Wybrane aspekty zrównoważonego użytkowania lasu w nawiązaniu do programu zrównoważonego rozwoju - przykład Polski

The paper presents the ideas of sustainable development with regard to the specific forest issues and management of its resources. We consider two main directions of forest use, which have the greatest impact on the condition of forest environment, i.e. logging and recreational use of the forest. This confrontation shows how effective the instruments of sustainable development are in collision with, on the one hand, the pragmatic−economic issue of profitability and a specific profit from logging, and, on the other hand, with the autotelic tourist exploration of the forest. The aim of the paper was to discuss selected aspects of sustainable forest use with regard to the sustainable development program and to identify problems, which modern forest management (forest utilisation) faces as a result of society’s expectations and the possibilities of today’s forestry in Poland. The example of Poland shows that there is a full understanding of the need to preserve the forests in the landscape, which was reflected in the form of legal acts and adopted international regulations for sustainable forest management (most forests in Poland have PEFC and FSC certificates). However, considering forest use as one of the main branches of forest management, there is still a large deficit of pro−ecological logging technologies in Poland, especially from difficult mountain areas (about 150 cableways missing), which is largely due to economic factor. The other problem of sustainable forest use in Poland is still low social awareness of the consequences of negative human impact on the forest ecosystem, which is manifested, i.e. littering in forests. Garbage is left both during leisure in forest as well as brought in larger quantities creating so−called wild dumping sites frequently containing also hazardous waste. Another problem of contemporary forest use is the maintenance of durability of forest ecosystems in recreational and tourist areas, especially protected areas, and above all in national parks, most of which in Poland have a forest character. The scale of threat to forest sustainability is incomparably higher here than in economic forests, which results from the large number of visitors in the national parks.