of civilization has an impact on the condition of forests in Central Europe mainly in two ways. It is the cause of a serious weakening of the ecological stability of the forest ecosystems and in many places the spontaneous environmental effects of forests serving mainly for timber production have ceased to cope up with the public need, consequently necessitating developing and controlling the extent and quality of non-productive functions. This does not mean, however, that the universal importance of timber as a renewable source of raw material of an extraordinary ecological value be in any way decreased. On the contrary: a continuous and well-balanced timber production and its increased utilization favourably influence e.g. the process of global climate change and contribute significantly to a sustainable life.

The main framework of legislation governing the forestry provides the Act on Forests and on some Law Amendments No. 289/1995 Coll. (Forestry Act) declaring in the preamble the forests to be the national wealth, creating an irreplaceable factor of the environment. The Act on Nature and Landscape Protection No.114/1992 Coll. characterizes forests as a significant element of the landscape.

To preserve this wealth for the time to come has become the ethical commitment of the present generation and the principal aim of the current forest policy, while at the same time respecting the fact, that forestry is a business activity, which is a part of an open sector of market economy.

To accomplish the above mentioned commitment, the state forest policy shall adhere to the following basic principles:

• completion of restitution process,
• improvement of the conditions of the forest ecosystems,
• conservation and enhancement of the biodiversity in forests,
• development of non-wood producing functions of the forests,
• better utilization of timber as a natural renewable raw material,
• promotion of forestry institutions,
• pursuance of the economic aspects of the forestry policy,
• utilization of the National Forest Programme as a tool for the accomplishment of forest policy.

Basic information on Czech forestry²⁶

Natural Forest Regions of the Czech Republic

MAIN TRENDS IN FOREST USE AND CONSERVATION

1. Contribution of Forests

Role of forestry in national economy

Unfortunately forestry does not play an important role in the national economy. The share of forestry on the Gross Added Value in basic prices is stabilized but varies by only about 1 % (tab. 2). There is a need to improve knowledge on how to adequately evaluate all forest functions. In order to gain some knowledge of this kind, we supported the organization of an international seminar held in the Czech Republic at the end of 2000. The total number of employees in forestry has been decreasing since 1990. Some data on the gross domestic product of the Czech Republic are in tab. 1.

Tab. 1: Gross domestic product (GDP)

Tab. 2: Share of forestry on gross added value (GAV) in basic prices

Forest area

The total forest area covering the territory of what is known as the Czech Republic now was for the first time surveyed in 1790 under the Joseph's cadastre and amounted to 1,974,000 ha (which was approximately 25 % of the total area). Figures from 1839 reported already 2,267,000 ha. Between 1920 and 1960 the forest area increased by about 10 % and it covers 2,643,058 ha (corresponding to 33.4 % of the total area of the Czech Republic) at the present time.

Tab. 3: Changes in forest land area (ha)

Forest ownership changes

There were only 9,000 ha or 0.5% of state forests in 1918 when the Czechoslovak Republic was established. On the contrary 99.6% of forests were in state hands at the end of the 1980's. The Act No. 229/1991 Coll. was the main tool of the process of restitution after the "velvet revolution" in 1989. The table depicts the development of ownership changes.

Tab. 4: Forest land ownership changes since 1990

Growing Stock Volume, Increments and Fellings

Growing stock volume includes all timber to the top with minimal diameter of 7 cm o.b. The growing stock volume of Czech forests, which was about 641 mil. m³ in 2002 (564 mil m³ in 1990), has doubled since 1930. The continuous growth in total growing stock volume is largely caused by the fact that above-normal age groups have been reaching their most productive age. At the same time the average age of tree species has been increasing. Part of the increment can probably be explained by the general trend of increasing increments reported all over Europe. However, the speed of this progress has recently slowed down. In 2002, the average growing stock volume in forest stands was 250.4 m³/ha. For commercial forests the average rotation period was 111.6 years in 2002, for special purpose forests it was 124.0 years, and for protective forests 152.5 years.

From the view of sustainability, total fellings should approximate to total mean increment of wood. The increment (16.8 mill. m³ in 2002) exceeds fellings (14.54 mill. m³ in 2002) because the age classes with above-normal area are reaching the culmination of volume increment. If fellings were based on total mean increment, the current uneven age structure would be reflected in the unevenness of harvesting potentials in the future. Total annual fellings varied between 12 and 15 mill. m³ during the last decade. Fortunately, the share of salvage fellings has been decreasing over the last 5 years (from 30% in 1995 up to 15% in 2000). However, in 2002 the share of salvage fellings increased twice back to 32%.

Tab. 5: Growing stock volume, increments and fellings

Forest Condition

The weather in last two years was less favourable for forest health condition than in the preceding years. Monitoring of forest health condition is essential for the protection of forests. It is mainly focused on terrestrial data collection at sample plots, though remote sensing using satellite imagery is applied as well.

The condition of forest stands and forest soils mainly in border mountain areas of the Czech Republic heavily deteriorated during the period of massive air pollution lasting for several decades from the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. A considerable part of the damaged forests had to be prematurely felled and regenerated. The continuing reduction of main pollutants (solid pollutants, SO₂, CO₂ etc.) was less considerable in 2002 when comparing with the preceding years. Emissions of nitrogen oxides slightly rose.

Out of all biotic harmful factors, the most important one was bark beetle, which infested Norway spruce stands. One of the most damaging factors having an negative impact on forest stands (browsing, stripping, biting) caused by hoofed game. The total damage caused by game rose by nearly 90% when compared with 2001, and amounted to CZK 65.34 million.

Forest Product Markets

In 2002, the total amount of exported roundwood was 2.764 mil. m³, of which logs totalled 1.6 mil. m³, pulpwood 0.8 mil. m³ and waste wood (fuelwood, wood chips, splinters, saw dust, cut-offs and waste) 0.5 mill. m³. The year-on-year total roundwood export decreased by 247,000 m³. There was an increase particularly in exports of coniferous logs by 337,000 m³ and decrease in coniferous pulpwood by 181,000 m³. On the contrary, only exports of less valuable assortments (fuelwood, wood chips, splinters, saw dust) fell by about 238,000 m³. The year-on-year imports of roundwood increase by 195,000 m³ and totalled 1,255 mil. m³. The active foreign trade balance decreased down to 2.549 bil. CZK (82.7 mil. EUR).

Most exports (about 97.6 %) went to EU countries, especially to Germany and Austria and only 1.8 % to CEFTA countries (mainly to Slovakia). Similarly, most imports came from EU countries (about 54 % - especially from Germany) and only 38 % from CEFTA countries (mainly from Slovakia).

The wood-processing industry processed almost entirely domestic timber, mainly coniferous and non-coniferous logs. During the year 2002, stagnation of production, consumption and trade in major forests products appeared in Europe and consequently also in the Czech Republic. Altogether 6.7 mil. m³ of coniferous and non-coniferous logs were processed (decrease by 4 %) and the production of sawnwood reached the amount of 3.8 mil. m³ (decrease by 3 %). Domestic sawnwood consumption increase to 7 % and was 2.7 mil. m³ and exports of sawnwood dropped by 13 % (total 1.45 mill. m³).

Table 6. Production and trade (mil. m³)

The drop in prices for sawnwood, which was deeper than the drop in prices for roundwood, had an adverse impact on the economy of wood-processing companies. Exports of sawnwood and other products brought lower revenues due to the strengthening of CZK against the EUR.

Table 7. Consumption 2002 (mil. m³)

Economic situation of forest owners

In 2002, the economic situation of the forestry sector was adversely affected by several factors. First of them was the fast appreciation of the Czech crown in the first half of the year. This lead to decreasing effectiveness of exports of timber and wood products. At the same time timber prices at the domestic market were falling. The third negative aspect was the windstorm disaster of October 2002. Forest owners were intensively processing their "calamity" timber. Thus the supply of roundwood became much higher than demand in the end of the year, which led to even more pronounced decrease of timber prices.

Conservation

The protection of nature in the Czech Republic has a tradition going back many years. First reports of its protection date back to the middle of the 18^th century when in 1721 Adam Schwarzenberg took precautions to protect bears in the Sumava Mts. In 1838 Jirí Augustin Langueval Buquoy decided to declare on his estates the protection of virgin forest growth in the Zofinsky Virgin Forest and Hojna Voda in the Novohradske Mountains - these areas are considered to be the oldest natural preserves in Europe. In 1858 Jan Schwanzenberg established another reservation on his property - Boubinský virgin forest. Conscientious owners of forests can be considered the first protectors of nature in Bohemia.

In the period after the revolution in 1989 the improvement of the environment became one of the priorities in the Czech Republic. The entire nation realised the need to reduce air pollution and renew destroyed forests, to build sewage treatment plants to improve the state of water courses. One of the steps taken was new legislation on the environment, including the Protection of Nature and Landscape Act 114/1992 Coll.

Protected areas

In the last ten years the state of the environment, the cleanliness of the atmosphere and water has improved significantly. The state supports the desulphurisation of thermal power stations, the transfer to more ecological heating systems, the construction of sewage treatment plants and invests a relatively large amount of funds into nature protection - large and small protected areas. At present roughly 15% of the areas of the Czech Republic are specially protected areas and 80% of these areas are forests. In managing the forests their owners must respect the decisions passed by the nature protection bodies which have the right to issue a binding statement on all cases of intervention.

The draft bill of the Ministry of the Environment considers including 20% of the area of the Czech Republic in the Natura 2000 National List. The respective act related to Natura 2000, amendment to the Act No. 114/1992 Coll., has been adopted by Parliament on March 2, 2004. This act made possible to continue in preparation of the whole system Natura 2000 in the Czech Republic.

Territory protection

The Act No. 114/1992 Coll. ensures territorial protection in the Czech Republic and it comprises:

Specially Protected Areas

Territories under certain conservation conditions and are recorded in the National List of Protected Areas that compiles the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic.

Large size specially protected areas:

• National Parks - naturally and ecologically most valuable areas that are of a larger territory. So far there are 4 national parks in the Czech Republic. The law declares them and the area of each of them is divided usually into three zones according to level of conservation. All national parks have a protective zone.

• Protected Landscape Areas - protected areas of a larger territory; they represent the cultural landscape, influenced and for a long time managed by man. The protection is managed according to four levels of protection. There are 24 PLAs in the Czech Republic, which cover 13,2% of its territory. Some of them are Biosphere Reserves.

Small size specially protected areas (1,16%) of the territory of the Czech Republic):

• National Nature Reserve - protection of rare ecosystems on a national level
• National Nature Monument - protection of one or more significant phenomena

Both categories are designated, managed and guaranteed by the Ministry of the Environment.

Nature Reserves and Nature Monuments are small territories of a regional or local significance. Regional bodies or PLA/NP Administrations ensure the management.

Management Plans are formulated and implemented in all protected areas, they are usually valid for 10 years. Other tools for territorial protection are stated in the Act No. 114/1992 Gazette, such as:

• Temporary Protected Areas - time-limited areas for the purpose of protection of temporal occurrence of protected species or study purpose

• Eco-stabilizing Elements - ecologically, geo-morphologically and aesthetically valuable parts of the landscape, those create its typical appearance or contribute to sustain ecological balance. They are: forests, peat bogs, watercourses, fishponds, lakes and floodplains. Nature conservation body can designate also other ecologically or aesthetically significant phenomena being eco-stabilizing elements, such as wetlands, steppes, rock formations.

Important tool for territorial protection and strengthening of ecological balance of the landscape is Territorial System of Ecological Stability (TSES). The system is lined up in cooperation with spatial planning bodies in three levels: local, regional, and higher than regional importance. Protection of TSES areas is an obligation of all landowners and land users in its territory.

The last category of territorial protection according to the act is a Natural Park to protect smaller areas with a characteristic feature. It has to be used to not negatively impact the status.

Landscape protection

Landscape protection in the Czech Republic is ensured and practised according to the Act No. 114/1992 Coll. on Nature and Landscape Conservation. Contrary to the territorial protection, which deals with selected naturally valuable areas and its management, the landscape protection focuses on landscape as a complex.

Due to the fact, that protection of the landscape and territory is hardly to separate, the tools for its protection are mainly institutions for protection of certain territories, such as: TSES (Territorial System of Ecological Stability), PLA (Protected Landscape Areas), NP (National Parks), Natural Parks and Eco-stabilizing Elements). The Act No. 114/1992 Coll. defines all these categories.

General tools for landscape protection and its management are:

1. General protection of wild fauna and flora.

2. Protection of the feature of the landscape - protection of identity of cultural landscape according to the Convention on European Landscape. Mainly free landscape (out of urban and suburban areas) is protected and the landscape protection is marginal in areas with dynamic landscape evolution, where the original character has been destructed in such a manner, that the re-cultivation is nearly impossible.

3. EIA - Environmental Impact Assessment (Act No. 100/2001 Coll.). The aim of EIA is to obtain a general scientific data for administering resolutions. Impact is assessed on inhabitants, environment including wild fauna and flora, ecosystems, soil, mineral environment, water, air, climate and landscape, natural resources, material property and cultural monuments and their mutual interactions.

4. Care for trees in free landscape - Tree groups or solitaire trees grown out of forests are significant eco-stabilizing elements. The Act No. 114/1992 Coll. ensures their protection. Damaging and non-permitted cutting down of them is an infringement according to the law. A special protection is devoted to protection of monumental trees.

5. Biological Assessment - biological assessment and nature-scientific research is a base fro decision making process in nature conservation. Investor of a particular significant interference in nature conservation is obliged to ensure biological assessment on his costs. It is made, if the nature conservation body that issues the permission decides to do so.

Significant value of nature and landscape of the country is verified by

- 6 UNESCO's Biosphere Reserves,

- 16 important bird areas and

- 2 Biogenetic Reserves of the Council of Europe.

Diversity of geographical, geological and climatic conditions results into relatively high biological diversity, which is generally conserved well. Particularly in the last decades human activities has negatively affected the environment and whole ecosystems have been threatened. Together one third of the country is covered by forests and they are naturally affected as well.

Czech Republic signed CBD on June 4, 1993 with approval December 3 of the same year. Signature of the country to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosefety was added on May 24, 2000.

Nature conservation as such exists more than 160 years: the first (maybe on European level) forest reserve Hojna Voda (Copious Water Virgin Forest) was created in Southern Bohemia in 1838.

The overall acreage of forests in specially-protected areas, as mentioned in the Act No. 114/1992 Coll., on Nature Protection and Landscape Preservation, is 715,600 ha, which amounts to 27.2% of the total forest area.

Czech Republic has 658,380 ha of forests in large-size specially protected areas. Except of before mentioned 4 National Parks and 24 Protected Landscape Areas /PLA/ there are another 91,100 ha are in small-size specially protected areas (in the legally-defined categories translatable as "National Nature Reserve", "Nature Reserve", "National Natural Monument" and "Natural Monument").

Current position of foresters in relation to protected areas is possible to include into the following slogan: "We need not more forest protected areas, we need forest areas more protected".

Protected areas

2. Main Issues

Arrangement of right s in property and use

Property was being identified step by step and problems regarding its handing over were being resolved (the handing over of property to municipalities according to Act 17/1991 Coll., restitution to physical entities according to Act 192/1991 Coll.). Only the smaller part of disputable claims has not yet been resolved because of unclear conditions - some of them must be adjudicated by the courts. A political decision must be taken on the restitution of church forests (about 170,000 ha or 6.5 % of the total forest area). There is a need to settle ownership issues arising in the restoration of proprietary rights of communities and to promote grouping of forest holdings by purchase, sale, barter, gift and estate arrangements.

Position of forest owners

The public interest requirements (general use of the forests, increase in biodiversity, non-wood-producing functions of forests) and the right of the owner to decide on how to manage its forests are relatively well balanced in the Forests Act (No. 289/1995 Coll.).

On the other hand the Nature and Landscape Protection Act No. 114/1992 Coll. provisions do not contain elements, which are common in the laws of some traditionally democratic countries. Particularly landowners stressed the need for respect of their rights to decide on how the land should be used. They are rightfully asking for handling of compensation for damage or lose when deciding on restrictions in the interest of carrying out nature protection plans and measures for the sake of the whole society.

State contributions to forest management are actively aimed towards increasing biodiversity, supporting forest renewal, nurturing, improving the non-wood-producing function of the forest and supporting planned management. This approach means that there is an overall improvement in the state of the forest in all its features.

The implementation of the Natura 2000 system into Czech law was given as the main reason for the amendment to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act 114/1992 Coll. The Ministry of the Environment drew up the bill without any public participation. No one representative of both the state or non-state forest owners and managers was invited for expert consultations throughout the entire time that the bill was being drawn up until it was submitted to the Czech government and it was submitted for discussion in Parliament at the end of 2002.

The Czech Republic will become a member of the European Union in couple of months. Particularly the organization representing non-state owners of forests, the Association of Owners of Municipal and Private Forests in the Czech Republic (SVOL), stress that there is a need to improve communication with owners and local administrative authorities and to use the contractual protection of proposed areas. It calls to the fact that the proposal is less democratic and more restricting towards owners of forests and other land than the existing wording of Act 114/1992, and greatly exceeds the binding criteria for the implementation of the Natura 2000 EU directives. Most of the foresters has a belief that the way to improve the landscape condition lies in the education and financial motivation of all those who are involved in the project to improve the ecological stability of the countryside and to protect the landscape. This approach seems to be more efficient than the form of impractical orders and subsequent sanctions.

The expansion of intervention-free nature protection zones and limitations on wood exploitation mean a restriction on the use of renewable resources and a shift to greater use of non-renewable raw materials.

Position of forestry within the state and public administration

In spite of the fact that there has been adopted the National Forestry Program, which should be considered as cross-sectoral one (January 2003), foresters are in want of forest awareness in general. Changes of the Ministry of Agriculture organizational structure announced in the last decade of February 2004 only confirm that the involvement in forestry issues is not too high. Forestry of the country, which once had a special central body together with water management, later was included into Ministry of Agriculture as a sector, then there was only forestry section, and should probably have only department with three small divisions.

Forest condition

Health status of forests remains one of the key issues of the Czech forestry sector. Although the air pollution load has drastically been decreasing since the beginning of 1990's both due to the partial collapse of the Czech industry and because of desulphurization of thermal power plants, this development has not adequately been reflected in improved healthy status of forests. It appears that forest stands suffer from long-term deterioration of mainly soil conditions which are very complicated to be reverted.

There was a great outbreak of the bark beetle population in the middle of the 1990s with a peak in 1995, when over 1.9 mill. m³ of wood were infested. In the last years the situation was much more favourable with about 297,000 m³ of infested wood in 2000, 177,000 m³ of infested wood in 2001 and 192,000 m³ of infested wood in 2002, which represents a 10-percent increase in comparison with 2001. The most serious damage caused by bark beetle continues to occur in the _umava and Jeseníky Mts. Now after the relatively favourable years a new outbreak of bark beetle is expected in this year.

Wood as renewable material

One of the aspects of the enhancement of economic viability of forestry is a promotion of wood generally as a renewable material. The national forest programme defines this as one of its priorities. In its chapter 6 the national forest program stresses economic, social but also ecological aspects of wood production and use. Nevertheless, wood and paper as materials are still under-valuated, which could be evidenced in various sectors such as in construction (wood in comparison with steel or concrete) or in packaging (paper x plastics).

3. Policy Options

Basic documents for forestry in the Czech Republic are:

- the Fundamental Principles of State Forest Policy,

- the Conception of State Forestry Policy,

- the National Forest Programme,

- the Forest Act,

- the Act on the Trading in Forest Reproductive Material,

- the Nature and Landscape Protection Act.

National Forest Programme

According to the 5^th chapter of the Conception of State Forestry Policy, which was adopted by a resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic in January, 2000, the National Forest Programme (NFP) is considered as a system of implementing projects of the State Forestry Policy. Therefore, the target of the NFP is to analyze selected problems identified during the course of working on the Conception and to propose appropriate solutions.

The Forestry and Game Management Research Institute was charged with preparing a draft of the NPF. For that purpose six working groups were established to deal with the following subjects:

- silviculture in compliance with the principles of sustainable forest management and promotion of non-wood-producing functions of the forest,

- enhancement of biological diversity,

- wood production and utilization,

- forests in specially protected areas,

- forest protection.

The NFP will had been submitted to the Government of the Czech Republic jointly by the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of the Environment by the end of 2002 and has been approved by the resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 53 of 13^th January 2003. The NFP of the Czech Republic will respect the common approach of European countries to the NFPs, namely these elements and principles: participation, holistic and intersectoral approach, iterative process with long term commitment, capacity building, consistency with national policies, integration with national sustainable development strategies, consistency with international commitments recognising synergies between international forest related initiatives and conventions, ecosystem approach, partnership for implementation and raising awareness.

Promotion of use of wood

One of the most recent activities is the preparation of establishment of a legal entity which would cover all promotion activities in favour of wood as renewable material in future. That is why a preparatory committee has been established with participation of private and public sector, forest owners, contractors and representatives of wood-processing industry. Now two expert groups are working on (1) legal aspects and on (2) marketing and public relations aspects of the establishment of the legal entity.

Forest certification

Forest certification is one of the tools which could help, as so-called soft market instrument, to achieve sustainable forest management. The process of forest and chain-of-custody certification is still at the beginning in the Czech Republic. The most influential certification system in the Czech Republic is Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC). As of the end of 2002 the total certified area of forests certified by this system reached 1,800,000 ha (2/3 of total forest land area) of which 245,000 belonged to private forest owners. The PEFC systems based on the principal of regional certification.

Other certification system is poorly represented in the Czech Republic. Out of them the FSC certification is the most promising one. So far, about 10,000 ha of forests have been certified according to the general standards. Apart from this the working group for the preparation of national standards has been established.

Ministry of Agriculture supports the process of certification indirectly by means of the so-called National Certification Centre, which has been established as a part of the Forest Management Institute, and directly by providing the forest owners with financial contribution within the services provided by government for forest management.

Measures aiming at improvement of forests health status

With the aim of improving chemical properties of forest soil in boarder areas heavily damaged by air pollution, extensive liming - over an area of nearly 80,000 ha (including repeated treatment) - was carried out in the period of 1978 - 1991. During the nineties the extent of liming was gradually decreased. But in the period of 1999-2001 the state of forest stands in some parts of The Kru_né hory and Orlické hory Mts. rapidly deteriorated and a considerable shortage of magnesium and calcium was found in needles and forest land. The Resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 532 of May 31, 2000 obliged the Ministry of Agriculture to provide 79 million crowns for liming and fertilizing of forests in The Kru_né hory and Orlické hory Mts. In 2002 the liming was carried out over an area of 8,201 ha, of which 419 ha in Orlické hory Mts. and 7,778 ha in Kru_né hory Mts.

With a view to the expected bark beetle outbreak in this year, the informational campaign has been launched in cooperation of Ministry of Agriculture and the state enterprise Forest of the Czech Republic in order to instruct private and municipal owners how to behave in this situation.

Measures aiming at improvement of economic viability of forestry

The Czech national forest programme brings the new challenges for more meaningful projection of the importance of forests into the national economy. One of the major objectives specified in the programme is the pressure on better utilization of wood as renewable and ecologically friendly raw material and its incorporation into the concepts of industrial and energy policies in the Czech Republic. This project should i. a. enhance the viability of the whole forestry sector.

To support the conditions particularly of smaller private forest owners the government launches programmes to support management of forests every year. Programmes are comparable in terms of structure to the aids provided for forest owners in the EU member states. In addition to these aids agreed by Parliament for forestry, there were the following funds available for the forestry sector:

• Aids for afforestation of agricultural lands from the funds of agrarian complex;
• Aids covering interests of credits from the Support and Guarantee Fund for Farming and Forestry;
• Aids for forest management in military forests from budget of the Ministry of Defense;
• Aids for safeguarding of non-wood benefits of forests and close-to-nature management of forests, mainly in the national parks and protected regional areas from the State Environmental Fund.

Measures aiming at raising public awareness

Forest pedagogy, forest communication

One of the activities focussed on raising public awareness is the FAO/TCP project "Strategy for Education and Communication in Forestry". The aim of the project is to improve communication among foresters, forest owners and general public. The project team was build up entirely of Czech experts, but includes partial co-operation with Slovak and Slovenian experts. The main objectives are to improve communication skills of foresters and to propose a long-term holistic communication strategy.

Long term vision of forestry issues related to "sustainable development" has been started in 1992.

It is necessary to

- ensure that the national regulation does not restrict owners and managers of land more than the obligatory provisions of the relevant EU directives;

- minimize the number of cases where the rights of the owners and managers of land are restricted without any administrative proceedings;

- allow for the contractual protection of areas, including those covered by Natura 2000;

- limit duplication when evaluating certain plans and programs concerning the environment

(for example, the assessment of forest management plans according to EIA).

²⁶ Official data of 2003 are not available yet.