Forestry at the EU’s Doorstep – How Much are We Ready in the Area of Occupational Safety in Forestry?

According to the classification of business activities in the National Classification of Activities, agriculture, forestry and fishery together account for 3.43% of all injuries recorded in 2009, which places them in the lower part of the annual review (Table 1). However, in the said group, the state forestry enterprise (Croatian Forests Ltd. Zagreb) accounts for 48.46% of all injuries at work, which makes 1.66% of all injuries recorded in 2009. Comparing the number of injuries in Croatian forests with the number of employees in 2009, an exceptionally high ratio is obtained of 29.40 injuries per 1000 employees, the highest index among the above said industry sectors.Nevertheless, according to standard indicators of the level of security and protection of workers, in this decade forestry has recorded positive trends in relation to key indicators. Also, the state forestry enterprise halved the number of injuries (Table 2).Working techniques of workers directly employed in forest operations play a key role in achieving a satisfactory degree of safety and efficiency in forestry work. The assessment of working techniques of forest workers employed in logging and timber production has been carried out by the Faculty of Forestry continuously since 2000 (Table 3). Findings of a ten-year evaluation indicate the following:• since the beginning of monitoring, a relatively steady increasing trend of the level of working techniques has been recorded, while the accomplished potential (AP), calculated using the overall mean scores, has ranged between 0.79 and 0.88 utilizations,• mean value of AP is 0.84, which suggests an average of 16% of unaccomplished potential and it is a scope to improve working techniques,• rating of 2010 (2.63) keeps the increasing trend of working techniques levels, but such a positive difference is not statistically significant,• a decreasing trend of the lowest ratings (1) stops in 2010, by reducing the share of medium grade (2) and increasing the proportion of top grade (3).The evaluation of mechanized skidding has been carried out since 2008 by separate monitoring of the skidder-driver and chokerman (Table 4). Key findings are as follows:• performance level of work activities moderately grows with a decrease of the weakest ratings (1) and with the increase of the share of medium grade (2),• mean value of the accomplished potential (AP) amounts to 0.825 in 2009, which means an average of 17.5% of unaccomplished potential and it is a scope for improvement of working techniques.According to the Forests Act, forestry work can be carried out exclusively by registered and licensed contractors. According to the review of the Croatian Chamber of Forestry and Wood Technology of November 2010, there are 238 forestry contractors registered with license. It is evident that more than 85% of all licensed service contractors are engaged in logging, silviculture, and construction of forest roads (Table 6).Past practice of training for professional forest work shows that the greatest problems are related to:• uneven and incomplete programs and subject-matter training,• a significant reduction, even lack of practical training,• application of non-transparent training evaluation criteria.Additionally, training is conducted by programs that are not verified or independently assessed, and also there is no control of adequacy of human and technical resources for training. Also, it is not known that anyone has ever been denied to organize the training, e.g. for lack of specific resources and training ground for practical work. Also, Croatian forestry has no compulsory certification of operators of forestry machinery.There is no organized training of forest owners for forest work in Croatia. The first step in building such a system started with training 17 professionals by the Forestry Extension Service during 2008 at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, where they were trained as trainers of safety in forestry work. In future, they should be mediators between forest owners who are interested in independent forest operations and educational training centers.During 2009, 6 experts of the Forestry Extension Services went through training in the Secondary Forestry School in Karlovac by which they were trained to implement the theoretical part of the training of forest owners for forest work. A part of practical training of forest owners was planned to be carried out in the polygon of the Secondary Forestry School in Karlovac. Interest in training for independent forest operations was shown by more than 500 forest owners.The Faculty of Forestry in Zagreb developed the idea of establishing a National Center for forest work. The center is envisioned as an agency with public authorities and international accreditation for certification of training for forest work and for work with specific tools such as chainsaw (Fig. 2). The idea of the Center was first included in the project proposal of the National Program for occupational safety in forestry 2007.The primary tasks of the Center would be as follows:• connecting Croatia into European processes and programs related to safety in forestry,• establishing a collaborative network in order to implement the EU-project standard of forest workers in Croatia,• introduction of certification of all aspects of training for professional work (Fig. 1), including forest certification program, performance and contractor training,• introduction of certification for training of non-professionals (especially forest owners) to work with chainsaw,• verification procedures in licensing of registered forestry contractors,• monitoring of the minimum technical requirements for training polygons,• establishment of an IT system for providing security with a registry of certificates issued.Considering the current legislative context, the Center for Forest Work should be formed as an agency with public authorities. The framework for the establishment and functioning of the Center should be created by alterations of the »Ordinance on occupational safety in forestry«. This ordinance should impose an obligation of training certification for all holders of such activities in the forestry sector.The establishment of a Center would also stimulate training market development, where it would be important to observe the above said rules in determining the qualifications and minimum requirements for legal and natural persons engaged in training for forest work.In the preparatory phase, cooperation and partnership should be initiated by the signing of agreements regarding the establishment and start-up of the Center between the respective ministry, the Croatian Forests Ltd., Faculty of Forestry, and the Croatian Forest Research Institute – primarily for integrating human and technical resources.The forthcoming Center would be financed from the state budget for its public activities (e.g. implementation of IT system) and income earned from its own collection of fees from holders of certifications and/or licenses.