REFORESTA
Published October 1, 2015 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

REFORESTATION IN SERBIA: SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

Creators

  • 1. University of Belgrade - Faculty of Forestry

Description

Forests in the Republic of Serbia cover 2,252,000 hа, 29% of the country’s area. Reforestation is, however, small‐scale despite strategic documents encouraging more forest cover. From 2004‐2013, annual reforestation and afforestation averaged 1,671 and 1,901 ha, respectively, mostly because of reduced investment in forestry. Because funding is limited, reforestation success, mainly measured by seedling survival, is imperative.

For the last 25 years, no organized monitoring of reforestation occurred in Serbia. To better understand current reforestation success, the first‐year survival was measured after planting on 90 sites for nine of the most used species in Serbian reforestation programs. Effects of reforestation goal, species, stocktype, planting time, and weather conditions on survival were analyzed. In addition, on 25 of those sites, survival was monitored for five species for another 1, 2, or 3 years on 6, 7, and 12 sites, respectively. The reasons for seedling mortality were identified on 10 sites.

Average first‐year survival was 78%, ranging from 85% in assisted natural regeneration to 68% in afforestation, and was strongly influenced by planting goal, species and stocktype selection, and weather conditions. Bareroot (2+0) Pseudotsuga menziesii seedlings had the highest survival (90%) whereas bareroot (2+0) Pinus nigra seedlings had the lowest (59%). Moreover, P. menziesii seedlings maintained high survival on three sites after four years, decreasing slightly from 87% to 82%. In contrast, bareroot (1+0) Acer pseudoplatanus seedlings had good first‐year survival (~80%) that decreased to 25% on three sites after two years and 21% on four sites after four years. Overall, the lowest average survival rate (61%) was recorded in 2011 when growing season precipitation was only 65% of the normal 30‐year average. The two most common reasons for mortality after outplanting were wildlife (54%) and improper planting (21%). Of the dead seedlings, 5% showed no evidence of root penetration into natural soil.

Notes

In: Ivetić V., Stanković D. (eds.) Proceedings: International conference Reforestation Challenges. 03-06 June 2015, Belgrade, Serbia. Reforesta. pp. 1-12.

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