National Forest Centre (NFC)
is a semi-budgetary research and professional organization established by the SR Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic (MARD SR) in 1st January 2006. NFC secures tasks in the field of forest-related research, expertise, education and consultancy, forest monitoring, forest management planning and related reporting obligations.
The National Forestry Center currently consists of four institutes:
NFC - Forest Research Institute Zvolen (established 1898)
NFC - Institute of Forest Consulting and Education Zvolen (established 1978)
NFC - Institute of Forest Resources and Informatics (established 2006)
NFC - Institute for Forest Management and Planning in Zvolen (established 1952)
NFC represents the Slovak Republic in various international bodies (e.g. Forest Europe, FAO, UNECE, IUFRO, EFI).
NFC secures tasks issuing from the national legislation such as control of forest reproductive material, operation of the national Forest Protection Service, supervision of national forestry databases, crisis management in case of calamity events.
NFC has been involved in numerous international projects on forest management and policy, biomass production for bioenergy (e.g. projects of the FP7 ARANGE, BIOCLUS, IN2WOOD).
NFC secures the management of national forest monitoring network (ICP) and national forest inventory as well as other specific research sites.
NFC supervises national forestry information system and develops national forestry databases, including forest management plans, forest maps, historical data on forest planning and management, evidence of logging and other management measures in forests, remote sensing data, system of registers of forest manager, owner, hunting districts etc.
NFC is active in climate change research, including development of forest adaptation strategies and their implementation in forest management (e.g. FP6 CECILIA, FP7 ARANGE, H2020 DIABOLO projects; INTERREG Central Europe – SUSTREE and numerous projects supported by the Structural Fund of EU and national research agencies.
NFC has around 250 employees and annual turnover about 10 mil. Eur.