Development of the Concept and Implementation of National Forest Programs with Reference to Croatia

Background and purpose: National forest programs have been promoted by the international forest policy sphere as a preferred form of policy process by which the sustainable forest management should be reached on national level. As such, it has received a lot of attention in the international legislation and has been important part of the forest policy dialogue. This paper examines the national forest programs from the side of its theoretical development, and how it has been transposed from the international sphere onto the national domains. Materials and methods: Paper examines international legislation refereeing to the national forest programs, and provides an overview of its development. Comparative analysis of national forest program processes in Europe has been made, along with presentation of different national approaches to it. Topic-related scientific literature has been analyzed, with special emphasis on its procedural elements. Results and conclusions: International legislation shows great coherence regarding the development of the concept of national forest programs. The same coherence is present in the scientific community, but not among the forest policy practitioners, which is reflected by a great variety of developments of national forest programs across Europe. This variety is not as important as are the procedural aspects of the process, which promote mode of governance in line with the new general paradigm of forest planning. The article critically reviews the procedural and outcome elements of national forest programmes, which are then analysed in the context of Croatian perspectives for a formal process of a national forest program.