Forest policy goals in Poland in light of the current forestry aims in Europe Part 1. Forest policy processes in Europe

Abstract The Polish “National Forest Policy” was adopted by the Council of Ministers in April 1997 and since then no revisions of this document have been made. However, over the last two decades policy changes affecting forests and forestry have been implemented worldwide including Europe. Nonetheless, in more recent years, significant changes in social, economic, institutional, and legal aspects of forestry have also occurred in Poland. This paper is the first of a series of five articles, which aim at highlighting necessary changes in the “National Forest Policy” following the achievements of European forest policy processes and trends in forest policy of selected European countries. The focus of the present paper are the most important European processes of forest policy formulation, in particular the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (Forest Europe process) as well as forest-focused and forest-related polices of the European Union. Included in this research are the Forest Europe resolutions as well as decisions and EU policies, strategies and legal acts in terms of the general objectives set for forests and forestry. The analysis focuses on the period 1997–2016, i.e. starting from the year the “National Forest Policy” has been adopted. The conclusions of this first paper are that in recent years, forests and forestry have been increasingly included in various sectoral policies of the European Union (environmental and biodiversity protection, climate, energy, agricultural polices), which requires the member states to revise and adjust their own forest-related regulations and policies.