Nowadays, forestry is undergoing rapid changes, requiring more timely and accurate data on forest resources for effective management. In response, Lithuania’s forest management planning system is evolving to address these needs. This study presents a critical assessment of the forestry inventory and management planning system in Lithuania, aimed at summarising and explaining its evolution, current status and identifying areas for further improvement.

    To reconstruct historical context, desktop research, including secondary data analyses from reports, research articles, manuals, and legal publications, was pursued in the study. A quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted to analyse the key factors influenced the development of Lithuanian forest inventory and management planning system, evaluating stakeholders’ perspectives on strengths and weaknesses of the current system and exploring future development options.

   Current forest management planning is based on stand-wise forest inventory, conducted once per decade in a given area using combination of orthophotographic map interpretation and predominantly visual estimation of compartments’ properties in the field. The system is the product of two centuries of evolution, shaped by a focus on forestry on growing even-aged stands according to classical German principles of normal forests, largely command-and-control forest governance, the dominance of state forest ownership and preferences for centralised planning with some flexibility in approaches to forest management. In general, the current system is considered adequate in quality for forest management planning, with major strengths in data completeness, user-friendliness, and the quality of forest compartment identification and weaknesses in the volume estimation. Key limitations of current forest inventory and management system are associated with its dependence on methodologically and technologically outdated implementation. Continuous forest inventory, characterised by seamless and ongoing data updates rather than periodic assessments, is considered a solution to completely replace the conventional inventory in coming years. The transition, incorporating advanced technologies, is anticipated to enhance most forest inventory attributes. However, this shift is accompanied by significant methodological, technological and legal issues. Overcoming these barriers is essential for effective adaptation of forest management planning to current needs.

Keywords: forest inventory; management planning; desktop research; questionnaires; in-depth interview