Forest Fires, Stakeholders’ Activities, and Economic Impact on State-Level Sustainable Forest Management

Stjepan Posavec (), Damir Barčić, Dijana Vuletić, Višnjica Vučetić, Ivana Čavlina Tomašević and Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh
Additional contact information
Stjepan Posavec: Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Damir Barčić: Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Dijana Vuletić: Croatian Forest Research Institute, 10450 Jastrebarsko, Croatia
Višnjica Vučetić: Independent Researcher, 21450 Hvar, Croatia
Ivana Čavlina Tomašević: Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh: Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-24

Abstract: In Europe, forest fires are a serious and constant threat. They destroy forests and forest land, causing damage, financial loss, and long-lasting impacts on forest ecosystem services. There are several ways to decrease the number of forest fires, including continuous investment in fire prevention measures and the intensive implementation of adaptive sustainable forest management measures, which need additional financial resources. In many cases, forest management activities in karst forests are not implemented in a timely manner and in coordination with other stakeholders. A comprehensive study about the impact of forest fires on different economic activities (tourism and protected areas) is not currently available. In this study, the legislative framework in Croatia was analysed in relation to the fire protection activities and jurisdictions of different institutions. From data collected in the period 2013–2020, the first-age class afforestation costs and growing stock assortment value were calculated, and the non-wood forest functions were estimated. The aforementioned data were further compared to the Fire Weather Index (FWI) and Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR) of fire seasons. The total estimated damage is EUR 326,810,724.72. The research emphasises the need for the implementation of cross-sectoral forest policy measures. The state forest company should allocate more financial resources for biological forest restoration in the future. Forest management practices should implement climate-adaptable silviculture measures to preserve forest and forest land.

Keywords: forest policy; management costs; forest ecosystem services; forest protection; Fire Weather Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/16080/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/16080/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:16080-:d:1282837

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().