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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