‘Post-communist transition’ (N¼ 11). The main causes within
this category refer to the effects of the end of the communist
regime as they are perceived by local stakeholders. Stakeholders
indicated that after the decline of communism, their living conditions
deteriorated and a quick solution to improving their lifestyle
was to harvest the forest. Forest restitution processes in the postcommunist
period resulted in widespread private ownership of
the local forests, a phenomenon which triggered also their deforestation.
Stakeholders mentioned the poor enforcement of forest
laws and the lack of forestry education as problems, stating that
many people do not understand how valuable reforestation can be;
hence there is an ‘absence of the reforestation culture’. Industry
decline and factory replacement have been mentioned as main
causes for forest depletion because many people who lost their jobs
in times of economic hardship resorted to logging trees to feed their
families.