The Slovak forest policy arrangement: Post-1989 residues and changes

Abstract

After 1989, Central and Eastern European countries with planned economies launched a process of transformation. In the Slovak forest policy, the main changes have been in the structure of forest ownership, increasing the share of governance mechanisms within the decision-making, and the organization of the sector. The aim of the paper is to analyse the current Slovak forest policy arrangement in relation to the socialistic political history, via the Policy Arrangement Approach. The analysis is based on literature search and consultations with forest policy experts. In total, 55 scientific publications were analysed. Subsequently, the results were consulted with four national forest policy experts. Despite the three decades-lasting transformation process, in Slovakia, forest policy is characterised by a strong influence of governmental actors, centralisation, and prevailing hierarchical use of policy instruments. Nature protection actors enter the policy arena, for instance, to expand protected areas. The top-down planning has an impact on the forest owners’ performance of rights to use their forests. Non-governmental actors attempt to enforce their interests through participation mechanisms, inter-ministerial commenting procedures, and voluntary instruments. Public opinion is turning towards nature protection and forestry as such has come under pressure with its traditionalist approach.