Wspólnoty gruntowe - tradycyjna forma gospodarowania lasami

The term 'common' does not denote an association of people, as Polish civil law defines it as a joint land property with specific characteristics. In a certain simplification we can say that it is the title of the inhabitants of a given locality to use a common land only because they are its inhabitants. The commons are today the last form of collective land management – a relic of the feudal past, when property was understood differently than it is today. The term 'common' in the historical context refers to ‘a group of people of common origin, traditions, values, etc. or linked with a common interest or property' [Bańko 2005]. The first commons were established in the period of royal land grants; the history of the oldest of them dates back to the 14th century. A second wave of commons took place during Poland's partition [Jastrzebski 1963]. Therefore, the history of the majority of commons dates back to the 19th century where the process of liquidation of feudal property took place. On the basis of the information obtained from 81% of the communes, there were 1,588 commons (farmlands, farmlands−forestlands or forestlands) in 13 provinces and in 158 counties in Poland. Management on all the inventoried commons cover 81,875.43 ha, including 48,339.17 ha of forests. According to the GUS statistics, 67,000 ha of forests (just 4.6% of the total area of private forests) are under common management [Zając et al. 2004]. The article presents distribution of regional commons, their general area characteristics and structure of the utilized lands, as well as selected elements characterising forest management on those lands.