Timber Harvesting Methods in Eastern European Countries: a Review

Abstract

The social and economic changes that began over 25 years ago in post-communist Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union also affected the forestry sector. Forested areas were privatised in many countries, and timber harvesting, also in state-owned forests, was contracted out to private sector logging companies. An analysis was conducted of the following countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The basic parameters of forestry, like the characteristics of forest resources, the volume of harvested timber and logging processes used, were given for each country. Special attention was paid to the methods of timber harvesting. The main findings of the study are that various methods are used in Eastern Europe depending on site and forest conditions. In some countries, especially the wealthier ones, a dynamic increase in the cut-to-length method is observed, with the use of harvesters and forwarders.