Along with climate change and the irresponsibility of competent institutions, the devastation of forests is one of the most important causes of floods, torrents and landslides in BiH, and the absence of forest protection and restoration measures heralds new tragedies in the near future.
According to data from Global Forrest Watch, the portal of the World Resource Institute for monitoring the state of forests in almost real time, from 2001 to 2024, BiH lost 41,000 hectares of forest cover – 21,000 in FBiH and 20,000 in RS.
Laws in cantons
– The devastation of forest ecosystems has a direct and multiple impact on the increase in flood risk, especially in torrential watersheds in hilly and mountainous areas. BiH has such a configuration that 70 percent of the country has a slope of more than 20 percent. The forest cover is a key regulator of the hydrological regime – says professor of the Faculty of Forestry UNSA Muhamed Bajrić.
He emphasizes that the devastation of forests is taking on ever-increasing proportions, because, in addition to fires, illegal logging is becoming more frequent in the immediate vicinity of settlements. At the same time, the FBiH does not yet have a Law on Forests, all cantons have passed their own, except for the HNK, which is used for further destruction of forests.
– Very often this is justified by the lack of federal laws, but cantonal laws do exist. Forest clearings would have to be reforested, but we also have other pressures, which are becoming more pronounced. For example, placing solar power plants where they should not be. I saw some above Mostar, which are on the ground where the erosion processes are most pronounced. Almost 6,000 cubic meters of eroded material per square kilometer are produced there annually. That’s a huge amount. And every solar panel on a steep terrain is like an umbrella from which water rushes down. The forest has a multiple role, because up to 25 percent of precipitation does not reach the ground at all, with the positive role of the root system. You removed the forest, installed panels, there is no retention of water and the consequences can be catastrophic in case of similar rains as we had in Jablanica – adds prof. Ph.D. Bajric.
The tragedy in Donja Jablanica, Zlata and other places happened precisely in the areas that were positioned on forest land, which was significantly devastated, Bajrić points out, and the occurrence of torrential flows and erosion were also stimulated by human activities.
– When the stability of forest eco-systems is disturbed, there is a sudden and rapid runoff, the formation of torrential flows that have a devastating impact, so the negative consequences become more and more visible. We have neglected these problems for years, so we have more and more serious consequences. Risks from soil erosion, landslides and torrential flows must be an integral part of spatial plans of FBiH, cantons and local communities. That was not respected, so we suffer the consequences, and in the future we will suffer even more – Bajrić points out.
We are losing forests
Marijana Kapović Solomun, professor at the Faculty of Forestry in Banja Luka, an expert on the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says that more than 50 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina is forest land, but that the structure of the forests has deteriorated significantly in the last 30 years, because we are losing tall, high-quality forests.
With the relationship we have had so far, we can expect more torrents, floods and landslides, and calls for the use of modern technologies in forest restoration projects.
– I was in Turkey, where they have a large number of forest nurseries and a huge assortment of seedlings. They reforest with plants that are adequate for a particular habitat. In some countries, seeds are scattered in inaccessible areas with the help of drones. The costs are lower, and there is a greater chance to reforest where we cannot physically go – explained prof. Ph.D. Marijana Kapović Solomun.
The forest protects sources of drinking water
Without ignoring the fact that extreme amounts of precipitation are becoming more frequent, forests are of inestimable importance in protecting people and their property, writes Avaz.
– First, the forest preserves sources of drinking water, because the sources originate in the upper parts of the watershed, not in the city. Forests play a role in regulating the water regime, and this has been known since time immemorial. When it rains, if there is no canopy or trees to hold it, everything that falls on the ground ends up in the lower part of the watershed. And that is a huge amount – explains Kapović Solomun.
What a stock
– Both in the FBiH and in the RS we have forest farms, which manage forests based on ten-year planning documents, forest management principles. They must prescribe how much there is, what the stock is, the structure and how much and where it can be cut in the next 10 years. Farms also have an obligation to afforest a certain number of hectares every year. Apart from the fact that we have cuttings that are not part of the plan, an additional problem is that we do reforestation spontaneously, unplanned, without taking into account the land and whether that species has any chance to survive – says Kapović Solomun.
