General Directorate of State Forests

General Information

Organisation of the State Forests, improved throughout decades, is based on a principle of self-financing. This way, the Forests do not use taxpayers’ money. The forest units operate at the national, regional, and local levels. They employ nearly 25 thousand people in total.
The State Forests National Forest Holding is an unincorporated organisation unit. The main document governing the State Forests National Forest Holding operations is the Forest Act of 28 September 1991. It stipulates principles of forest management by the State Forests and by other forest owners. The structure of the organisation is detailed in its Statutes issued in the Minister of Environment Regulation of 1994.

The management model at the State Forests is based on three tiers:

  • Director-General of the SF appointed by the Minister of Environment. Manages the whole organisation by issuing orders and decisions. Director’s office is the Directorate-General of the State Forests – the central unit. The State Forest Committee is an advisory body to Director-General.
  • Regional Directorates of the SF (17) They are mainly responsible for supervising subsidiary units and coordiation of operations in their region.
  • Forest Districts (430) They conduct forest management based on a forest arrangement plan. A forest district manager is responsible for a condition of the forest in the supervised region. The forest districts are divided into forest units.

Auxiliary units operating at the national or regional level support the above entities.

Self-financing of the State Forests operations is possible due to establishing of the forest fund. Forests Districts in good financial condition transfer their surpluses there, and later they are used by other entities. The fund is also used to finance other projects, including projects at the national level, such as education, scientific research, infrastructure development, and development of forest arrangement plans. This model ensures that the State Forests do not draw from the State Budget, as  resources obtained from sales of timber are allocated to other tasks of the organisation.

Source: – www.lasy.gov.pl.

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