Forest Care and Management in the Limelight this Week
Ljubljana, 25 May - The traditional Forests Week begins on Monday and is to be dedicated this year to the care of forests, an issue particularly topical amid continuing clean-up efforts after last year's ice storm. Sustainable forests management will meanwhile be the topic of an Asia-Europe Meeting which also starts in Slovenia on Monday.
Ljubljana
Spruce forest
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
Around 80 of events will take place around the country, one of the central ones being today's opening in Ljubljana's Cankarjev dom of an exhibition entitled "The Charm of Wood", which will also be attended by Prime Minister Miro Cerar.
Forest Service director general Damjan Oražem has stressed before the project's start that the yields of well managed forests are much higher and that forest care is not only important in terms of investment for the owner but for the broader society and economy in general.
Miha Marenče of the Agriculture Ministry agreed, noting that the impact of the ice storm would have possibly been smaller had forests been taken care of more properly.
The Forest Service reported last Friday that loggers have managed to clean out 41% of the wood damaged in the ice storm that hit Slovenia nearly a year and a half ago.
The severe weather conditions damaged some nine million cubic metres of wood and so far 3.7 million have been removed from the forests.
Meanwhile, forests, or more precisely their sustainable management, will be the topic of an Asia-Europe Meeting being organised on Monday and Tuesday at Brdo pri Kranju and the Strmol Castle by Slovenia and China.
Delegates from around 60 European and Asian countries are expected and Slovenia and China are to sign on the occasion a memorandum on cooperation in forestry.