Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

Introduction. The protective forests are the significant element of multifunctional forestry in Poland. Performing mainly non-productive functions makes wooded areas an object of interest among people who do outdoor recreational activities. Despite such an important role of these type of forests, there is a number of problems with determining their total area. However, the data provided by the Central Statistical Office is sufficient to analyse the changes of their area in terms of different categories.

Aim of the study. The aim of our study is to present changes in the area of the protective forests in Poland, indicating the trends of changes and finding their possible reasons.  

Methods. The analyses are based on statistical data provided by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) and relate to the years 2010-2016 (state forests) and 2011-2016 (municipal forests).

Results. The obtained results have shown that on a national scale, the area of the ​​protective forests located in and around cities in the years 2010-2016 decreased, regardless of the ownership.

Conclusions. Bearing in mind that presented forests have a significant role in modern multifunctional forestry, a decreasing area is highly unfavourable. Moreover, it is hard to indicate a reason for this phenomenon. Some changes may result from discrepancies between the actual state and the one existing in the Land and Property Register, uncontrolled afforestation of non-forest lands, investing activities of forest owners, lack of documentation, and different standards in accuracy of the data collection process and sharing of numerical data.