Sustainable Forest Management in the Czech Republic
For much of the twentieth century, Czech forestry was built around a single species: Norway spruce (Picea abies). Planted in dense, even-aged stands across elevations far below its natural range, spruce was productive, predictable, and profitable. It was also fragile. The combination of bark beetle pressure and multi-year droughts that began around 2017 revealed just how fragile: by 2022, cumulative calamity felling had surpassed 200 million cubic metres across the country, transforming highland landscapes and putting state and private forest owners under financial and ecological strain that continues to shape forestry decisions today.
The crisis accelerated an already-ongoing debate about what sustainable forest management actually means in a Central European context. That debate touches on silvicultural methods, species composition, rotation lengths, forest ownership structure, and the legal framework under which forests are managed.
The Czech Forest Act and Its Obligations
Forest management in the Czech Republic operates under Act No. 289/1995 Coll. — the Forest Act — and a series of implementing decrees. The Act classifies forests into three categories: production forests (lesy hospodářské), protective forests (lesy ochranné), and forests with special purpose (lesy zvláštního určení). Each category carries different obligations and restrictions on management intensity.
Owners of forests above a certain size are required to maintain a forest management plan (lesní hospodářský plán, LHP) or — for smaller holdings — a forest management prescription (lesní hospodářská osnova, LHO). These documents, prepared every ten years, specify planned felling volumes, regeneration obligations, and stand composition targets. The state forest management institute ÚHÚL maintains the national forest inventory and supports the preparation of regional management frameworks.
A key legal requirement is the obligation to reforest felled or calamity-affected areas within two years and to achieve adequate stocking within five years of felling. After the bark beetle crisis, this obligation created a logistical and financial challenge for many private forest owners: replanting large areas at speed while suitable planting stock of climate-adapted species was not always available in sufficient quantities.
Close-to-Nature Silviculture
Close-to-nature silviculture (přírodě blízké lesnictví in Czech) is the umbrella term for forest management approaches that work with, rather than against, natural ecological processes. The concept draws on the tradition of Central European continuous-cover forestry, associated with figures such as Alfred Möller and Karl Gayer, and has been promoted in the Czech context by researchers at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and the Mendelova univerzita in Brno.
In practical terms, close-to-nature management typically involves:
- Avoiding clear-cutting in favour of selection or shelterwood systems that maintain continuous canopy cover
- Favouring natural regeneration over planting wherever ecologically appropriate
- Promoting species diversity, targeting stand compositions with four to six tree species rather than monocultures
- Managing for structural diversity — multiple age classes and height layers within a stand
- Retaining deadwood at levels that support saproxylic biodiversity
- Using light machinery and extraction techniques that minimise soil compaction
The practical application of these principles varies considerably. A small private owner with 20 hectares of mixed forest in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands operates under different constraints than the state enterprise Lesy České republiky, which manages roughly 1.3 million hectares. Both, however, face the same fundamental question: how to produce timber and other forest products while maintaining long-term ecological function.
Species Composition After the Bark Beetle Crisis
One consequence of large-scale calamity felling has been the opportunity — and obligation — to replant with different species mixes. The Ministry of Agriculture's post-crisis strategy document called for reducing the proportion of spruce in Czech forests from roughly 51% to below 40% over a generation, while increasing the share of deciduous species, particularly beech (Fagus sylvatica), oak (Quercus spp.), and linden (Tilia spp.).
In practice, the transition involves complications. Beech regenerates abundantly in the right conditions but is browsed heavily by deer, requiring either robust fencing or effective deer management — neither cheap nor simple. Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), a North American introduction, has attracted interest as a drought-tolerant productive species but raises ecological concerns about its long-term effects on native forest communities. Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) and wild cherry (Prunus avium) are increasingly planted as structural and commercial elements of mixed stands.
The Silvarium.cz information portal provides regularly updated guidance on species selection, site classifications, and the administrative aspects of forest management in Czech — a useful reference for private owners navigating the transition.
Thinning and Stand Development
Thinning is the primary silvicultural intervention in the development phase of a stand — the period from crown closure to the first commercial thinning, typically 15 to 40 years depending on species and site. Its goals are to concentrate growth on the best-formed individuals, maintain stand vigour, improve timber quality, and reduce the risk of wind and snow damage by keeping dominant trees well-spaced with stable crowns.
Czech practice distinguishes between negative thinning (negativní výběr) — removing the worst trees — and positive thinning (pozitivní výběr) — favouring specific future crop trees and removing their immediate competitors. The latter is associated with higher final timber quality and better crown development in the retained trees, but requires clear identification of crop trees early in the stand's life and consistent follow-through over multiple thinning entries.
In mixed stands, thinning must also manage species interactions: beech, once established, can suppress less shade-tolerant oak; oak needs full light for quality bole development; spruce in a mixed context can outcompete slower-establishing species in early years. Each thinning intervention carries consequences for the subsequent decade of stand development.
Certification and Market Context
Around 60% of Czech forests are certified under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). A smaller proportion carries Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Both schemes require forest management plans, compliance with national law, and periodic third-party audits. For forest owners selling timber to larger buyers or export markets, certification has become a practical necessity.
The domestic timber market is heavily influenced by the volume of calamity wood that entered the market during the beetle crisis, depressing prices for several years. As salvage operations wind down and standing timber volumes recover, prices have begun to stabilise — though the economic memory of the crisis continues to affect investment decisions by private forest owners, many of whom remain cautious about the long-rotation strategies that sustainable forestry requires.
Looking at the Next Rotation
The forest stands planted or naturally regenerated in the post-beetle period will reach maturity in 80 to 120 years. The decisions taken now — species composition, initial spacing, thinning regime, deadwood retention — will shape those stands through conditions that nobody can precisely predict. Climate projections for the Czech Republic suggest continued warming, reduced summer precipitation, and increased frequency of extreme weather events. Forestry under these conditions requires not the optimisation of a single scenario but the building of resilience across multiple possible futures.
Close-to-nature approaches offer one framework for building that resilience — not by abandoning production, but by embedding production within structurally and biologically diverse forest systems that can absorb disturbance without collapsing. Whether the economic and institutional conditions allow widespread adoption of these approaches across Czech forests remains one of the central open questions in the sector.
