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Government-funded payments for ecosystem services (PES) have increasingly been used to facilitate transactions between users of environmental services and their providers. In order to improve the link between payments and the service provided, some countries in the EU have promoted result-based schemes (RBS), which remunerate farmers for ecological results, as part of their agricultural policy. Since PES programs are voluntary, it is important to understand farmers’ responses before more large-scale implementations of RBS are initiated. Using a choice experiment and a mixed logit model, we elicited the preferences of farmers in two Natura 2000 sites in Slovenia for different design elements of a hypothetical scheme for dry grassland conservation. We found that the majority of farmers preferred the result-based approach over the management-based scheme both in terms of payment conditions and monitoring one group of farmers preferred the RBS very strongly (average WTA of more than 500 EUR/ha/yr) and another group less strongly (average WTA about 200 EUR/ha/yr). Farmers also showed a higher preference for on-farm advise and training in small groups than for lectures, which would be offered to a larger audience. A collective bonus, which would incentivise coordination and could potentially increase participation rates in the scheme, significantly influenced the farmers’ willingness to adopt the scheme. However, the estimated average WTA was comparable or lower than the 40 EUR/ha annual bonus payment. Older farmers and those who managed small and semi-subsistent farms were significantly more likely to be highly resistant to scheme adoption no matter its design.

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people receive from ecosystems and a key tool for assessing the sustainability of natural resource use. Natural resource management requires consistent data on the state of ES; despite this, no such research has been carried out at the national level in Slovenia. The purpose of the article is to create an overview of past ES studies in Slovenia. The method of systematic mapping was used. We identified, compared, and described data on ES studies that have been published in Slovenia. The key findings are: 1) the number of ES studies in Slovenia is increasing, however the share of studies focused solely on ES has been decreasing since 2015; 2) the most represented field is forestry and the forest is the most commonly examined ecosystem; 3) the prevailing ES groups are regulating ES, while the most commonly explored individual ES are cultural ES, namely recreation and ecotourism, and 4) the most commonly implemented methodological approach is narrative analysis. Ekosistemske storitve (ES) so koristi, ki jih ljudje prejemajo od ekosistemov, in so eno ključnih orodij za presojo trajnosti rabe naravnih virov. Za upravljanje z naravnimi viri so nujni konsistentni podatki o stanju ES, a takšne raziskave na nacionalni ravni v Sloveniji še ni. Namen članka je pregledati pretekle raziskave ES v Sloveniji. Uporabili smo metodo sistematičnega kartiranja. Identificirali, primerjali in opisali smo podatke o objavljenih raziskavah o ES v Sloveniji. Ključne ugotovitve so: 1) število raziskav ES v Sloveniji raste, a se od 2015 zmanjšuje delež osredotočenih zgolj na ES; 2) najbolj zastopano področje je gozdarstvo, gozd pa največkrat preučevan ekosistem; 3) med skupinami ES prednjačijo uravnalne, najpogosteje obravnavana posamezna ES je kulturna ES, in sicer rekreacija in ekoturizem; 4) najpogosteje uporabljen metodološki pristop je narativna analiza.

Invasive alien species (IAS) require management to mitigate their impact on ecosystems. The success of management decisions often depends on whether they are socially acceptable and to what extent people are willing to be actively involved in an early warning and rapid response system (EWRR). We administered a nation-wide public poll to assess people’s knowledge on plant, insect and fungal IAS; their perception of IAS as an environmental problem; and their support for different IAS management measures. Most respondents (76%) knew the term IAS, and more than half (62%) provided a correct definition. Species with more media attention and those that are easily visible are more frequently identified correctly. Almost all respondents (97%) support an EWRR system; however, there is heterogeneity in terms of the types of actions people approve of. Non-lethal measures garner more support than lethal ones. Gender and previous knowledge also affect the level of agreement. The willingness-to-pay question largely confirmed this, as people were divided into four classes according to their preferences for either biological, mechanical or chemical measures to control IAS; completeness and location of removal; and having an EWRR established. Mechanical removal is the most preferred treatment in two of the four classes, and complete removal is preferred over partial removal in one of the four classes. Having an EWRR is consistently supported in all classes, and removal in urban areas is preferred over removal in forestland in only one class.

Background and Objectives: Urban forests and green space contribute to human wellbeing. Green infrastructure is recognized by the European Union as a planning tool that contributes to the implementation of many public policies, with urban forests and green space as its main building blocks. Croatia and Slovenia are young democracies and recent members of the European Union. Hence, they also need to contribute to the implementation of those policies. Previous review studies on urban forests and green space rarely addressed scientific or professional publications in those countries. Furthermore, the body of knowledge about urban forest and green space research and practice in post-socialist countries is still rather weak. The goal of the paper is (a) to show that urban forest and green space research and practice is much stronger in these countries than it is possible to assume based only on previous review papers or only by searching Scopus andWeb of Science, and (b) to describe publications written by scientists and professionals in the past 30 years. Materials and Methods: We used a trilingual systematic literature review to identify scientific and grey literature in various databases, as well as a snowballing technique, and yielded 211 publications in Croatia and 84 in Slovenia. Results: We identified many more publications on urban forests and green space science and practice in Croatia and Slovenia than it was possible to assume based only on previous review papers and when searching solely publications in English. Croatian authors showed continuity over time in terms of number of publications, while Slovenian publications have been on the rise in the past decade. In both countries, scientific papers were most frequent, and the vast majority of studies addressed capital cities. Croatian publications mainly focused on parks and park-forests, while Slovenian publications focused on urban forests. Interestingly, Croatian authors were a%liated with over 60 organizations, and in comparison to Slovenian authors, have stronger preference towards publishing in their local language. Green space planning and design followed by resource inventory were the most frequent themes. The least addressed themes in both countries were resource management, economic aspects, policy, legislation or governance. Conclusions: Important discussion in the future, especially in Croatia, would be regulation of urban forestry as a profession. Cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary studies, as well as focusing on cities other than capitals in future, can help in addressing issues such as climate change or application of participatory approaches. Nasl. iz nasl. zaslona. Opis vira z dne 20. 5. 2020. Bibliografija: str. 19-27. Abstract.

Driven by political and economic reforms since 1990, the forestry sector in southeast European (SEE) countries has faced changes which have resulted, among others, in the rise of private businesses. Many of those businesses have demonstrated innovation in the sphere of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), although these products had been neglected in the past, and their potentials are still underestimated. Therefore, our aim was to get a better understanding of the innovation processes behind three case studies in selected SEE countries (Slovenia, Serbia and FYR Macedonia). For the purpose of this research, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with people responsible for the selected innovation cases in three NTFP-based enterprises. The interviews revolved around questions related to the idea and product development, the firm foundation, the supporting and hindering factors and the actors and their roles in the entire process of business development. To understand the framework conditions, we interviewed representatives of the organizations that were in charge of supporting innovation and business development. The results show that several national policy programs (e.g., in the fields of SMEs, forestry and nature protection) form a framework for supporting NTFPs innovation. However, in all the selected countries, there were no policies specifically tailored for NTFPs. An analysis showed that these innovations were developed solely by the owners and their personal ideas, and most information and financing came from the businesses themselves. The innovation systems in the selected countries did not significantly contribute to the development and running of the businesses. The lessons provided by these cases can be significant for strengthening existing NTFP-related innovation systems and fostering their effectiveness in the future.

The goal of this study is to assess residents' preferences for a set of attributes describing the recreation setting in an urban forest (outstanding trees, forest openings, waymarks and information boards, and paved walking trails) and to explore the heterogeneity of those preferences. It was captured by a four-class latent class model used to segment a sample of residents of Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia), who responded to a choice experiment-based poll. The survey focused on the Rožnik urban forest, for which preferences (also willingness-to-pay) for hypothetical changes in the attributes were assessed. Respondents in class 1 were invariant to changes in the recreation setting. Those in class 2 and 4 stated positive preferences for having more outstanding trees. Class 3 and 4 were in favour of increasing the area of forest openings and enhancing the maintenance of waymarks and information boards. Those in class 4 expressed positive preferences for more walking trails, whereas class 3 valued this negatively. Class membership was affected by respondent age, number of adults in the household, frequency of forest visits, income, and purpose of the visit. Abstract. Bibliografija: str. 78-79.

Urban forest managers regularly deal with recreational trail impacts and dissatisfied trail users. This exploratory study examined the extent to which various objectively measured recreational impacts on urban forest trails are perceived by trail users, and how perceptions affect the quality of their experience. The influence of age and education was also examined. An integrated approach combining biophysical and social science aspects was used with a convenience sample of university students and retirees ( N = 82). A 1700 m long study trail through a natural forest within an urban landscape park was pre-assessed before the walk for visual impacts such as erosion, litter, exposed roots, vandalism, muddy trail sections, divergent and parallel trails, excessive trail width, domestic animal waste and sporting activity impacts. After the participants had walked the trail individually, they completed a questionnaire which asked which trail impacts they had noticed, to what extent they had noticed them, and whether and to what degree that had influenced their recreation experience. The results indicated that some impacts such as muddy trail sections and informal trails were perceived to a much greater extent than assessors had objectively measured them.

Forests have a potential to provide the society with a number of different ecosystem services. Their actual provision depends upon the demand expressed by different stakeholder groups. To comply with the expressed needs for the provision, forest managers have to define management objectives and implement management measures. However, limited financial resources designated for forest management and possible conflicts between different stakeholders often oblige forest managers to make trade-offs. To define the importance of specific services, interaction with stakeholder groups is one of the key features. In case of large stakeholder groups, like the general public, opinion pools can be used to obtain the information needed to make the necessary decisions. In the paper we present the relative importance of fire prevention measures in comparison to recreation, water purification, and animal and plant diversity in Slovenia. This information was obtained by conducting a choice modelling experiment. The results of the study show that the general public does not consider fires as an important threat to Slovenian forests and that fire prevention is less important than provision of other ecosystem services, considered in the study. At the same time, respondents believe that fire prevention measures in Slovenian forests are not adequate.

The aim of this paper is to present a method for allocating and evaluating forest areas with hydrological roles and for determining the necessary forest management measures. The method was tested in the Draga watershed, which is characterised by a high proportion of forest cover (83 %). The development of a GIS-based decision support model first required deter­mining the needs for the forest hydrological role as well as the capacity of fo­rest sites for providing that role. The needs for the hydrological role of forest are expressed by external, ecological factors (terrain slope and forest soil types distinguished by their erodibility and ground porosity). A forest’s capa­city to assure the hydrological role is expressed by internal, forest stand fac­tors (stand structure, stand density and the degree of stand naturalness). The merged variables describing the needs and capacity were further divided into three groups: low-medium-high needs and high-medium-low capacities for providing the hydrological role. Overlapping the needs and capacity revealed locations where the needs exceed the capacity, and where erosion problems may occur in the field. A side-result of the model is the list of necessary forest management measures for enhancing forest hydrological role that can be ap­plied to every combination of external and internal factors., Svojim nadzemnim i podzemnim dijelom šume reguliraju otje­canje i prodiranje površinske vode te ujedno štite tlo od vodene erozije (Chang, 2006). Oba su utjecaja šume u okviru tog istraživanja zbog tijesne veze između njih i usporedivih šumsko-privrednih mjera za njihovo jačanje udružena pod pojmom hidrološka uloga šume. U članku je predstavljen model za procjenu hidrološke uloge šume. Međutim, rezultati predstavljaju osnovu za izbor odgovarajućih šumsko-uzgojnih mjera za jačanje spomenute uloge. Model je ispitan na primjeru slivnog područja Draga, koje se nalazi na SZ alpskom djelu Slovenije. Područje obuhvaća 1.786 hektara na nadmorskim visinama između 600 i 2060 m. Tipovi tla vrlo su heterogeni, od kamenjaka doplodnih smeđih tala (IGLG, 1967). Šuma pokriva 83 % površine, ostatak su planinski travnjaci i kamenita zemljišta obrasla vrijeskom (MKGP, 2005). Vrlo je dinamičan reljef, nagibi na polovini obrađivanog područja premašuju 30°. Visoke količine oborina (1950–2600 mm godišnje) pokazuju stalnu opas­nost od bujica, a time na iznimnu važnost hidrološke uloge šuma. Veći je dio područja isprepleten klancima planinskih potoka, grebenima, stijenama, ule­gnućima zemlje i plazovima. U dolini zbog povijesnih razmjera prevladava posađena smreka (Picea abies) (L.) Karst.) i prirodno prisutna bukva (Fagussylvatica) (L.). Smjesu sastojine čine jele, gorski javor, veliki jasen, gorski bri­jest i zelena joha (ZGS, 1999). Hidrološku ulogu šume ocijenili smo matričnim modelom koji se zasniva na metodologiji Wullschlegerja (1982). Model uključuje vanjske , ekološke, i unutarnje sastojinske čimbenike (tablica 1). Ekološki čimbenici određuju po­trebe za hidrološkom ulogom, a sastojinski adekvatnost šume da je osigurava. Podaci su obrađeni u programu Idrisi (Idrisi, 2006). Podatkovni slojevi bili su rasterski, veličinom ćelije od 12,5 x 12,5 metra. Kod ekoloških čimbenika ocjenjivali smo nagib i tipove tla s obzirom na njihovu erodibilnost i propus­nost za vodu. Naklon ima velik utjecaj na otjecanje površinske, a posredno i podzemne vode. U kombinaciji s nagibima tipovi tala s obzirom na njihovu erodibilnost i propusnost vode omogućuju procjenu vjerojatnosti pojave kliza­nja. Među unutarnje, sastojinske čimbenike svrstali smo sastojinsku strukturu, sklop (gustoću sastojine) i prirodnost sastava drveća u šumama. Frehner et al. (2005) utvrđuju kako je za obavljanje hidrološke uloge šume najpogodnija raznodobna struktura drveća na maloj površini s visokim stupnjem zastiranja i ravnomjernom razdiobom razvojnih faza. Twery in Hornbeck (2001), dakle, preporučuju da u slivnom području i u obalnom pojasu gustoća gornjeg sloja krošanja bude iznad 70 %, predstavljajući tako tijesan, ali normalan zaklju­čak. Poželjan je što viši stupanj prirodnosti šuma, jer prirodna je struktura šuma prilagođena lokalnim ekološkim čimbenicima, što je itekako bitno pri osiguravanju ekološke uloge šume. Vanjski, ekološki, i unutarnji, sastojinski, čimbenici rangirani na osnovi te­meljitog pregleda domaće i strane literature te stručnih mišljenja pedologa ifitocenologa Šumarskog instituta Slovenije (Gozdarskega inštituta Slovenije) i šumsko-privrednih planera Zavoda za šume Slovenije (Zavoda za gozdove Slovenije) u 3 razreda (tablica 1). U sredini GIS najprije smo prekrili vanjske – ekološke čimbenike (nagib, tip tla) i dobili poligone s kombinacijom obaju rangova (tablica 2). Kod unutarnjih – sastojinskih čimbenika (sastojinska struktura, sastojinski zaključak i prirod­nost) izvor podataka bio je samo jedan, naime sastojinska karta Zavoda za šume Slovenije, zbog toga nije bilo potrebno prethodno prekrivanje podatko­vnih slojeva. U skladu s tablicom 1, svakom smo poligonu odnosno sastojini pripisali rangove za sva tri znaka koje smo dalje spojili u tri skupine (tablica 3). Karta potreba za hidrološkom ulogom šume (slika1) rezultat je spoja vanj­skih – ekoloških čimbenika. U privrednoj šumi većina površina pokazuje male ili umjerene potrebe za hidrološkom ulogom šume. Stanje je znatno nepovolj­nije u zaštitnoj šumi, gdje su čak na 70 % površina izražene velike potrebe za hidrološkom ulogom šume. Udruženjem unutarnjih – sastojinskih čimbenika (sastojinske strukture, zaključka i prirodnost šuma) dobili smo kartu priklad­nosti šume za osiguravanje hidrološke uloge (slika 2). Više od polovine šuma u objema je kategorijama odgovarajuće strukturirano i pokazuju veliku pri­kladnost za osiguravanje hidrološke uloge, 28 % površina u privrednoj i 43 % u zaštitnoj šumi ima umjerene prikladnosti, međutim, manji dio ima male pri­kladnosti za osiguravanje hidrološke uloge šume. U zadnjem smo koraku spo­jili kartu potreba za hidrološkom ulogom šume i kartu prikladnosti šume za osiguravanje hidrološke uloge šume i dobili konačnu – sinteznu kartu (slika 3). Rezultati su pokazali problematično stanje u zaštitnim šumama, budući da je samo na punoj petini površina stanje pogodno, 46 % površina pokazuje prihvatljivo, a gotovo trećina površina nepovoljno stanje, što znači da pri­kladnost šume nije proporcionalna potrebama za hidrološkom ulogom šume. Budući da ne možemo utjecati na vanjske – ekološke čimbenike, moramo se što više koncentrirati na osiguravanje povoljnog stanja unutarnjih – sasto­jinskih čimbenika. Za tu je svrhu izrađen plan provedbe šumsko-privrednih i šumsko-uzgojnih mjera (Fajon, 2007). Model za ocjenjivanje hidrološke uloge šume predstavlja kvalitetnu osnovu za planiranje šumsko-uzgojnih mjera, s kojima možemo u skladu s potrebama održavati ili poboljšati priklad­nost šume za osiguravanje hidrološke njezine uloge. Kritične površine moraju kod planiranja mjera imati prednost. Svaka je prostorna jedinica opremljena s pet vrsta podataka, koji omogućuju potpunu analizu čimbenika koji utiču na potrebe i prikladnost šume za ostvarivanje hidrološke uloge te opredjeljenje potrebnih mjera za poboljšanje stanja.