Regulation on the designation of regions of provenance.

This Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, which is composed of eight articles and two Annexes, lays down the regions of provenance which must be taken into account in the production and marketing of forest reproductive material, pursuant to art. 39 of the Forest Reproductive Material Act. A region of provenance is determined for each tree specie as the area or group of areas with uniform ecological conditions, like vegetation, geology, soil, climate. The map showing these regions and subregions is contained in Annex 1. Annex 2 provides basic characteristics of the regions and subregions.
To operationalize these spatial units, the Regulation establishes seven distinct ecological regions and twenty-four subregions across the territory of Slovenia, incorporating specific altitudinal belts—ranging from lowlands up to 300 meters to upper elevation zones above 1,000 meters. For major commercial forest tree species, including Norway spruce, silver fir, European beech, pedunculate oak, and sessile oak, provenance regions directly mirror these ecological boundaries. Conversely, for minor tree species, the entire territory of the Republic of Slovenia is treated as a single unified provenance region.
Furthermore, the Regulation outlines a structured hierarchy for the deployment of forest reproductive material, prioritizing seed sources derived from identical subregions and altitudinal belts to ensure genetic adaptability and forest resilience. It also provides specific regulatory mechanisms for temporary deviations, permitting the use of alternative provenance tiers or imported materials under stringent conditions—such as multi-year seed stock deficits or urgent post-disaster forest restoration following natural disturbances—subject to expert evaluation by the Slovenian Forestry Institute.