FORESTS OF CROATIA

On the scale of the European Union, Croatia is an above-average forested country. The total area of Croatia covered with forests is about 2.5 million ha, which is about 45% of the land area of the Republic of Croatia. According to the currently valid forest management plan, a wood stock of about 420 million m³ has been determined. The largest share in the wood stock of Croatian forests has beech with about 40%, then pedunculate oak and sessile oak, which together make up about 20% of the wood stock, followed by fir with 10%, hornbeam 7%, field ash about 4%, etc.  

The annual growth of wood stock in the Republic of Croatia is 10.1 million m³, and since it is prescribed that ETAT or wood mass that is allowed to be used for economic purposes on an annual basis must always be less than the growth, the future of sustainable management is ensured.

Every year, Croatian forests produce a new 8 million tons of wood. In doing so, they withdraw 2.5 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, retain over 17 million tons of dust, and along the way produce about 5 million tons of oxygen.      

Organized and professional management of Croatian forests has lasted for 256 years, more precisely since February 23, 1765, when the Forest Administration of the Karlovac Generalate was established. The next important date in Croatian forestry is December 22, 1769, when the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa established an important law and the first real instruction for sustainable forest management. In 1852, the Croatian Forestry Society initiated the enactment of the Forestry Act. The beginning of forestry education in Croatia is considered to be the establishment of the Forestry Department of the College of Economics and Forestry in Križevci in 1860, from which higher education began in 1898 with the establishment of the Forestry Academy as part of University of Zagreb.

The principles of sustainable management based on the scientific knowledge of the Zagreb School of Forestry are woven into Croatian forest management, with natural forest regeneration and preservation of climatogenic forest communities, and at the same time providing many public forest services to the whole society.

This sustainable and natural approach to forest management in Croatia, uninterrupted for more than a century, has ensured the beauty, naturalness and stability of our forests and consequently their biodiversity, which is one of the largest in the European Union.