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to 0.0525 per cent of its total revenues. Finances collected in such a
way can only be used for strictly prescribed purposes listed below:
• Works of biological regeneration of forests
• Works of forest conservation
• Works of forest management in karst areas
• Works on sanctioning and restoring of forest stands jeopardized
by drying and other natural disasters, construction of forest
roads, mine clearance of forest-covered areas as well as other
works crucial for conservation and improvement of general
benefits of woods
• Seeding and tree-nursery activities in forestry, preservation of
gene pool and setting up of clonal seed orchards
• Scientific works in the area of forestry
• Costs of drafting, updating and revision of management
programmes of forest owners.
The Government of the Republic of Croatia receives a detailed
annual report on the allocation of funds for the previous year. This
mechanism proved to be a suitable tool for the promotion of sustain-
able forest management, which is constantly being perfected and
adjusted to the latest demands and pressures affecting the delicate
forest ecosystems.
Partnership towards a joint goal
Climate change and other pressures on delicate forest ecosystems
mean that the forestry profession, as well as other professions in
the Republic of Croatia are devoting a lot of effort and resources
into the prevention, protection and conservation of forests. Without
sustainable management of all natural resources there is no future
and development, therefore many sectors are cooperating to achieve
common goals. With this, and the growing energy demands of the
entire society in mind, cooperation between various sectors has been
initiated in order to find ways to increase energy produc-
tion from renewable energy sources. Consequently,
the cooperation of the energy and forestry sector has
resulted in the adoption of an energy strategy which
plans a significant increase in energy production from
biomass, of which forest biomass represents a signifi-
cant part.
Forest fires pose the greatest danger to the forest
ecosystems in the Republic of Croatia and other
Mediterranean countries. This is why Croatia makes
substantial investment towards ensuring adequate
prevention of forest fires and to enable efficient defence
from fires during major emergencies, in the form of
people and equipment.
Obligations of users and forest owners in terms of
preventive measures and defence against forest fires,
as well as obligation to restore fire-damaged areas, are
prescribed by law. As an additional contribution to
defence against fire in the last years, the Government
of the Republic of Croatia has carried out a number
of projects in cooperation with regional and local
communities, with the aim of improving and modern-
izing defence and prevention systems, and projects for
the restoration of forest-covered surfaces destroyed in
fires. The projects have been financed jointly by the
State, regional and local communities. This has resulted
in further enhancement of fire protection and created
a basis for economic recovery of fire-affected areas.
Furthermore, every year, especially before the forest
fire season, special efforts are being devoted in coop-
eration with the media to raise public awareness about
the need for proper fire management in open areas. The
Photography from the ‘Forest through the Eyes of a Forester’ exhibition. (L) ‘King of the European sky’; (R) ‘Bear cub on guard’
Image: Željko Gubijan
Image: Željko Gubijan