Funds held back for reforestation
Moves to plant new forests throughout Poland are being hampered by a shortage of funds, as the government is accused of denying valuable financial help to official bodies.
A 1995 government paper on forestation predicted that by 2020 woodland would cover 30% of Poland, reaching about 33% by 2050. At the moment 28% of land is forested. Jerzy Gapanowicz, head of forestry at the Environment Ministry, said of the 50,000 hectares originally targeted, only 38,000 hectares of private land have been forested.
According to industry sources, the failure to meet planned targets comes down to one problem financing. "The plan is being held up for a simple reason a lack of money," said Andrzej Grzywacz, professor of forestry at the Warsaw Agricultural University (SGGW) and the chairman of the State Forests Committee.
To plant one hectare of trees costs zl. 3,000-zl. 8,000, depending on the quality of the land, said Anna Rosiek, spokeswoman for the State Forests Commission (State Forests). She said that seedlings comprise about 40% of that cost.
About 10,000 hectares of private lands were supposed to be forested in 1999, but Polish farmers are lukewarm about planting trees, as most forests reap little if any profit for 50 to 100 years. "Until farmers realize that it pays off, they won't plant new forests," Rosiek said.
To encourage farmers, the government has subsidized seedlings. In 1999, it gave farmers zl. 3.7 million ($948,000). The direct funding was zl. 1.9 million ($487,000), Gapanowicz said. He said about zl. 1.8 million ($461,000) was given by the Voivod Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. An extra zl. 2.7 million ($692,000) for foresting was also provided by the State Forests, Gapanowicz said. However, according to the Business Journal's calculations, the state should have given zl. 14 million ($3.59 million) for seedlings alone. If the average cost to forest one hectare is zl. 4,000, and 10,000 hectares of private lands were to be forested in 1999, zl. 14 million constitutes only 40% of the zl. 40 million ($10.2 million) necessary.
"We realize the funding is insufficient," Gapanowicz said. He added that next year the ministry hopes Poland will receive additional resources from the European Union through its SAPARD or ISPA programs, which fund agricultural and environmental projects.
To make its work effective, the state should allocate funding two years in advance, according to a government report on forestation published in 2000. Two years is the time needed to grow seedlings for future forests.
But since the policy was first proposed, money is given only after initial outlays have been made by foresters, Rosiek said. "At the moment, when the foresters go to the woods to plant new trees, they don't have state money," he said.
To make matters worse, foresters don't get all the money owed to them, the State Forests said. In 1999, the state allocated zl. 45 million ($11.5 million) to the State Forests for planting trees. The State Forests, however, said zl. 51 million ($13 million) was needed.
According to State Forest sources, the gulf between what is needed and what is given will become even more acute next year.
In 2001, the State Forests hopes to receive zl. 50 million ($11 million), but will probably only get zl. 42 million ($9.3 million). "Because the State Forests wants to implement its forestation policy, the company has to pay for the difference from its own resources," Rosiek said.
According to Grzywacz, the forest inspectorate often does not receive any funds and has to pay for forestation from its own resources. The forest rangers working for the State Forests have to pay for seedlings, land preparation and employees. "They draw invoices that the budget should pay for," he said. "But the budget hasn't been paying them for years."
Grzywacz said payments were generally rare. "It's such a peculiarity that (if it happens) we hear it at every forester conference," he said. "They don't pay (for reforestation), but the state wants (it) to be done, and now they think it's the foresters' business," he said.
Grzywacz said that the State Forests couldn't do much about financing. Each forest inspector could bring the issue to light and file charges with the National Administration Court (NSA), and probably win their case, but they would still find it difficult to collect the damages, he said.
He gave an example of a court ruling against the Polish State Railways (PKP), which has still to pay compensation to the forest inspectorate in Potrzebowice in western Poland for burning down 9,000 hectares of forest. "There's no use accusing the state, as (the court ruling) wouldn't be executed anyway," Grzywacz said.
Sources within the State Forests are worried that the company will not have the funds to continue paying for foresting by itself. Grzywacz said that in Western Europe, forests have been subsidized for years. "At the moment, the State Forests somehow makes ends meet. But it won't last forever," he said.
He added that the State Forests would only be able to generate a profit for 12 years. On average, the State Forests nets zl. 11-zl. 12 per hectare, Grzywacz said.
Last year, the State Forests' earned a profit of zl. 140 million ($35.9 million), mainly from timber sales. Its revenue was zl. 3.56 billion ($91.2 million) and costs zl. 3.42 billion ($87.6 million).
