DIGITALNA ARHIVA ŠUMARSKOG LISTA
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ŠUMARSKI LIST 13/2005 str. 194 <-- 194 --> PDF |
PRESENTATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM Šumarski list SUPLEMENT (2005), 1X6-194 ASSESSING THE VALUE OF THE ANTI-EROSIVE AND WATER-PROTECTIVE ROLE OF THE FOREST Branimir PRPIĆ1, Petar JURJEVIĆ2, Hranislav JAKOVAC3 SUMMARY: The ecological, social and ecological-social function of a forest is gaining increasing importance with the passage of time. Therefore, its value considerably exceeds the income from forest wood products. The anti- erosive and water-protective role of a forest comprises the control of water erosion and torrents, balancing water relations in the landscape, cleansing and retaining water in a forest ecosystem in the sense of preventing high water tides and maintaining the potable quality of ground or spring water. The two mentioned roles of the forest rank among the most important and may partially be expressed in monetary amounts, since forests with their impacts reduce damage to agriculture and infrastructure. This paper uses our own and other data to calculate the value of the anti- erosive and water-protective role of forests. The calculation was based on the officially accepted method used in the Republic of Croatia, as well as on our own and other recent insights. Emphasis is laid on commercialisation and considerable prof is derived from trade with potable water, whose quality is dependent on a well tended commercial forest. The annual values of forest wood and auxiliary products and the assessed values of other forest functions are given, as well as data on the efficiency of a natural, highly degraded pubescent oak forest on Istrian flysch in preventing water erosion. Since forests, particularly those in the Mediterranean region, are currently being devalued in the Republic of Croatia, this paper is aimed at highlighting their true value as an ecological stronghold in the space which far exceeds the value of agrarian land which forests are being turned into. INTRODUCTION Potable water, particularly drinking water, is prochemically, so that it enters the groundwater streams as gressively less available to the ever-increasing human drinkable, supplying the sources and water streams. population. Forest is closely connected with water, pri Both water and forest are renewable natural resourmarily due to its survival as an ecosystem that stores ces. Permanently circulating, water evaporates from the and purifies water and makes it drinkable. Precipitation ocean surface, creates clouds and as precipitation falls and tloodwater that filters through the loose forest soil back to the earth´s surface, running through the streams purifies mechanically and biologically, as well as partly back to the seas and oceans (Figure 1). This happens about forty times in a year. A forest cannot grow without water; neither can it Professor Emeritus Branimir Prpić, PhD, succeed in very cold places. Without warmth, water Academy of Forestry Sciences, Trg Mažuranića 11, 10000 Zagreb. turns to ice, warmth without water is drought, soil wit Petar Jurjević, MSc, Hrvatske šume Ltd., hout water becomes desert, and excessive water turns Farkaša Vukotinovića 2, 10000 Zagreb. soil into swamp. In tundra, steppe, desert and swamp Hranislav Jakovac, BSc, Croatian Forestry Society, Trg Mažuranića 11, 10000 Zagreb. forest cannot grow. In a forested landscape, forest pre |