A RESEARCH STORY · 3 MIN READ
Forests behind fences: funding the next generation of trees
A fence beside a forest track has a financial story. The Green Report for 2024 records CZK 244 million in support for 3,486 kilometres of protective fencing. Looking through the wire connects wildlife, young trees and forest regeneration.
A fence runs beside a forest track. Young trees are growing behind the wire, beginning the next generation of the stand. A visitor walks around the enclosure in a few minutes. For the forest owner, it is one part of a longer task: guiding regeneration from small seedlings and planted saplings towards a new forest. Protection against browsing animals forms part of this care, and it also appears in public budgets.
Thousands of kilometres in a funding table
The Forestry Green Report for 2024 records CZK 244 million in support for establishing 3,486 kilometres of protective forest fencing. That length gives a familiar forest feature a national scale. It also offers a tangible way to understand one of the costs accompanying the growth of young trees.
The payments belong to the Ministry of Agriculture's support for forest regeneration, establishment and tending of stands up to forty years old. In the same table, fencing appears alongside first planting, natural regeneration and sowing, subsequent care of plantings, and the tending of young stands. Each item represents a different part of the work that continues after trees have been planted.
The year attached to a report refers to the recorded support. The 2024 results also include the completion of applications scheduled for payment in 2023. The figures in the following overview therefore describe funding recorded in the respective report editions.
CZK 919 million across four editions
The reports for 2021–2024 record fencing support of CZK 141.5 million, 166.9 million, 366.6 million and 244 million. Together, these amounts reach CZK 919 million in current prices. These figures describe the scale of public financial support across four report years, with the administration of applications linking adjacent years.
| Report year | Fencing support, CZK million |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 141.5 |
| 2022 | 166.9 |
| 2023 | 366.6 |
| 2024 | 244.0 |
Reported Ministry of Agriculture support in current prices. The 2023 and 2024 figures also include applications scheduled for payment in the previous year. Source: Forestry Green Reports 2021–2024, table 6.4.3.1.2; total calculated by us.
A young forest within browsing reach
A separate finding from the National Forest Inventory helps put this work in context. During 2016–2020, approximately 32% of regenerating trees up to 1.3 metres tall were affected by browsing, as a national average. The Green Report for 2024 cites this inventory result in its discussion of damage caused by game animals.
The inventory describes the condition of young trees in the field; the funding tables record public support for specific forestry activities. Read together, they show two aspects of caring for the next forest generation: a biological stage in which small trees are exposed to browsing, and the financial arrangements supporting their protection.
A protective fence is therefore a visible part of long-term forest management. Its simple shape brings together decisions about regeneration, work on the ground and money committed over time. Looking through the wire offers a glimpse of a forest whose story has already begun, while its trees are still barely taller than the surrounding vegetation.
Sources and calculations
The 2021–2024 funding total is our calculation from the individual report editions. The length of 3,486 km refers to support recorded in the report for 2024.
- Ministry of Agriculture: Forestry Green Report 2021, p. 91, table 6.4.3.1.2
- Ministry of Agriculture: Forestry Green Report 2022, p. 91, table 6.4.3.1.2
- Ministry of Agriculture: Forestry Green Report 2023, p. 85, table 6.4.3.1.2
- Ministry of Agriculture: Forestry Green Report 2024, p. 87, table 6.4.3.1.2
- 2024 report: application administration and payment year, p. 86
- 2024 report: National Forest Inventory 2016–2020 and browsing of regeneration, p. 43
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