Pezdevšek Malovrh Špela, PhD.

Private forests in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are highly fragmented into
small plots of land with low productivity level and a large number of owners. Nevertheless,
they are recognized in the strategic plans and programs concerning renewable energy as having
a significant potential for woody biomass production. A regional research was conducted
among 350 private forest owners in each of the three South-East European countries, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. It analyzed management activities and readiness of
private forest owners to produce additional quantities of woody biomass. Smart regulation
principles were selected as analytical framework in order to understand how the design of
forest policy instruments, based on specific characteristics of the target groups, can contribute
to the improvement of private forest owners’ readiness to mobilize additional quantities of
woody biomass from their forests. The results of this research indicated that although the
majority of private forest owners use their forests for producing firewood to meet their own
needs – 91.2% of private forest owners in Croatia, 85.0% in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
89.7% in Serbia, there is economic interest of private forest owners to produce additional
quantities of woody biomass beyond their own fuelwood household consumption – 43.9% in
Croatia, 45.8% in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 54.8% in Serbia. Moreover, private forest
owners’ socio-demographic characteristics, forest property characteristics and management
objectives significantly impacted the owners’ readiness to produce additional quantities of
woody biomass. The readiness for woody biomass mobilization could be increased by providing
different policy instruments, since this is deemed important by private forest owners. Hence,
forest policy recommendations were proposed that may support the private forest owners’
readiness to produce additional quantities of woody biomass.