Case Study – Croatia

Istria, Croatia

The main focus of the study are the effects of future climate changes (mainly in precipitation regime) on forest growth in general but with the special focus on production of truffles as a Istrian most valuable non-wood forest products (NWFP). Based on a preliminary analysis of the regional economic benefit from the forests for last 10 years (2008-2017), it is reasonable to assume that truffle production in this region could be endangered in the future. This also present significant income for many families and private forest owners, whose forests are less intensively managed in comparison to state owned forests. r services, recreation), 3) and foreseen forest expansions.

Quick overview

Area: 281,300 ha
Value chain: Small scale wood industry
Biogeografical area: Continental
Species composition

In short

Case Study - Istria, Croatia
Disturbances	Pests	Drought	Storms
Ecosystem Services	Wood & biomass production	Non-wood provisioning services	Carbon sequestration & storage	Biodiversity conservation

Case study Q&A

How does the value chain look like: supply, demand, timber market?

Value chain related to truffles production (figure below) is mainly focused on export with more and more examples of development of different products with added values by local collectors. Wood production related value chain is local but not all wood production can’t be processed by local industry.

Croatian Forests Ltd. (Hrvatske šume d.o.o.) is a state company that manages public and most private forests in the Republic of Croatia. It is divided into 17 forest administration departments (FD). In Istria, FD Buzet manages 51.624,33 ha of public forests (42,8%) and 69.015,64 ha of private forests (57,2% of total of 120.639,97 ha). From the total amount of forests 63% are productive forests, 28% are protective forests and 9% are special purpose forests.

Truffle supply chain developed during the INCREdible events and validated by the truffle panel experts. Source: Oliach, D.; Vidale, E.; Brenko, A.; Marois, O.; Andrighetto, N.; Stara, K.; Martínez de Aragón, J.; Colinas, C.; Bonet, J.A. Truffle Market Evolution: An Application of the Delphi Method. Forests 2021, 12, 1174. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12091174

What are the silvicultural measures applied – if any?

All forests in the area have their management plans. However, state owned forests are mainly high forests and in better state, and silvicultural measures prescribed by management plans are executed regularly. For privately owned forests it is the same (measures are prescribed) only the private owners can decide on when and if they will apply prescribed measures. This is result of weak monitoring of implementation of management plans developed for private forests.

What is the amount of the wood harvested?

The amount of harvested wood in CS Istria is shown in the table below and present only wood harvested by State company Croatian forests in state owned forests. Data for private forests are not available as the management plans are quite newly developed, and there is no follow up on their implementation.

The amount of harvested wood in the Istria, Croatia