1. INTRODUCTION
The forest area of the Czech Republic covers 2 637 million ha, i.e. 33.3 percent of the land area of the country and 1.8 percent of the total European forest area (excluding the former Soviet Union).
Total standing stock of all forests in the Czech Republic is 564 million m3 "Derbholz".
Agricultural land accounts for 56.9 percent, water resources 1.7 percent, buildings 1.5 percent, and other types of land 6.5 percent.
As a result of favourable geomorphologic and climatic conditions, forests classified as productive occupy nearly 96 percent of the forest area.
Table 1
Forest soil per inhabitant Percentage of forest land Average standing volume Total current increment TCI per ha |
ha/inhabitant % m3/ha u.b. m3/ha m3/ha/year |
0.25 33.30 218 17 047 160 6.6 |
Forest land |
Growing stock |
Allowable cut |
Real cut | |
1 000 ha |
1 000 m3 u.b. | |||
Production forests Protection forests Total |
2 572.4 65.0 2 637.4 |
552 434 11 676 564 110 |
11 801 109 11 910 |
10 654 114 10 768 |
Annual allowable cut per ha and per inhabitant, cutting percentage, and other intensity indicators of forest resource utilization, are similar to Austria and Germany. This results from similar natural conditions, similar approach to forestry in Central Europe, and regarding Austria from a long period of common history.
General recognition of the social role of forests and systemic approach used by forestry and ecological sciences, are supporting efforts to promote a multiple-purpose forestry, oriented not only on timber supply as the major productive function provided by forests, but also in favour of environmental and social benefits such as climate control, watershed protection, erosion control, CO2 block, landscape and biodiversity protection.
In recent years local and transboundary air pollution is not only threatening the forest wealth, but also is putting at risk the existence of an important portion of forest cover of the Czech Republic.
Air pollution, generated both domestically and internationally, has already had a devastating impact on forests in the northwestern and northern mountain regions of the country, where in higher elevations, 45 000 ha of forests have been destroyed.
Table 2
Year |
1970 |
1975 |
1980 |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
1988 |
1989 |
1991 |
1992 |
% |
5.4 |
10.5 |
35.7 |
40.5 |
54.5 |
57.0 |
53.1 |
57.6 |
58.2 |
58.3 |
Forests in Krusne hory and Jizerske hory have been particularly affected. In this area more than 43 000 ha of forests are dead. Forest destruction in Krkonose and Sudety is serious, but not hopeless.
An agreement was reached between the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland and the EC to undertake a program to reduce pollution in the region of the "Black Triangle", where large coal-burning power plants and smelters are concentrated in a relatively small area, where the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland border.
The increased presence and spread of insect pests and fungal diseases in many regions of the country is the result of lowered forest vitality, due to air pollution concentrated at elevations above 800 m, and long-term humidity deficit below that level. Root and stem diseases are killing off weakened trees and contribute significantly to weakening the entire forest stands.
Damaged forests, however, represent important biological resources and contribute to protecting natural environment values.
Forest destruction due to air pollution has subsided over the last two years and this can create unexpected favourable conditions for implementing changes in forest treatments and improving biodiversity of forests.
On the other hand, necessary forest management practices are expensive and budgetary restrictions make needed implementations difficult.
The transition to multiple-resource management of forests is further complicated by current economic reforms, especially the restitution of private and public ownership.
2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE FORESTRY SECTOR
2.1 Forest resources and their distribution
Forests cover an area of 2 637 million ha, scattered throughout the country, but with considerable concentrations in the mountains, thereby creating a natural boundary around almost the entire country.
Forest functions are divided into three categories:
1. Production forests
11. Protection forests
111. Special purpose forests
Protection forests are managed for the production of wood, but simultaneously provide environmental and other benefits.
Protection forests are managed with the aim of protecting vulnerable forests at high elevations. The role of wood production in protection forests is not significant. They have long rotations and the wood production capacity is low due to poor site quality. Some of these forests are treated as forest reserves and are not logged at all.
Special purpose forests are specially managed either to offset forest damage as a result of air pollution, or are administered so as to maintain microclimates around health spas, provide recreation areas, manage game preserves or the watershed management of important water resources.
Special purpose forests also comprise the forests of national parks. The national park forests area is expected to increase from 40 000 in 1992 to 120 000 ha in 1994.
Table 3
Categories |
1 000 ha of timber land | |
I |
Production forests |
1 489.3 |
II |
Protection forests A. Site protection 1. Forests under forest limit 2. Zone of mountain pine 3. Erosion conservation |
61.8 44.5 12.5 3.8 1.3 |
III |
Special purpose forests 1. Forests damaged by pollution 2. Forests with special society tasks 3. Protection of water resources 4. Others |
1 031.9 739.2 212.8 10.6 69.3 |
The forests are almost explicitly forest stands with an average age of 60 years.
The dominant species are spruce (Picea excelsa) - 54 percent of forested land; pine (Pinus silvestris) - l8 percent; oak (Quercus) - 6 percent; and beech (Fagus silvatica) - 5 percent. Conifers comprise 77.5 percent and broad-leaved species 20.9 percent.
Recent tree species composition is historically based on economic evaluation of wood production and is not convenient to the improvement of biodiversity of forests.
Table 4
% share of timber land | |||||||||
Year |
Picea |
Abies |
Pinus |
Other conifers |
Quercus |
Fagus |
Other hardwood |
Softwood |
Unstocked area |
1950 1970 1980 1991 |
60.5 55.6 55.9 54.7 |
2.8 2.1 1.7 1.1 |
19.4 19.1 18.2 17.8 |
1.8 2.9 3.4 4.0 |
3.7 5.4 5.7 6.0 |
4.9 5.0 5.3 5.4 |
3.1 3.3 3.2 3.3 |
1.2 5.9 5.8 6.1 |
2.6 0.7 0.8 1.6 |
Table 5
Percentage according to | ||
Tree species |
Timber land |
Growing stock |
Picea Abies Pinus Larix Other conifers Quercus Fagus Carpinus Acer Fraxinus Betula Alnus Tilia Other broad-leaved trees Unstocked area |
54.7 1.1 17.8 3.2 0.8 6.0 5.4 1.2 0.7 0.9 2.9 1.4 0.9 1.4 1.6 |
65.0 1.7 16.3 3.0 0.1 4.3 5.3 0.6 0.4 0.7 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.7 |
The age distribution is favourable. It is evident (Table 6) that the percentage of age classes changed during the past 40 years in favour of older forest stands and the share of unstocked area is almost constant since 1920.
Table 6
Year |
Unstocked area |
Age class | ||||||
I |
II |
III |
IV |
V |
VI |
VII | ||
1-20 |
21-40 |
41-60 |
61-80 |
81-100 |
101-120 |
121+ | ||
1920 1930 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 |
1 2 2 1 1 1 1 |
23 21 18 17 17 17 16 |
24 21 21 21 20 15 15 |
22 21 21 20 19 20 19 |
17 19 19 19 20 20 19 |
10 11 12 13 13 15 17 |
3 5 7 6 7 8 9 |
- - - 3 3 4 4 |
Ideal model |
1 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
16 |
9 |
2 |
Similarly favourable is the distribution and development of average rotation ages:
Table 7
1 000 ha according to rotation periods: | ||||||||
Rotation period |
-80 |
90 |
100 |
110 |
120 |
130 |
140 |
150+ |
Production forests Protection forests |
93 |
57 |
616 |
1 024 |
456 |
59 |
40 9 |
175 54 |
Total |
93 |
57 |
616 |
1024 |
456 |
59 |
49 |
229 |
Table 8
Year |
1920 |
1930 |
1940 |
1950 |
1960 |
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
average rotation period |
93.4 |
92.5 |
95.4 |
101.1 |
101.2 |
102.6 |
108.1 |
111.5 |
The quality of standing stock of older age classes is good or excellent, while the spruce in younger classes is generally damaged by bark stripping (by deer and mouflon).
Damages caused by deer are greater than air pollution damages. Windbreakage and snowbreakage are mostly due to trunk rot, caused by bark stripping. The state of game is not an uncontrollable factor, as is, for instance, air pollution.
Despite increasing numbers of caught hoofed game, the real game stock grew.
Encouraging measures have been accomplished only recently as a result of land and forest ownership restitution.
2.2 Ownership of forests
In 1989 nearly 96 percent of forests was used by state and public organizations. The rest was managed by agricultural cooperatives (109 000 ha) and private owners - only 1 386 ha.
This structure of forest ownership was due to the total socialization after 1948. The structure development is given in Table 9.
Table 9
Year |
1880 |
1910 |
1920 |
1930 |
1946 |
1989 |
1993 |
1995 x |
Owner |
% of total forested land |
|||||||
State Municipality Churches Forest cooperatives Foundations Nobility Other private Agricult. cooperatives |
0.3 10.2 7.2 0.0 1.3 25.7 55.3 0.0 |
0.2 9.4 6.6 1.2 1.3 29.5 51.8 0.0 |
3.6 10.0 7.9 1.9 0.8 24.9 50.9 0.0 |
12.4 11.3 7.1 1.8 1.2 15.3 50.9 0.0 |
60.1 17.4 7.1 3.2 0.0 2.0 10.2 0.0 |
95.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 4.3 |
81.4 7.4 0.0 1.0 0.0 4.0 6.2 0.0 |
62.0 10.5 6.5 1.0 0.0 7.5 12.5 0.0 |
x estimate
In 1920, two years after establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, state ownership was restricted to the former property of the Habsburg house.
The fundamental change of ownership structure resulted from the presidential decree No. 12/1945: "On the Confiscation of Properties Owned by Germans, Hungarians and Other Enemies of State".
With this decree, 1 080 million ha of total private forest area (1.368 million ha) were confiscated. The significant majority (l.027 ha) has become state property; 45 000 ha municipal property and 8 000 property of forest cooperatives.
The ownership structure of 1946 resulted in confiscations only because the revision of the First Land Ownership Reform started at the end of 1947 and the gradual socialization started after February 1948.
The restitution of forest municipality ownership and private ownership - according to the laws issued in 1991 - should restore the ownership structure as of January 1948, but obviously many restitutive demands and recoveries claimed revert prior to 1946.
The major part of forest holdings before the Second World War were large and medium sized forest holdings, owned by nobility, churches, foundations, state and municipalities. Due to relatively perfect forest management, which was aimed at sustained and well-balanced harvesting, the average growing stock was twice that of small forests, owned by farmers and communities.
Nearly 32 percent of the total private forest area was forest holdings smaller than 10 ha, and recent restitutions will restore this situation, despite its disadvantages for forestry.
After completing the restitutions, the area of state forests will remain at least as large as after the war. More than 1.3 million ha of this area will be managed by a juridical entity, "Forests of the Czech Republic". This new organization was established in 1992 as a result of privatization of eight former state forest enterprises in accordance with Law No. 91/1992, and is based on principles of private management.
2.3 Wood production
Total annual harvesting has been decreasing from 13.4 million m3 (ub) in 1981 to approximately 11.0 million m3 in 1992.
Despite a high volume of salvage cuttings, the spatial arrangement of the forests is not seriously damaged.
It is significant that overcuts in the past did not invade long-term sustained yield and correspondence between allowable cut and real cut in recent years.
2.4 Timber supply
In past years the wood industry demands exceeded the level of annual allowable cut and resulted in overcuts.
Table 10
Period |
Conifers |
Broad-leaved |
Total |
% share of total cut |
1 000 m3 |
||||
1961-65 1966-70 1971-75 1976-80 1981-85 |
310.6 597.1 874.4 1 534.6 1 231.8 |
89.4 143.0 262.4 388.0 294.0 |
400.0 740.1 1 135.8 1 922.6 1 525.2 |
4.7 7.9 10.6 15.0 11.4 |
1986-90 |
estimation: |
10.1x | ||
Table 11
tree spec. |
roundwood |
pole timber |
pulpwood |
fuelwood |
other |
conifers |
61 |
2 |
29 |
6 |
2 |
broad-leaved |
44 |
37 |
19 |
- |
The import of roundwood was insignificant and restricted mostly to exotic tropical and rare hardwoods.
The sawmilling industry has an acute need of new investments for restructuring. The building industry recession resulted in a considerable drop in demand for wood and in a chronic payment deficit in the wood industry.
The existence of only three pulp and paper mills - despite privatization of private stock companies - is inadequate even though the long-term world pulp market recession made export of pulp considerably difficult.
2.5 Forestry employment
The activities of the former State Forest Enterprises comprised many service operations involved in the building industry, housing maintenance, machinery, wood transport and wood industry or wood sales.
There was an average of only 66 ha for every worker and 143 ha for every employee; the reported extent of forestry employment is not comparable with similar statistics for Austria or Germany.
2.6 Forestry operations
The extent and structure of silvicultural and logging operations are due to the usual treatment of forest stands. The planning system remained undifferentiated - and therefore extensive and expensive management of forests - although formally promoted the reduction of unit costs of individual operations.
Table 12
Reforestation |
Cleaning |
Commercial thinning | |
Production forests Protection forests Total |
35 955 563 36 518 |
52 088 495 52 583 |
110 856 1263 112 119 |
Table 13
All forests |
scheduled |
realized |
1 000 ha | ||
Cleaning Thinning Reforestation Repair planting Natural regeneration Protection of young plantations |
52 467 104 066 27 256 8 401 |
52 550 93 476 19 894 12 050 572 224 800 |
Table 14
Year |
Cleaning |
Thinning |
Reforestation |
1 000 ha | |||
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 |
62.4 106.1 51.6 56.3 60.2 57.1 55.2 51.1 |
101.7 179.7 132.4 167.0 145.2 92.6 34.8 69.3 |
55.2 37.6 25.9 21.8 27.0 33.6 33.6 |
Table 15
Period |
Conifers |
Broad-leaved | |||||
Picea |
Abies |
Pinus |
Total |
Quercus |
Fagus |
Total | |
1971-75 1976-80 1981-85 1986-90 |
52.6 54.1 63.9 58.4 |
4.2 1.9 1.9 1.5 |
18.9 19.9 19.4 13.9 |
80.9 81.9 90.5 81.6 |
6.5 4.8 6.1 5.2 |
7.4 5.0 3.0 4.4 |
19.1 18.1 9.5 18.4 |
Table 16
Period |
Land area of nurseries in ha |
Annual production of plants | |
Total (million plants) |
1 000 plants per ha | ||
1946-50 1951-55 1956-60 1961-65 1966-70 1971-75 1976-80 1981-85 1986-90 |
1788 1980 2514 2703 2481 2095 1897 1931 2015 |
287 490 550 407 282 179 167 190 215 |
160 248 219 151 114 85 88 98 107 |
Table 17
Year |
Skidded |
Percentage from the total skidding volume | |||||
Timber volume (1000 m3) |
Horse teams |
Crawler tract. |
Wheel skidd. |
Wheel tract. |
Cable cranes |
Others | |
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 |
8 672 6 994 7 046 8 398 9 908 11 550 11 043 11 638 |
92.4 76.7 56.5 55.3 30.8 15.9 14.2 12.3 |
2.3 4.5 2.3 1.5 0.3 0.1 |
26.9 45.3 48.5 45.3 |
1.6 16.6 39.6 41.7 36.8 30.9 30.4 35.2 |
0.4 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.2 2.6 3.9 3.9 |
3.3 1.5 0.8 0.6 4.0 5.2 3.1 3.3 |
3. MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS OF THE FORESTRY SECTOR
According to the approved Forest Management Plans, annual allowable cut is more than 11.8 million m3 and can be stable for the next ten years. When evaluated in market price, this quantity is equal to nearly US$ 373 million.
Official value of forest land and growing stock of all Czech forests (land included) exceeds US$ 15 billions (109).
Forests contribute 0.8 percent to GDP, over US$ 40 million in exports of roundwood and US$ 150 million of wood products. They employ more than 56 000 persons in the forestry and timber market. An additional 83 000 persons are employed in the wood, furniture and paper industries. The recent annual investment in forestry is US$ 175 million. The recent budgetary allotment to the sector is almost US$ 14 million.
4. CURRENT FORESTRY POLICY
The chief problems of the current forestry policy are:
- adoption of a new forest law;
- balanced wood-producing and environmental functions of forests, particularly in connection with new types of damage and excessive stock of game;
- reconstruction and encouragement of state forest administration;
- selective support of forest management depending on ownership forms;
- opposite development trend of timber prices and production costs;
- regeneration of forests damaged by air pollution and by game;
- adaptability of forest enterprises to free market conditions;
- correction of market failures onto supplying environmental goods;
- support and stimulation of the right level and type of research;
- completing of restitutions;
- preparation of partial privatization of state forests;
- implementation of long-term economic criteria for success, expressible in financial terms;
- support and stimulation of subjects, capable of offering professional forest services for re-established forest owners. These technical and consulting forest services are necessary for the whole private sector of forest ownership, while the numerous classes of small farmers with their own animal and manpower were upset through socialization.
The proposed new Forest Law is a relatively successful compromise between principal requirements of forest owners and society. Present forest legislation is based on Law No. 61/1977 and Law No. 96/1977. These laws are not adequate for the property interests of private forest owners, but at the same time for the protection against owners' abuse of forests.
The protection of environmental functions of forests is based on Law No. 114/1992.
The partial privatization of state forests seems a serious political, economic and forest management problem. The claims on privatization through agro-forestry farms aim to transfer supplementary financial and material sources from forestry to agriculture. It is obvious that this kind of privatization can take place only to the detriment of forestry.
Concerning the privatization of state forest land, it should be noted that the socialization of forests, about 40 years ago, was well accepted by the public because of the important role forests play in society and the guarantee that forests - the green gold of the republic - would be managed with full respect and professionalism.
State ownership ensured the systematic professional management of all forests, but did not ensure economical rationality of productive and working processes; and forest stability was upset by timber production and other forest benefits.
Recent expectations that the new political and economical system can change the unsatisfactory situation are therefore understandable. Nevertheless, it is necessary to correct some of the widespread popular ideas for solutions to these problems.
In general, the main errors are concentrated in the claims that forests are harmed, above all by: excessive timber logging; insufficient income from timber production, game keeping and other forest products that result in the development of non-productive forest functions; and air pollution.
These simplifications lead to a misinformed public and hence lack of support.
The main problem is not the volume of felling but the limited possibility of accelerating desirable changes in forest stands. In the past, the official accentuating of harmful effects of excessive felling intentionally camouflaged the dependence of forest management on central decision-making and demanding other sorts of timber than that offered by felling programs.
At present, forest management is not harnessed by central planning, but the harvesting structure, however, is distorted by a crisis in the wood market.
In the past, long-term economic problems of forest management were caused by very low price structures of raw timber.
5. POLICY ISSUES EXTERNAL TO THE FORESTRY SECTOR
The main policy issue external to the forestry sector is the reform of the national economy after the elections in l990.
As the aim of the republic was settled, the transition from the centrally planned economy to a free-market economy was established. The basic condition of a free-market economy is the private ownership of production means. At the beginning of the reform, state ownership dominated. In accordance with the accepted plans for economic reform the shift in ownership is made through: (a) restitution (returning the property to previous owners); (b) small-scale privatization (the sale - leasing of small business facilities at public small-scale auctions); and (c) large-scale privatization (transfer of the state-owned enterprises to private entities.
Admissible forms of privatization in the Czech Republic were fixed through: (a) public auction; (b) public competition; (c) direct sale to predetermined owner; and (d) transfer of an enterprise to the legal form of a joint-stock company.
None of the above-mentioned forms of privatization has been excluded a priori. The conception of the economic reform in forestry preferred the form of joint-stock companies as an elementary method.
The substantial part of the reform is the rebuilding of a tax system and gradually but nearly absolute reduction of the enterprising activities of state.
A significant but not always positive influence on forestry was the ecologically or environmentally oriented activities of public and parastatal corporations.
6. KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND ISSUES AFFECTING FORESTRY POLICIES
The program of forestry economic reform in the Czech Republic emanated from the economic reforms in the national economy, but with respect to the specialties of forest production and the current unsatisfactory state of forests in the country. Necessity of the reform was based on the fact that the previous management's national economic plans and strong ties among economic and political structures, in principle, distorted the organization, criteria and management of forestry and its costs and price relations.
Forests in the Czech Republic occupy 2.637 million ha. Up to 1991 state and public organizations used nearly 96 percent of them. The rest was used by cooperative farms (109 000 ha) and private persons (1 386 ha).
The state forest enterprises had a decisive position, represented by eight enterprises that managed in forests two machinery enterprises and one business enterprise. The total amount of employees reached more than 55 000, and purchase costs of basic means amounted to 22 billion crowns. It was a bureaucratic system consisting of several levels in which 3.2 workers and 180 ha of forest stands were allotted to one technician.
State ownership was not able to ensure the economic efficiency of forest management and the stability of forest stands both from the view of timber production and from the view of other so-called useful functions. In addition to this, the very basic existence of forest stands was endangered.
The first stage of transformation of state forest enterprises (the denationalization) was realized continually between July and November 1992. The second stage, the sale of shares by means of coupons of the second wave of privatization, was realized at the beginning of 1994.
The main reasons for the acceleration of denationalization in 1992 were: (a) discrepancy between capacities of state forest enterprises and limited possibilities of their use, caused by a decrease of state forest land; (b) decreasing efficiency of enterprise management activities, due to expected extinction of the enterprise; (c) urgent necessity to establish efficient structures of the "Forests of the Czech Republic"; and (d) increase of professional and social uncertainty of employees and privatization projects, caused both by purposeful and spontaneous misinformation.
7. CONDITIONS FOR PRIVATIZATION OF FORESTS
In forest management, as in agriculture, two levels of ownership exist: relation to the soil and relation to the managing organizations. Both are different from the viewpoint of privatization.
The decisive part of forest resources is owned by the State; the main type of privatization of forests should be restitution of former private and municipal land ownership. The restitution of properties of church, religious communities and congregations is negotiable only and the decision is uncertain.
In this context it is necessary to emphasize that the state property of forests has a long tradition and that it is not a result of socialization only. State forest property has historical roots and therefore state forests exist in all states with a market economy, are parallel with municipal forests and not in a dominant position as a rule.
The following aspects are the principal advantages of state ownership of forests: yield continuity as a whole; high level of professional forest management; willingness to respect and fulfil other useful forest functions; easier availability to the state budget; and stability of property, especially the elimination of gradual disintegration of property due to hereditary divisions.
Dependence on the state budget is not always useful. Only adequate state budgets can ensure such levels of support so that optimal management be chosen. The state as the owner of state forests cannot be theoretically and practically (in the first place) exempted from market pressures. The state forest organizations cannot be privileged by lower economical rationality of management as private owners cannot be privileged by lower professional levels of management.
The privatization concept was based on the transformation of seven state forest enterprises to one state enterprise, "Forests of the Czech Republic", and more, as 90 private forest associations. The enterprise realizes state ownership rights (buying, renting, compensation for deforestation and damages caused to forest stands, etc.) on forest land and forest stands and objects of forest infrastructure (forest roads, buildings, etc.), excluding forests of national parks, military forests and some such others.
The "Forests of the Czech Republic" cover all costs from their receipts, and the income is taxed.
Moreover, the state as owner of state forests can be neither theoretically nor practically - this above all - exempted from pressures of a free-market economy. State forests, as well as other forest owners should manage their forests "in an ecological way".
8. THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE "FORESTS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC"
The directorship of the "Forests of the Czech Republic is situated in Hradec Kralove. Management has three levels: General Directorship, Forest Districts and Ranger Districts. The 27 Regional Inspection Districts were established as detached sections of the General Directorship. The 105 Forest Districts are the basic forest management units. The Forest District Manager is responsible for technical management of state forest property (forest land and forest stands, buildings, roads, slope roads and other equipment) on committed territory in accordance with the forest law and with principals of economic policy of "Forests".
Rangers with territorially defined responsibilities are subordinates of the Forest District Manager. They supervise works assumed by forest service companies on the basis of contracts.
Institutional and organizational development of re-established private or municipal forest ownership is at the beginning stage. Both private owners and municipalities have their own unions. The prevailing union activities are concentrated in the restitution of compensations and providing subsidies.
There are two university forestry schools, three forestry technical schools and several training schools for forestry workers. The forestry educational system as a whole is not yet adapted to the new ownership structure and to the market economy.
Trade union activities are concentrated on the transition of the former social and income gains to the new ownership structure. It is important that the social compromise be preserved.
9. COOPERATION TO STRENGTHEN NATIONAL CAPACITIES
The transition to market economy does not automatically lead to desirable forestry development. Political and economical transformation which is underway should link the Czech Republic to the fully integrated European economy which cannot be compared with the situation shortly after the Second World War or even before this war. The private and municipal forest holdings are re-established within the volume boundaries valid in 1948, but they are framed in completely different social, technical and economical conditions.
The practical experiences in building new structural components in forestry on the basis of a market economy are very restricted. The improvement is expected by the professional, practical involvement in international activities concerning forestry, as well as by importing methods adopted in commercially oriented forest services and firms and by exchanges of experience with forest managers in western countries. The role of external bank loans must be appreciated carefully because the prognosis for the creation of financial resources necessary for repayment are not favourable.
by Zdenek Domes
