Public participation in sustainable forestry: The case of forest planning in Slovakia

Abstract

Public participation is considered an important element of democracy. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate participatory approaches in the formulation processes of forest strategic documents and forest management plans in Slovakia. In order to present the context in which the public participation in forestry is applied, we describe the rules according to national forest law. The nation-wide example is presented for the case of the National Forest Program formulation, where the scope of the forest management units is covered by the process of Forest Management Plans elaboration and adoption. The empirical findings from forest authorities’ data demonstrates that participation is still very formal. The most common actors are public authorities represented by their official representatives and the most active actors besides forest owners or managers are environmental interest groups. To strengthen the participatory process in sustainable forestry planning, not only changes in legislation are needed but also an increase in public awareness concerning the significance of forestry resources.