Forestry Development Trends in the European Union and Problems of Lithuanian Forestry Management

Abstract

With reference to strategic documents of the European Union (EU) on forestry development and based on
the analysis of experience of some EU states, also results of recent researches conducted in Lithuania and materials
from expert discussions, this article analyses the forestry development trends in the EU and discusses possible
variants for optimization of the Lithuanian forestry management system. The impact of Forestry Strategy
for the European Union and the EU Forest Action Plan adopted by the Council of the European Union on the
development of further forerstry development of EU member states is discussed and it is emphasized that
within the EU until now there is no uniform forestry management model and therefore national models are developed
according to the local conditions, existing traditions and general trends of EU forestry development. It
is shown that Lithuania is still in the search for ways to optimize its forestry management by looking for solutions
to the dilemma of public-private forests ratio and to expediency of structural reforms of existing forestry
districts.