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Legislation and policy makers have recognized private forest owners cooperation in machinery ring as an instrument to support wood mobilization through efficient use of machinery. The study analyzes private forest owner’s cooperation in the machinery ring in Slovenia and determines whether this cooperation contributes to wood mobilization from small-scale private forests. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the survey was conducted among the members of machinery rings at their annual general meetings (24 machinery rings participated in the survey, representing 64.9% of the total number of machinery rings). The questionnaire was distributed to all members present at the annual general meetings (n=529) and only those who were private forest owner or provided services within machinery rings were eligible to complete the questionnaire (n=438). In the second phase, data on the amount of service provided by machinery ring members were compared with the amount of felling in private forests for 2019 to gain insight into the extend of forestry work (timber harvesting) carried out in a private forest under neighbourhood assistance.The results show that machinery rings members are predominantly male, on average 50 years old, mainly with high school education and occupation in agriculture, owning on average 15.2 ha of forest. Regardless of forest management activities, machinery ring members perform forest management activities in their forest by themselves or with the help of family members. Only a small proportion of members use neighbourhood assistance to carry out the work. This most often occurs in the transport of timber. A very small proportion of members provide forest services through the machinery ring, but their scope of services is not insignificant. In 2019, machinery ring members most often performed harvesting activities with the chain saw, followed by timber skidding as a service. Equipment with machinery for providing services is good among members – about three quarters of them have a chainsaw and an adapted agricultural tractor, but this machinery is quite old, showing that machinery is insufficiently used for forestry operations. The results show that machinery rings are nowadays an essential part of strategic (operational) management in Slovenian agriculture and forestry, and provide important insights into the possibilities to improve forestry operations and the future development cooperation between private forest owners in machinery rings to support wood mobilization from small-scale private forests.

The aim of the survey was to clarify gross vehicle weights (GVWs) allowed on roads in the domestic timber-trucking logistics of different countries, the share of the road transport of total industrial roundwood longdistance transport volumes, and the average payloads, transport distances and costs of industrial roundwood longdistance transport. The inquiry was sent to a total of 30 European countries with the biggest industrial roundwood removals. Furthermore, the inquiry was sent out to selected major forestry countries in the world (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, United States of America, and Uruguay) in February 2022 and closed in June 2022. A total of 32 countries participated in the survey. GVWs allowed on roads in timber trucking ranged from under 40 tonnes to over 70 tonnes. The results depicted that higher GVWs signify larger payloads in timber trucking. The survey revealed also that road transport is the main long-distance transport method of industrial roundwood in most of the responding countries. The road transport distance of industrial roundwood averaged 112 km. The average road transport cost was approximately €9.7 ($11.0) per tonne of timber. The survey illustrated that relatively low GVWs and long transport distances increase transport costs. Most of the respondents complained about the absence of comprehensive official statistics, and some experts could not answer to all questions or – alternatively – they gave their own best estimates as a replacement. Therefore, up-to-date statistical data on the long-distance transport of industrial roundwood is needed in some countries.

Karantenski škodljivi organizmi (KŠO) rastlin so organizmi, ki na območju EU niso prisotni oziroma so prisotni le v omejenem (obvladljivem) obsegu. V novi evropski zakonodaji s področja zdravja rastlin so med drugim opredeljeni seznami prednostnih KŠO, za katere mora vsaka država članica pripraviti načrte izrednih ukrepov za izkoreninjenje ob morebitni najdbi na njenem ozemlju ter te načrte redno testirati s simulacijskimi vajami. Karantenski škodljivi organizmi lahko povzročijo velike negativne gospodarske, okoljske in družbene učinke, zato je ob najdbi na območju EU potrebno njihovo takojšnje izkoreninjenje. Z namenom vpogleda v trenutno pripravljenost izvajalcev gozdarskih storitev za ukrepanje v primeru napada KŠO smo v septembru 2020 izvedli anketiranje v vzorec smo zajeli 11,8 % vseh registriranih izvajalcev gozdnih del v Sloveniji. Izvajalci največ informacij o KŠO pridobijo od strokovnega osebja na terenu, kar kaže na dobro delo gozdarske stroke v preteklosti, poleg tega so za informiranje o KŠO zaslužne tudi namenske projektne aktivnosti. V večini primerov (72,1 %) bi izvajalci o najdbi KŠO v gozdu najprej obvestili ZGS. Izvajalci del se v nasprotju z gozdarskimi strokovnjaki in študenti (anketa izvedena 2019) večinoma strinjajo, da je slovenska javnost dobro obveščena o KŠO. Več kot polovica izvajalcev (60,7 %) je izrazila pripravljenost za izobraževanje o KŠO (33,3 % le, če bi bila brezplačna), 66,4 % jih je zainteresiranih za vključitev v skupino za hitro ukrepanje ob napadu KŠO. Anketa kaže, da je ponudnikov pomembnih storitev za izkoreninjanje KŠO relativno malo % panje odstranjuje le 10,5 % izvajalcev, 18,8 % pa izvaja arboristične storitve in sečnjo na višini. Rezultati so pokazali na potrebo po nadaljnjem izobraževanju deležnikov prek strokovnega dela javne gozdarske službe in strokovnih nalog zdravstvenega varstva rastlin v gozdarstvu ter nadaljevanju uspešnih promocijskih in izobraževalnih projektnih aktivnosti (npr. LIFE ARTEMIS). Izobraževanje o KŠO je treba vključiti tudi v izobraževalne programe s področja gozdarstva. Quarantine pests are organisms that are not present in the EU or are present only in a limited (manageable) area. The new European legislation in the field of plant health introduced the list of priority plant pests and EU members have to prepare and keep up-to-date contingency plans and carry out simulation exercises. Quarantine pests can have a major negative impact on the economy, environment and society, so findings in the EU require immediate eradication. To gain insight into the current capacity of Slovenian forestry contractors to act, we conducted a survey in September 2020 the sample included 11.8% of all registered forestry contractors in Slovenia. They receive most information about quarantine pests from foresters in the field, which shows the effective work of Slovenian forestry and project activities related to quarantine pests. In most cases (72.1%), contractors would first inform Slovenia Forest Service about the discovery of a quarantine pest in the forest. In contrast to forestry professionals and students (2019 survey), contractors believe that the Slovenian public is well informed about quarantine pests. More than half of the contractors (60.7%) expressed their willingness to receive training on the topic (33.3% only if it were free), 66.4% are interested in joining a rapid response team for quarantine pest outbreaks. The survey shows that there are few forestry contractors that are important for quarantine pest eradication - only 10.5% of them offer stump removal, arboriculture services are provided by 18.8%. The results of our study point to the need to further educate stakeholders through the public forest service and specific plant health tasks, and to continue successful promotional and educational activities (e.g. LIFE ARTEMIS project). Education on quarantine pests should be included in the forestry curriculum.

V veljavo prihaja nova zakonodaja EU na področju zdravja rastlin, t.i. Uredba o zdravju rastlin, ki bo zavezujoča za vse države članice. Po tej uredbi bodo morale posamezne države EU izvajati aktivnosti za preprečevanje vnosa na ozemlje Unije in širjenja po njem za karantenske škodljive organizme za Unijo. Uredba državam članicam med drugim nalaga izvajanje večletnih programov preiskav, pripravo načrtov izrednih ukrepov ter izvajanje simulacijskih vaj za predpisane karantenske organizme, škodljive za rastline na območju EU. Nova zakonodaja zadeva zelo različna področja, zato bo treba izvajanje zahtev EU ustrezno prilagajati glede na posamezne panoge (npr. hortikultura, kmetijstvo, gozdarstvo). Uveljavitev nove zakonodaje bo še posebno velik izziv v gozdarstvu, saj so gozdovi izredno kompleksni ekosistemi s številnimi posebnostmi, ki jih bo treba upoštevati in temu primerno prilagoditi ukrepe. V Sloveniji bo še posebno velik zalogaj usklajevanje Uredbe o zdravju rastlin s predpisi na področju gozdarstva in varstva okolja. Izziva smo se lotili v projektu CRP Razvoj organizacijske in tehnične podpore za učinkovito ukrepanje ob izbruhu gozdu škodljivih organizmov, katerega glavni cilj je povezati organizacije, potrebne za izvajanje aktivnosti ob pojavu karantenskega škodljivega organizma v gozdu in določiti njihove naloge, pripraviti seznam ustrezno usposobljenih izvajalcev ukrepov ter izdelati predlog za načrte izrednih ukrepov za prednostne škodljive organizme za izbruhe v gozdu. The new EU legislation in the field of plant health, i.e. Plant Health Regulation, which will be mandatory for all member states, is entering into force. According to this Regulation, individual EU countries will have to perform activities for preventing entry and spreading of the quarantine pests in the territory of the Union. Among other things, the Regulation assigns execution of multi-year survey programs, preparation of contingency plans and performing simulation exercises for selected quarantine pests, harmful for the plants in the EU area, to the member countries. The new legislation addresses very diverse fields therefore the EU requirements will have to be performed accordingly to the individual sectors (e.g. horticulture, agriculture, forestry). The enforcement of the new legislation will represent a major challenge in the forestry, since the forests are extremely complex ecosystems with numerous features, which will have to be considered and to which the actions will have to be adjusted. In Slovenia, the harmonization of the Plant Health Regulation with the legislation on the field of the forestry and environment protection will represent a vast undertaking. We addressed the challenge in the CRP project, Development of the organizational and technical support for effective actions against the outbreaks of forest pests. Its primary goal is to connect organizations, needed for performing activities on occasion of quarantine pest outbreak in the forest, to set their tasks, prepare a list of adequately trained entrepreneurs, and to prepare the contingency plans for priority pests and their outbreaks in the forest.