AFFORESTATION OF BARE LAND AND

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Dr Ratknic Mihailo, mr Bilibajkic Svetlana
AFFORESTATION OF BARE LAND AND RECLAMATION OF
DEGRADED FORESTS IN THE FUNCTION OF CONSERVATION
AND IMPROVEMENT OF WATER POTENTIALS IN SERBIA
INSTITUT OF FORESTRY BELGRADE, SERBIA AND
MONTENEGRO
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Population increase, the development of industry
and agriculture in the world and in Serbia,
increasingly endanger water supply quantity and
quality. The rational utilization of water, which
is getting the character of the strategic raw
material, requires long-term planning, as well as
the change of social behavior towards water in
general.
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Forestry, as a complex field, has the task of
permanent conservation of all the functions of
forests and forest land, among which the
hydrological function has a special national
significance.
The task of forestry in the field of the
improvement of forest hydrological function is
expressed in water regime improvement, protection
of springs and storage reservoirs, i.e. in the
increase of quality water supplies.
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The state of forests and forest soil
The degree of forest cover in Serbia amounts to
26.71 and this indicates that one of the
priority tasks is to extend the area under
forests. The the planned (optimum) forest cover
is 41.10.
Table 1. The present and planned forest cover
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Forest condition in Serbia in general can be
assessed as unfavorable from many aspects. Along
with the direct damage from the poor state of
forests and inferior utilization of soil
production potential for the economy in general,
forests cannot exert their multiple functions to
the optimum. Forest functions have been reduced
owing to irrational management in the past.
Consequently, it is necessary to stimulate the
establishment of new forests, as well as the
improvement of the existing forests, by applying
the modern silvicultural measures of conversion
and reconstruction of coppice and anthropogenic
brushland into the forests of high silvicultural
form. In this way, not only the production of
timber volume, but also the other functions of
forests, as the most significant ecosystems,
would be magnified.
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The state of waters in Serbia
The total qualities of surface waters (domestic
and transit) in Serbia amount to 178.661 106 m3
annually. The amount of water that is formed on
the territory of Serbia is 16.027 106 m3. If the
present population is taken into account, the
available quantities of water formed on the
territory of Serbia are 1550 m3 per capita, which
classifies Serbia into a water deficient
category. The space and time distribution of the
available water is even more unfavorable
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To satisfy the demand for water, multiple-use
reservoirs are predicted in the zones of
protected springs, and the construction of
regional water supply systems is anticipated. The
total quantity of storage water included in the
regional systems and subsystems is 3600 106 m3.
With the planned reservoirs the total quantity of
storage water in the constructed and planned
reservoirs is 4650 106 m3.
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The state of soil erosion
Soil erosion is the process which is largely
represented in Serbia, as more than 86.5 of the
total area is affected by erosion of varying
intensity. This is the consequence of a large
number of factors, with the greatest influence
of relief, climate, and land use.
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Planned afforestation and forest reclamation
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Bearing in mind the unfavorable state of forest
cover in Serbia, large-scale works on the
afforestation of bare lands, agricultural areas
affected by erosion have been planned (till
2010), as well as the establishment of protective
and suburban forests and the landscaping of waste
tips.
Table 4. Afforestation predicted till 2010
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The realization of the foreseen afforestation
demands the definition of the optimum land use.
As forestry and agriculture are the greatest land
users in upland areas which supplies the greatest
inflow of quality water, one of the priority
tasks is the zonation of land use areas. The
previous irrational land use is manifested by a
high share of agricultural areas with unfavorable
parent rock and soil characteristics, high
percentage of erosion hazard soils, and
fragmented (small) forest areas. In land use
zonation, the ecological, socio-demographic and
economic parameters should be maximally
considered, i.e. the main criteria of the
international system of land use assessment (FAO,
1976) should be applied, with the necessary
modifications and adaptations to the specific
site conditions in Serbia.
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The afforestation and measures of improvement of
the existing forests aim at checking the
processes of erosion at the most endangered
sites, preventing the removal of surface (most
fertile) soil layers, slowing down the movement
of surface waters and balancing water inflow, by
maintaining their level without greater
oscillations, thus preventing the floods. From
the above survey, it can be concluded that the
realization of the planned afforestation and
improvement of the existing state of forests will
lead to better conservation and development of
water potentials in Serbia.
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Only with forests we can save our rivers and
reservoirs
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