Timber harvesting, especially motor-manual felling, in Croatia, as in many other countries, is one of the most hazardous economic activities. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to analyse and compare the latest trends and risk factors related to the incidence of work-induced injuries in structural organization units of national forest enterprise. A combined approach of literature review and assembled secondary data was applied to gather data on workplace accidents over the years 2014–2020. Work-induced injuries data were drawn from the records of the national enterprise Croatian Forests Ltd. which manages state forests (76% of total forest area). A total of 1626 work-induced injuries were processed and entered into the database. Data analysis was conducted using statistical and descriptive methods. Research results have proven a significant difference in the injury rate over the years 2014–2020 in the Croatian forest enterprise. During the analysed period the highest number of workplace accidents (51.35% of all recorded workplace accidents) occurred during the forest harvesting phase, i.e., during motor-manual felling. Trends in the incidence of work-induced injuries in the observed period do not show any significant improvement. The key findings have pointed out that forest administrations which practice even-aged forest management have 25% or more injuries than forest administrations which practice selective forest management. Related to the average rate of change by forest administration, the largest annual increase or decrease of the selected safety indicators is recorded for smallest forest administrations. Related to total number of injuries, the smallest forest administrations have the least injuries and show statistically significant difference compared to large forest administrations. When comparing the number of injuries per 1000 employees, medium sized forest administrations have the highest value of indicator and show statistical significance. Discussion and conclusion of the paper emphasizes the need for systematic research in the field of ergonomy, safety and health of forest workers in Croatian forestry sector. Additionally, the development and inclusion of proactive safety culture is recognized as a mechanism that can further reduce work injuries and improve occupational safety which should have a significant role in the process of certification of forest management according to the FSC standard.

Background and Purpose: Due to technological progress and improvement of working processes, significant changes in the field of health protection and safety at work have occurred in the forestry sector. Accordingly, this paper presents the assessment and comparison of the working posture for operators of three different types of forest machines: chainsaw, forwarder and harvester. Materials and Methods: The analysis was carried out from an ergonomic point of view using ErgoFellow 3.0 software, i.e. two ergonomic methods: Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). Field measurements and data collection were carried out during the summer of 2017, when different wood harvesting technologies were applied within the same forest stand. The operators’ body posture was recorded during effective work by a video camera and was taken as a relevant comparison factor of different types of forest machines and three observed operators. From the video recordings, the working body postures were defined in accordance with the snapshot method with the aim of obtaining an equal number of observations for all three operators of forest machines. Results and Conclusions: The results of the analysis of the working posture for operators of all three types of forest machines show that, in terms of the level and type of their impact on the worker, the work of the chainsaw operator is more demanding and much more risky than that of the harvester or forwarder operators. The comparison of the two risk categorization methods, from the aspect of the working posture, shows that the REBA method has higher risk ratings than the OWAS method for all three types of forest machines. The need to implement preventive measures established in Scandinavian countries and to define the guidelines for future research of the working postures of forest machine operators is presented in the discussion of this paper.

Skidders, as self-propelled machines designed to transport trees or parts of trees by trailing or dragging it from the woods to a landing area, are still extensively used as the main wood extraction equipment in most of the Europe and worldwide. The high price of new machines (and even higher for CTL technology) makes the second-hand skidder market very interesting and appealing, especially for small forest owners and forestry contractors. So, this paper reports on a survey of used skidders available for purchase on the European market. Up-to-date empirical data was gathered by the analysis of the offerings on the main online marketplaces, i.e., specialized websites. The study included skidder make and model, variation in their age, annual usage and resale prices. The survey identified a total of 163 second-hand skidders and the results pointed out the prevalence of small-size machines (<110 kW), the average annual use (after excluding 1 year old machines from calculation) of 863 hours per year and the average re-sale price of about 65,000 EUR. Skidders are most commonly re-sold at an age of 16 years and the calculated price models show that skidder age is a stronger predictor of their value, i.e., resale price, than the total machine working hours. In the concluding section, paper also includes some reflections on possible future trends and perspectives of skidding technology in forestry.

Professionally trained, motivated, and responsible forestry workers are a fundamental prerequisite of successful forest production and an integral part of the modern, generally accepted paradigm of sustainable forest management. However, the forestry sector today is increasingly facing the problem of a shortage of forestry workers and the challenge of obtaining a qualified and sustainable workforce. This paper, therefore, presents the reflections of forestry workers on the challenges and future perspectives on their profession and forest work. The findings of the examination of forestry workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina include some general characteristics of forest work and indicators of the state and position of forestry workers (socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes toward work, profession, etc.). Specially addressed are some problems and challenges faced by the forestry sector in obtaining and recruiting the necessary workforce—the severity of the forestry worker shortage, the main causes and reasons for the lack of workers, factors for stronger recruitment and retention of workers, work commitment, sustainability of the workforce, future perspectives on forestry work, etc. The differences between workers employed in public and private forestry companies were examined. The survey included 268 respondents and was carried out in the second half of 2021. The purpose of the work was in sensibilizing the profession and the public to the issues of the workforce in forestry, its position, and reflections, and in providing the basis that can be an important contribution toward improving the condition and sustainability of the forestry workforce.

Rad se bavi prikazom metode izračuna planskih cijena pridobivanja drva, koje su predmet javnih nadmetanja u Šumsko gospodarskom društvu »Hercegbosanske šume« d.o.o. Kupres te analizom odstupanja planskih od ugovorenih/ostvarenih cijena usluga pridobivanja drva za 97 grupa odjela, koji su bili predmet javnih natječaja u 2019. i 2020. godini. Deskriptivnom i korelacijskom statističkom analizom obuhvaćeni su i pokazatelji grupa odjela na javnim natječajima: površina, neto obujam doznačenog drva, sječna gustoća, broj doznačenih stabala po ha, obujam srednjeg doznačenog stabla, nagib terena, srednja udaljenost privlačenja drva, stjenovitost terena i privlačenje drva uz nagib terena. Test zavisnih parova podataka je ukazao da postoji statistički značajna razlika između planskih i ugovorenih cijena usluga pridobivanja drva (t = 7,78, p &lt; 0,001), a rezultati korelacijske analize potvrdili povezanost utjecajnih čimbenika izvođenja šumskih radova s ugovorenom i planskom cijenom pridobivanja drva. Uslijed statistički značajne (p &lt; 0,05) i vrlo jake korelacije natječajima ostvarene i prikazanom metodom izračunate planske cijene usluge pridobivanja drva, ovisnost je izjednačena linearnim regresijskim modelom uz koeficijent determinacije od 0,667. Navedenim, prikazana je metoda izračuna planske cijene usluge pridobivanja drva dobar prediktor ostvarenih cijena pridobivanja drva na javnim natječajima, što govori i o samoj dobroti prikazane metode izračuna. Slaba i negativna korelacija (p &lt; 0,05, r = -0,22) razlike ugovorene i planske cijene usluge pridobivanja drva o obujmu srednjeg doznačenog stabla, ukazala je da bi ovu pojavu u budućnosti trebalo pratiti s ciljem utvrđivanja uzroka, koji mogu biti: 1) međusobna konkurencija između izvoditelja usluga pridobivanja drva za grupe odjela sa većim srednjim obujmom doznačenoga stabla ili 2) precjenjivanje obujma srednjeg doznačenog stabla u prikazanome modelu izračuna planske cijene pridobivanja drva. Predložene su i smjernice povećanja točnosti određivanja ulaznih parametara (srednja udaljenost privlačenja drva, nagib i stjenovitost terena te privlačenje drva uz nagib terena) prikazane metode izračuna planskih cijena pridobivanja drva u cilju njenog usavršavanja. S obzirom da je izračun vezan za srednju plansku cijenu na razini šumskog gospodarstva, a koju utvrđuje uprava trgovačkog društva, neophodno je stalno praćenje tržišta, kako bi se na vrijeme moglo reagirati ukoliko bi došlo do većih oscilacija.