Regional Development in Forestry from the Point of View of the Bioeconomy at the EU Member-State Level

This study investigates regional development in forestry from the point of view of the bioeconomy. This is examined through a qualitative content analysis of different strategic documents of regional and territorial local plans with the aim of examining which topics are associated with forestry at different strategic documents (n = 67). Using the example of a private forest owner, it is then shown how this is specifically implemented. To gain feedback for assessed strategic documents, we compared the economic results of state, municipal, and private forest owners. The Czech Republic was chosen as an example of a European Union member state. The research assumption is that the lower the territorial local level, the greater the importance local governments attach to forestry. The main featured topics are featured water regime, sustainable forestry and biodiversity support, climate change, maintenance infrastructure, social functions, and economic competitiveness. The results show that the assumption that the lower the territorial planning level, the more forestry is featured in strategies was not confirmed. The relationship is rather the opposite. The presented economic results clearly demonstrate that financial contributions to forest management are a logical consequence of policies. These results correlated with those of the content analysis.