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Characterization and Evaluation of the Organizational and Legal Structures of Forestry in the European Union
Achieving organizational efficiency requires the selection of an appropriate operating model. To date, no objective indicators, methods of measuring, or criteria for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of forest management organizations have been developed. In the heterogeneous forest management of the European Union (EU), multiple objectives and functions—from production to social and ecological services—coexist at regional and national levels. This study provides an overview of the organizational and legal forms of EU forestry, taking into account environmental conditions, ownership structures, and the role of the forestry sector in national economies. The legal information of EU countries on forest management was verified. We examine the impact of the entity’s organizational and legal form on the implementation of sustainable forest management and the objectives of the New EU Forest Strategy 2030, particularly in terms of absorbing external capital for forest protection and climate-related activities. Joint stock companies, public institutions, and enterprises are the most relevant. The private sector is dominated by individual farms, associations, chambers of commerce, and federations. A clear trend toward transforming state-owned enterprises into joint-stock companies and expanding their operational scope has been confirmed. Multifunctional forest management is practiced in both state and private forests. Economic efficiency, legal and property liability, and organizational goals depend on the chosen organizational and legal form.
Determinants of social attitudes towards fees and restrictions on the use of the Wielkopolska National Park
The purpose of this paper was to present the results of research on the willingness of visitors to Wielkopolska National Park (WNP) to pay fees for using its resources and to assess their attitudes towards hypothetical restrictions on access to the park. The analysis was based on survey data from 2012 and 2025, obtained using the following techniques: Paper and Pencil Interviewing (PAPI) and online surveys based on the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) technique, administered via Internet platforms. A total of 860 valid questionnaires were examined, and a logit model and correspondence analysis were used for the investigation. The findings suggest that the propensity to pay fees is mostly contingent upon the extent of awareness of natural values, the inclination to engage in park maintenance, perspectives on environmental financing mechanisms, and affiliation with environmental organisations. In turn, demographic factors proved to be insignificant. The analysis of the expected compensation for access restrictions demonstrated the influence of age, gender, environmental views, and distance from the WNP. The research findings corroborate that respondents’ attitudes towards environmental financing are predominantly influenced by their environmental awareness and beliefs.
The Impact of Selected Market Factors on the Prices of Wood Industry By-Products in Poland in the Context of Climate Policy Changes
The objective of this study was to analyze price variability and the factors influencing the formation of monthly prices of by-products of the wood industry in Poland between October 2017 and January 2025. The analysis considered the impact of economic variables, including energy commodity prices (natural gas and coal) and industrial wood prices, on the pricing of wood industry by-products. The adopted approach enabled the identification of key determinants shaping the prices of these by-products. The effectiveness of two tree-based regression models—Random Forest (RF) and CatBoost (CB)—was compared in the analysis. Although RF offers greater interpretability and lower computational requirements, CB proved more effective in modeling dynamic, time-dependent phenomena. The results indicate that industrial wood prices exerted a weaker influence on by-product prices than natural gas prices, suggesting that the energy sector plays a leading role in shaping biomass prices. Coal prices had only a marginal impact on the biomass market, implying that changes in coal availability and pricing did not directly translate into changes in the prices of wood industry by-products. The growing role of renewable energy sources derived from natural gas and wood biomass is contributing to the emergence of a distinct market, increasingly independent of the traditional coal market. In Poland, due to limited access to alternative energy sources, biomass plays a critical role in the decarbonization of the energy sector.
Taxonomy Regulation as a New Instrument for the Sustainable Management of the Forest Environment in Europe
Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament, also known as the Taxonomy Regulation, facilitates environmentally sustainable investments. It is part of the concept of the European Green Deal and a ‘tool’ for financial institutions, enterprises, and investors, facilitating the assessment of the environmental impact of a particular project. The Regulation contains the criteria an activity must meet to be considered environmentally sustainable. The role of the Taxonomy Regulation is to enable the flow of public and private capital towards ecological and sustainable activities. The document does not need to be implemented into the legal order of individual EU member-states, which results in its direct application. The main financial instruments enabling the achievement of the goals of the Taxonomy Regulation may be green bonds and other forms of capital raising by entrepreneurs and forest ownership structures. The assumption of the Regulation is to achieve the principles of sustainable environmental activity when spending funds obtained from private investors. It is an issue of key significance to identify the areas of management and financial accounting in the operational activities of forest enterprises that can be qualified for the Taxonomy Regulation. Forestry activities, including the processes mentioned therein, the objectives of the New EU Forest Strategy, and the LULUCF Regulation, are to play an essential role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The role of forestry in the supply chain in its broad sense is also considered. Forestry and forest management can receive capital for sustainable development due to the threat resulting from exclusions that strengthen the protective function of the forest (the protection of biodiversity). These processes will occur at the expense of production and numerous social functions.
Fuel use reduction and economic savings from optimization of road transportation of coniferous roundwood
One of the 10 priorities of the Green New Deal is sustainable transportation. It should be considered in the perspective of long-term ecological and economic sustainability, according to the trend of opportunities for sustainable development. The economic and environmental aspects of transportation related to the harvesting and movement of timber play a special role in the energy cost and their environmental impact per distance of raw material supply. The principles of rational and energy-efficient use of transportation equipment play a key role in the movement of raw timber. These are influenced by the availability of timber resources, limitation of vehicle payloads, reduction of energy consumption expressed in terms of reduction of fuel combustion, or current legal and road regulations for timber transportation. The paper evaluates economic and environmental factors in relation to the demand for fuels necessary for the implementation of road transportation of softwood timber. The aim of this paper was to present the current situation of the use of transportation means in the movement of bulky timber, as well as opportunities to optimize fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, affecting the economic and environmental effects. Previous studies on fuel consumption in the transportation of roundwood indicate irrational use of vehicles. This indicates unused payload capacity increasing energy inputs expressed in fuel consumption. It has been empirically investigated that this is the result of improperly approved transport sets adapted to the material being transported. In addition, it was shown that there is a clear correlation between the vehicle payload utilization rate and economic and environmental factors. The results of this study point to the potential to increase the use of transportation vehicles for timber transportation and reduce fuel combustion and CO2 emissions by 7–20%.
Biomass Price Prediction Based on the Example of Poland
The aim of the study was to test the applicability of forecasting in the analysis of the variability of prices and supply of wood in Poland. It relies on the autoregressive integrated model (ARIMA) that takes into account the level of cyclic, seasonal, and irregular fluctuations and the long-term trend as tools for the assessment of the predictions of the prices of selected medium-sized wood assortments. Elements of the time series were determined taking into account the cyclical character of the quarterly distribution. The data included quarterly information about the supply (amount) and prices (value) of wood sold by state forests in the years 2018–2022. The analysis was conducted for the most popular assortments: logging slash (M2, M2ZE), firewood S4, and medium-sized wood S2AP. In the period studied (years 2018–2022), the average rate of price variation was widely scattered. The average rate of price variation for the M2ZE assortment amounted to 7%. The average rate for M2 assortment was 1%, while the medium-sized S2AP assortment displayed the greatest variation of 99%. This means that between 2018 and the present, the price increased by nearly 100%. No major fluctuations were observed for the S4 assortment and its average rate of variation amounted to 0%. The analysis found seasonal variation was observed only for S4 firewood, the price of which went up each year in October, November, and December. For this reason, the forecast was made with the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) version of the model. It is difficult to forecast the price of wood due to variations in the market and the impact of global factors related to fluctuations in supply.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Clustering of EU Forest Policies in the Context of the 2030 New Forest Strategy
In the face of climate challenges and growing social inequalities, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) has become a key framework for sustainable development. Within the EU, forestry—covering about one third of Europe—is increasingly addressed through ESG principles in the 2030 New EU Forest Strategy (NSF 2030). This study aims to systematize the diversity and similarities of EU Member States’ forest policies using ESG indicators aligned with NFS 2030 objectives. We do not assess policy outcomes but rather identify clusters of countries with similar forest-economy profiles to fill a research gap and support more coherent strategies. Using hierarchical clustering on selected ESG indicators, we find very high variability in EU forest policies. The results confirm that NFS 2030 can serve as an analytical tool to identify clusters of countries with similar ESG profiles and tailor policies to their contexts. The identification of eight clusters per ESG segment underscores the need for a differentiated, flexible approach to achieving common EU forest objectives. Despite similarities within clusters, diverse economic, environmental, and social conditions often require differentiated policies tailored to each country’s unique context.
The Importance of Information Flow Relevant to Sustainable Forestry and the European Green Deal: The Case of Poland
The aim of the conducted research was to develop a classification of relevant/sustainable information by indicating the links between relevant information and the various functions of forests, and to obtain information on the value of specific sustainable forestry information for users of reporting information. The specific objectives include indicating the weight of information regarding sustainable development contained in the 2030 Forestry Strategy. The research was carried out using the example of the State Forests of Poland in correlation with the actions and initiatives of the European Green Deal, identifying the enduring functions of sustainable forestry, and attempting to relate them to the relevant information disclosed in mandatory reporting. The research problem was formulated as the question: which information disclosed in reporting, including statistical data, is considered by information users to be the most useful? The study was implemented through the development of survey questionnaires aimed at examining the information needs of information users. The study employed the triangulation method, in particular: a literature analysis and critique, a logical analysis and construction, and the snowball sampling method. Triangulation ensures the reliability of the research approach as well as the acquisition of comprehensive and contextual knowledge about the given phenomenon. The results of the empirical research indicated which pieces of information disclosed in the reporting on the activities of the State Forests are particularly useful for internal stakeholders and which do not necessarily provide value and therefore may be omitted in reporting. The study presented in the article constitutes the first empirical study of its kind in Poland, conducted in the context of understanding and defining relevant information from the perspective of sustainable forestry. The study illustrates individual behaviors in the context of the information currently disclosed in correlation with their usefulness.
Verification of the Assumptions of the Polish State Forest Policy in the Context of the New EU Forest Strategy 2030
Despite the lack of legal tools to interfere in the forest policy of the member states, the European Union has initiated the New EU Forest Strategy 2030 (NFS), which emphasizes the protective functions of forests, modifying the interpretation of sustainable forest management. The aim of the study was to compare the State Forest Policy (SFP) in Poland with the assumptions of the New UE Forest Strategy 2030, identifying challenges for Polish forestry. The compliance of both documents was verified, taking into account their objectives, implementation methods, and differences. The analysis showed the coherence of the direction of both policies, while the differences in the methods of achieving the objectives result from divergent interpretations of the concept of sustainable forest management. It is necessary to develop a new definition taking into account the conditions of EU countries and to develop a system of measures enabling the comparison of the degree of implementation of this goal. Previous EU strategies had minimal impact on national legal systems. Diverse concepts of forest management in EU countries make it difficult to implement a common long-term strategy, giving subsequent documents a general character. NFS is a theoretical document presenting a vision of forests from the perspective of EU policy, and SFP serves as a historical document that can be a reference point for modifying assumptions based on contemporary realities. Creating normative acts without taking into account contemporary conditions may be contrary to the direction of development of forestry in Europe. A bottom-up approach, based on consensus of member states, to creating a coherent forest policy at the EU level is more justified.
The rate of change in the salaries of employees of the State Forests compared to selected sectors of the economy in Poland
A Comparison of artificial neural network and time series models for timber price forecasting
The majority of the existing studies on timber price forecasting are based on ARIMA/SARIMA autoregressive moving average models, while vector autoregressive (VAR) and exponential smoothing (ETS) models have been employed less often. To date, timber prices in primary timber markets have not been forecasted with ANN methodology. This methodology was used only for forecasting lumber futures. Low-labor-intensive and relatively simple solutions that can be used in practice as a tool supporting decisions of timber market participants were sought. The present work sets out to compare RBF and MLP artificial neural networks with the Prophet procedure and with classical models (i.e., ARIMA, ETS, BATS, and TBATS) in terms of their suitability for forecasting timber prices in Poland. The study material consisted of quarterly time series of net nominal prices of roundwood (W0) for the years 2005–2021. MLP was found to be far superior to other models in terms of forecasting price changes and levels. ANN models exhibited a better fit to minimum and maximum values as compared to the classical models, which had a tendency to smooth price trends and produce forecasts biased toward average values. The Prophet procedure led to the lowest quality of projections. Ex-post error-based measures of prediction accuracy revealed a complex picture. The best forecasts for alder wood were obtained using the ETS model (with RMSE and MAE values of approx. 0.38 € m−3). ETS also performed well with respect to beech timber, although in this case BATS was just as good in terms of RMSE, while the difference between ETS and neural models amounted to as little as 0.64 € m−3. Birch timber prices were most accurately predicted with BATS and TBATS models (MAE 0.86 € m−3, RMSE 1.04 € m−3). The prices of the most popular roundwood types in Poland, i.e., Scots pine, Norway spruce, and oaks, were best forecasted using ANNs, and especially MLP models. Among the neural models for oak (MAE 4.74 € m−3, RMSE 8.09 € m−3), pine (MAE 2.21 € m−3, RMSE 2.83 € m−3), beech (MAE 2.31 € m−3, RMSE 2.70 € m−3), alder (MAE 1.88 € m−3, RMSE 2.40 € m−3), and spruce (MAE 2.44 € m−3, RMSE 2.58 € m−3), the MLP model was the best (the RBF model for birch). Of the seven models used to forecast the prices of six types of wood, the worst results were obtained for oak wood, while the best results were obtained for alder.
Prediction of costs of selected silvicultural treatments by linear approximation and the Holt-Winters model
Optimizing Forest-Biomass-Distribution Logistics from a Multi-Level Perspective - Review
Forest and wood biomass represent a sustainable reservoir of raw materials and energy, offering a viable alternative to fossil fuels. These resources find extensive use in producing bioproducts, including solid wood and wood materials. The judicious exploitation of forest and wood biomass can be pivotal in reducing carbon emissions and securing material and energy independence. The business viability of producing valuable goods from woody biomass hinges on ensuring its sustained availability. This necessitates access to high-quality biomass at a minimal cost, demanding the efficient design of wood-biomass-distribution logistics. Furthermore, it is imperative to give equal weight to social and ecological considerations in shaping the forest- and wood-biomass-distribution logistics, thereby ensuring the sustainable utilization of this renewable raw material source. This article presents research focused on the business optimization of distribution logistics for specific forms of forest biomass used in wood material production. While most studies have primarily concentrated on the business or ecological issues of biomass utilization, this article offers a comprehensive insight by addressing business, ecological, and social facets in assessing and optimizing wood-biomass-distribution logistics. Multi-stakeholder life-cycle-assessment optimization takes into account the reduction of greenhouse gases as an ecological metric, with production costs and capital expenditure forming the business metrics. At the same time, the generation of employment opportunities is commonly regarded as the pivotal social criterion. There remains a necessity for further exploration into the potential social impacts of forest biomass utilization. Additionally, developing enhanced methodologies and decision-support tools for scheduling wood-biomass-distribution logistics that holistically consider business, ecological, and social criteria is an essential ongoing task.
Cost of Regeneration of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) Crops in National Forests
Silvicultural processes are an essential issue of rational forest management. Both man-made (artificial) and natural restoration methods are used in European forestry. A study of the cost drivers of forest restoration from the early stages of land clearing to cultivation was conducted for Scots pine tracts in a coniferous forest habitat. The cost data were tested for homogeneity of variance (Levene’s test) and normality (Shapiro–Wilk test) using a significance level of α = 0.05. The research indicated that the cost of artificial restoration (planting) of a pine forest is about 30% higher than the cost of natural restoration. The research also indicated that the main cost driver (about 35%) of the artificial restoration process was seedlings and planting costs. Further, the viability of supplementing natural planting with artificial planting was confirmed.
Comparative efficiency of roundwood processing into pallet lumber
Abstract The article is an attempt to determine the impact of market changes and sawnwood production on the utilisation of a limited supply of wood raw material, taking into account coniferous species and selected grades found on the market for the production of pallet lumber. The proposal to include the raw material value factor in the econometric model provides a measurable benchmark. Closed efficiency through the criterion of maximising the added value of wood in industrial processing takes into account the parameters that shape the impact of the value of the product and wood raw material. This criterion is derived from the supply of roundwood and customer demand for particular species and grades. The efficiency index is a reference to the price factors of market change over a variable period of time with the ability to forecast the direction of change.
