SLOVENIA 
 Mr Janez Kopac, MA,Minister for the Environment
and Spatial Planning
1. Forests cover almost about
60% of the territory of Slovenia, which makes Slovenia the third
most forested country in Europe (after Finland and Sweden).
Originally, mixed forests prevailed and some 70 tree species are indigenous to
the Slovenian territory. Our forests also increased in the area
they cover, from 47 per cent in 1961 to 54 per cent in 1990. While high coverage
with forests in 1960s was a result of forestry practices, its increase in
surface area since then has mainly been due to the spreading of forests in marginal
agricultural land and traditionally sustainable forest management. As a
result, 85 per cent of the forests regenerate naturally supporting
conservation of native populations of tree species and enhancing
genetic diversity. Moreover, in the last 50 years biomass increased for
100 cubic metres per hectare. Species composition in 87 per
cent of the Slovenian forests is close to the
potential distribution. Nine per cent of all forests has a
significantly modified species composition and 4 per cent of all forests are completely
modified by humans.
The highly diverse ecological conditions have supported a high biodiversity at the
ecosystem, species and gene levels. Common
beech is the most naturally widespread tree species in Slovenia. It presents
29 per cent of the current growing stock in the country. Out of
the seven native oaks, three species are on the boundary of their distribution and
thus occurring in few numbers.
In 1993 the Forest Act (OJ RS, no.30/93) was adopted. The aim of this act is
to ensure the sustainable and multi-purpose
forest management in accordance with the principles of protection of the
environment and natural values; continuous and optimal functioning of
forests as ecosystems; and the fulfilment of their function. The National Assembly
of the Republic of Slovenia has also adopted a forest development programme which
determines a national policy of sustainable forest
management; orientations for the conservation and
development of forests; and conditions for
their exploitation and multi-purpose use. The
programme contains many of the elements of an
environmental protection document. Nevertheless, the
National Environmental Action Programme, also adopted
by the National Assembly in 1999, does not repeat the goals and
measures of the documents mentioned, but deals above all with the
problems of threats to Slovenian forests due to pollution.
2. Forests are essential for the
conservation of all forms of life. They are also important for economic
development. They are a source of wood, food and medicines and are rich
storehouses of a great quantity of biological products, many of which
have yet to be discovered. They retain water and carbon, which would
function as a greenhouse gas if released into the
atmosphere as CO2. Forests are a home to a vast number of wild animal and
plant species. They help us to become
aware of the time dimension of evolution and to fulfil our cultural and spiritual needs.
Forests are life!
We must do everything to preserve them for our future generations. |
Here you can see
what our minister of invironment says about forests.