Tourism and Its Role in Promoting Sustainable Forest Management in Serbia

Assessing forest contributions to local economies and well-being in Serbia is possible only in a qualitative way by exploring related rural cultures. Knowledge and experience in using forest ecosystem services show that the main economic benefits of forests for employment and the value of outputs for local communities were declining through history, while the social and cultural benefits are increasing. Yet, the assessment of forests perceptions nowadays shows that local communities rarely consider forests as a development potential, but rather an immediate supply. A short survey was made to understand the perception of rural and urban people and learn to which extent there is a set of traditional priority benefits possible to expand towards untraditional, such as tourism and recreation to add value. The factors influencing local community decisions on the most important forest benefits were also explored. Mapping value chains for the most important forest products was the following. Firewood, non-wood forest products (NWFPs), game products, and rural tourism value chains were viewed through a prism of potential tourism supply chains. Finally, financial support to rural development was assessed to find possible interactions of sustainable forest management and tourism by supporting shortening and strengthening its supply chains in afforested rural areas or allusions to the tables or illustrations..