Search for a balance between changing requirements for benefits from the forest and its condition in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids (Czech Republic)

The forest area of the Moravian-Silesian Beskids is on the slopes of the most westerly range of mountains of the Carpathian System in the Czech Republic, the only site with specific growth conditions for the forest. The exceptional significance of the area consists on its role in ensuring the range of requirements for the functions of the forest for a large industrial agglomeration. In this area, the forests form a vitally important environment. The region has the natural appearance of a mountain landscape and a long and eventful history of forest use. The forest culture changed its original composition to the benefit of species highly valued in past centuries. Particularly dramatic were the changes which occurred in the course of the last 60 years. They occurred because of strong anthropic pressure and within a very short period of time as far as the life of a forest is concerned. The demands of the society concerning other benefits of the forest, especially the protection of water resources for a new industrial agglomeration with extensive housing areas in the Ostrava region in the northern foothills, were gradually increasing with the growing problem of air pollution. Since the 1950s, local forestry has been facing new and unusual problems related to forest policy and the multifunctional use of the forest. In order to ensure forest functions, new solutions must be sought in terms of forest management and particularly in terms of silvicultural methods,which have to be sufficiently flexible to efficiently respond to environmental changes and to a possible shift in the demands placed on the forest. The present forest management systems are based on the principles of sustainable forestry, i.e.,on the principles of ecologically justified silviculture.