Abstract
Abstract In the Czech Republic, the present state forest administration is incorporated into general state administration. Municipalities with extended competence (MECs) as first-instance forest administration bodies thus perform the so-called “mixed” administration. Besides forestry, MECs cumulatively perform hunting and fishing administration, observing several different laws. On an example of three MECs in South Bohemia (České Budějovice, Týn nad Vltavou and Písek), the paper analyses the decision-making processes and control activities concerning the implementation of administrative activity, particularly the Forest Act. The findings show that during the observed period 2011–2015, the most frequently conducted administrative proceedings under the Forest Act involved binding opinions regarding permission for buildings at a distance of fewer than 50 m from the forest and decisions on timber harvesting. Other frequently performed acts somewhat surprisingly concerned issuing licenses for professional forest managers and decisions whether or not the land fulfils forest functions. Based on the findings, the paper also suggests stimuli and suggestions (de lege ferenda) for changes in the Forest Act and other regulations relating to this issue.
Highlights
The state forest administration belongs among discussed topics and issues within forest-related policy, in the latitudes of the Czech Republic (Flora 2000; Drobník & Dvořák 2010) but especially in other parts of the world (e.g. Sarvašová et al 2013; Bizzo & Michener 2017; Borgström 2018; Cesur & Güloğlu 2018)
The analysis revealed that all three MECs issued the highest number of binding opinions on Article 14 of the Forest Act, i.e. 31.8% of the total transmitted data
The paper’s objective was to analyse the activities of the first-instance body of the state forest administration, focusing on the activities related to individual articles and paragraphs of the Forest Act
Summary
The state forest administration belongs among discussed topics and issues within forest-related policy, in the latitudes of the Czech Republic (Flora 2000; Drobník & Dvořák 2010) but especially in other parts of the world (e.g. Sarvašová et al 2013; Bizzo & Michener 2017; Borgström 2018; Cesur & Güloğlu 2018). Law as a part of a country’s forest policy framework is an essential instrument for forest-related policy implementation (Voithleihner 2002). Researchers stress the necessity of an adaptive legal framework, which would tackle increasing uncertainties and everchanging conditions in the bioeconomy of forests (Arnold & Gunderson 2014; Craig & Ruhl 2014; Borgström 2018). Analysing the legal framework and political culture in Austria, Voithleihner (2002) pointed out the need for amendments to the Austrian Forest Act and other forest regulations to overcome the shortcomings in the procedural elements of the National Forest Programme. Instead of concentrating intensely on timber production, the Austrian forestry legislation should pay attention to ecological, cultural and social goals (Voithleihner 2002). On the case of on-farm forests in Ghana, the (non)-compliance with the forest legislation was examined by Hansen (2011). Savchuk and Liubchych (2019) stress the absence of the legal regulation of efficient for-
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