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In the Czech Republic, from the point of view of non-state forest owners, perhaps one of the most difficult years in the last few decades is coming.\u00a0\"The bark beetle calamity is far from over, although it is mitigating, but unfortunately economic recession, significant energy price hikes and high inflation come into play.\u00a0The drop in demand will undoubtedly affect the sale of wood and wood products,\" says Ji\u0159\u00ed Svoboda, chairman of the Association of Owners of Municipal, Private and Church Forests in the Czech Republic (SVOL).\u00a0Among the most important tasks of 2023, SVOL ranks the amendment of the Forest Act, the amendment of the Act on Hunting and ensuring adequate financial support for improving the condition of forests<\/p>\n
\"We want to believe that the efforts we are devoting to the necessary changes will not be spent in vain, and that the amendments to the Forestry and Hunting Act will bring solutions to a whole range of pressing problems in forest management,\"<\/em>\u00a0says Ji\u0159\u00ed Svoboda.\u00a0\"The current situation shows that it is necessary to free the hands of forest owners so that they can better resist climate change and the economic and energy crisis,\" he<\/em>\u00a0adds.\u00a0SVOL appreciates the establishment of the Platform for the Amendment of the Forest Act, which was joined by a number of organizations representing forest and agricultural land owners, foresters, nature conservationists, the wood processing industry and the academic community.<\/p>\n At the end of 2022, the members of the Platform submitted to the Minister of Agriculture a draft amendment to the Act on Forests in paragraph form, which allows the forest owner to make more use of farming methods closer to nature, brings suitable adaptation measures to climate change, reduces bureaucracy in forest management, solves the issue of small forest properties, motivates owners forests, so that by taking care of their forest in the future, they also ensure the non-production and production functions of the forest for society, and simplifies the performance of the state forest administration.<\/p>\n The past year 2022 was very hectic from the point of view of SVOL.\u00a0Many non-state forest properties affected by the bark beetle calamity of an extraordinary scale faced, and still face, extensive tasks in recovery, had to cope with insufficient financial support from the state, lack of labor due to the coronavirus measures, but also the effects related to the war in Ukraine.\u00a0The year-on-year increase in prices for work in the forest was already around 20% in last year's spring afforestation season.\u00a0According to Ji\u0159\u00ed Svoboda, there were complex negotiations between the SVOL and the Ministry of the Interior regarding the terms of the new subsidy title for forest owners to support the adaptation of forest stands to climate change.\u00a0\"We initially welcomed this intention of the ministry, but each new negotiation brought more disappointment.\u00a0The result is too complicated and either unavailable or unacceptable for many owners.\u00a0We expect some more progress, but I am rather skeptical about this.\u00a0For practically the whole year, we also dealt with the need to amend the Act on Hunting.\u00a0We believe that the government will live up to its statement and together we will manage to find an acceptable compromise.\u00a0Unfortunately, we are in a situation where the amendment will probably be adopted at a time when a significant part of the rents will already be fixed for the next ten years by new leases, concluded according to the current version of the law.\"<\/em><\/p>\n The key issues of SVOL in the past year included the preparations for changing the organization of the joint trade in firewood of the members, which was approved by the April conference of SVOL. On January 1, 2023, the trading company SVOL obchodn\u00ed s.r.o. was founded, which will start to actually trade the owners' firewood in the second half of this year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the Czech Republic, from the point of view of non-state forest owners, perhaps one of the most difficult years in the last few decades is coming.\u00a0“The bark beetle calamity is far from over, although it is mitigating, but unfortunately … Continue reading