Proective forests in Slovenia

1998

Unselbständiges Werk

10347

200066954

In Slovenia protective mountain forests are located most frequently on ecologically extreme, steep and hardly accessible sites where their primary role is reducing soil erosion by water, wind, or snow. More than 50 percent of forest sites in the country are considered highly unstable and vulnerable. The protective function is most strongly pronounced on approximately 27 percent (appr. 290.000 hectares) of the total forest area. Protective forests are defined legally as "Forests in adverse ecological conditions which protect themselves, their land and lower lying land and forests in which there is a particular emphasis on any other ecological (i.e. antierosion, climatic, water, biodiversity) function". The status of these forests is regulated by the Forest Act and by a special law that is being prepared currently. In practice forest plant associations, bedrock and slope are most frequently used criteria for designating protective forests in Slovenia. Due to strict observation of the close-to-nature, sustainable and multiple-use forest management principles no special management techniques have been developed in these forests so far.