The importance of forests and forest-timber sector as complements to agriculture and as tools for the regional development of Poland

Abstract

Forests and agricultural lands cover over 26 million ha in Poland (83.6% of the land, including inland water). The area of forests is 9.1 million ha, including 7.1 million ha managed by the State Forests National Forest Holding and 1.7 million ha owned by private owners, out of which 1.1 million ha are the agricultural farms. The scale and the way of land management by the Public Treasury enable the independent running, without a system support from funds devoted to the development of rural areas. The aim of this paper is to present the characteristics of the Polish forest-timber sector and its contribution to the development of the rural areas, as a complement to agriculture, including forests of all forms of ownerships and the scope of three most important groups of functions - production, environmental and social.