Based on the Department of Forestry Research, established in 1945 as part of the Department of Education at the Ministry of Forestry, Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI) was established in 1947. It is the main public research institute of national importance, which conducts basic and applied research on forests and forest landscapes, forest ecosystems, wildlife ecology, hunting, forest management, and other uses of the resources and services forests provide. The scientific knowledge from these fields helps further the research on forest biodiversity and its management in relation to climate change. Based on its research programme and projects the Institute also provides forestry and environmental services in the public interest. Another of the Institute’s functions is to provide scientific knowledge on all aspects of sustainable development, with the purpose of increasing knowledge and awareness of the importance of forests within the environment and the importance of forest management. The Institute is a scientific, professional, and cultural storehouse for Slovenia’s relationship with its forests and the resources and services they provide. The Institute’s research programme is organized in six departments, all of which study forests from the standpoint of the sustainable development of society, in balance with the environment: Department of Forest Ecology, Department of Forest Physiology and Genetics, Department for Forest Technique and Economics, Department of Forest and Landscape Planning and Monitoring, Department of Forest Yield and Silviculture and Department of Forest Protection.
The Institute intensively monitors forests as part of the public forestry service and is committed to sustainable forest management and the conservation of its biological diversity, as well as to further development and organization of the Slovenian forestry system and forestry policy. Institute’s public environmental service monitors emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases resulting from land use, land use change, and forestry. As a signatory of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Slovenia is required to submit an annual report on greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. SFI is the State Authority – the Official Body for approval of forest seed objects (basic material), certification of forest reproductive material, and leading the Slovenian Forest gene bank as part of SIFORGEN – the Slovenian Forest Genetic Resources Programme.
The Institute’s publication center, Silva Slovenica, publishes in collaboration with the Biotechnical Faculty’s Department of Forestry and Department of Wood Science and Technology, the series of scientific monographs Studia Forestalia Slovenica and Acta Silvae et Ligni (Journal of Forestry and Wood Science). The Slovenian Forestry Institute successfully collaborates with Slovenian forestry, timber, and nature conservation organizations, as well as with other educational and research organizations both in Slovenia and abroad.
