Public participation in forest management planning in private forests

The provisions of the Act on Forests apply to all forests in Poland, irrespective of their ownership. They impose on owners and administrators the obligation to draw up Forest Management Plans (FMP) or Simplified FMP (SFMP). While the media are loudly protesting the adoption of some FMP for state forests, especially for some urban forests or semi−primeval forests, analogous documents for private forests do not attract such interest. Supervision of forest management in the area of forests owned by natural persons and land communities is carried out by the regional authorities, who also has commissioned the documentation of the equipment. Forest owners are informed about the preparation of SFMP for their sites. As a rule, they do not finance these works and there are no procedures for obtaining their direct approval of the plan. Owners, however, have the opportunity to participate in the creation of management documents and should use this opportunity. Especially because the effect of the management works is also the determination of incompatibility in the land use category. In this way, spontaneous woodlots can be reclassified into forest, which has serious consequences for the future of this property. Removal of trees growing on it and the restoration of agricultural use become very difficult in such a situation. The nature and manner of obtaining direct payments to the owned land will also change. Durable subsidies for agricultural crops are changing into possible and temporary limited payments for young forests silviculture and protection. The SFMP also regulates all economic activities that can be undertaken in the private forest in the next 10 years, including the amount of wood that can be harvested and used for its needs or commercialized. The serious consequences of the adopted plan suggest that social participation in the resulting document should be high. The level of this participation in the process of creating simplified plans in selected municipalities was analyzed. The study analyzed the level of public participation in the process of creating simplified forest management plans in four selected municipalities (Gródek nad Dunajcem, Kotuń, Lipnica and Szamotuły, S, E, N and W Poland respectively), which differ in terms of location, ownership history, the size of lots and other features. The level of interest of owners was characterized, the aspects of interest were identified, and it was shown that they may depend on some features of the area