DIGITALNA ARHIVA ŠUMARSKOG LISTA
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ŠUMARSKI LIST 1-2/2018 str. 50     <-- 50 -->        PDF

to a forest management approach which generally includes management of “continuous forests” with management systems that don’t require radical silvicultural measures but silvicultural measures which “imitate nature and improve its performance” (Schütz 1986). Close-to-nature forestry is characterized by some fundamental features such as natural regeneration, single-tree felling, indigenous tree species, etc. One of the systems that can be attributed to close-to-nature forestry and which is applied in Europe is selection system. The concept of close-to-nature forestry is relatively old and could be traced back to the works of Gayer (1886) and Möller (1922).
Furthermore, close-to-nature forestry has recently become one of the most important ways of ensuring sustainable management of European forests (Bradshaw et al. 1994, Meyer 2005). According to Schnitzler & Borlea (1998), sustainable management of natural forests depends on two complementary parts: a) protection of the remaining forests with a high degree of naturalness and b) establishment of the management criteria which take into account the natural dynamics of the forests. “Continuous forest” together with an increase in the stand mixture is becoming one of the primary approaches to the present and future forest management in Europe.
Most Balkan countries (Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and partially Croatia) have been applying group selection and selection systems in the management of beech forests. Furthermore, most managed European beech forests in the Balkans have been applying “continuous forest” principle which has preserved their naturalness to a large extent.
Reliable knowledge of natural forest structure and dynamics is required if we want to implement close-to-nature forestry (Leibundgut 1959,  Korpel 1995). Therefore, research of virgin forests (old-growth forests, primary forests, primeval forests, etc.) has recently received great importance (Diaci et al. 1999, Drössler & Lüpke 2007). Since all Balkan countries have a much higher percentage of virgin forest stands than other European countries, they make an important area of future research. Some of these stands are protected by different protection regimes. However, significant areas of virgin forest stands can be found in rugged mountainous terrains in the regions with no formal protection.
Beech is the most abundant tree species in Serbia. It occurs in several forest monodominant or polydominant communities. According to Koprivica et al. (2013а) at the beginning of the twentieth century, beech forests in Serbia were predominantly virgin forests. From the beginning of the twentieth century until the 1960s, the main form of management was selection system. Afterwards, the group selection system was prescribed until the 1990s. In the last twenty years shelter-wood system is declaratively prescribed but rarely implemented in practice. Generally, there are apparent discrepancies between forest management plans and their implementation.
Selection and group selection systems which often favour felling of higher-quality trees have been the most commonly applied systems in the forestry practice of beech forests in Serbia in the last 70 years. The application of different management systems has caused heterogenic structure of beech high forests in Serbia. Today, these forests are characterized by unfavorable qualitative and assortment structure, although they have relatively high production potential, structural diversity and degree of naturalness. By using different indices, Matoviæ (2012) concludes that these forests have very pronounced alpha ecosystem diversity which is caused by the differentiation in the size and age of trees and by their spatial distribution.
For future management of beech high forests in Serbia, it is important to conduct a thorough examination of their managed and virgin stands and make a comparison of their structural and production characteristics. Research of beech virgin forest is important in the European context because of their rare frequency. Meyer (2005) notes that it is important for the Central European forestry to thoroughly explore virgin forest stands because larger areas of these stands can only be found in the mountains of eastern and southern Europe.
So far structural and production characteristics of beech virgin forest have been studied in eastern and central Europe (Mayer & Reimoser 1978, Leibundgut 1993, Korpel 1995, Commarmot et al. 2005, Turcu & Stetca, 2006, Drössler & Lüpke, 2007, Bilek et al. 2011, Kucbel et al. 2012, Petritan et al. 2012), but not in the Balkans. In the Balkans, beech virgin forests were studied in the period from the thirties to the seventies of the twentieth century (Miletiæ 1930, Milin 1954, Driniæ 1957). Recent studies are rare (Leibundgut 1993, Meyer 2003).
The aims of this research were to compare structural and production characteristics of managed and virgin beech forests in Serbia in order to determine:
1) The impact of the previous forest management on the structural diversity of beech high forests in Serbia which represents an important segment of the overall diversity of these forests;
2) The impact of previous forest management on the changes in the production characteristics of managed beech high forests in Serbia.
Also, in order to enhance the understanding of the similarities and differences in structural and production characteristics of virgin forests in a wider context, we have made a comparative analysis of the results published for these forests in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.