The Czech Republic’s military forests and estates manage approximately 126,000 hectares of forest land. Petr Král took over the management of the company in 2018 from the position of director of the VLS Horní Planá division, he was appointed to the position by former Minister of Defense Lubomír Metnar (for YES). He has been working in Military Forests and Farms since 2006, and has led the division in Horní Planá since 2015. Prior to that, he worked for Lesy Český Krumlov and Allwood.

The king ran the company from November 2018, when he replaced Josef Vojáček. He went to the helm at that time Forests of the Czech Republic, which manage more than 1.2 million hectares, which is about half the area of ​​Czech forests. However, Vojáček resigned last week from the decision of Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL). Immediately afterwards, there was speculation that Vojáček could return to the leadership of the VLS. Soton’s spokesman declined to comment.

Josef Vojáček, next to Military Forests and Estates, since 2014. He has been working in Lesy ČR since the 1990s. He was also the director of VLS between 2004 and 2009. Jurečka removed him from the position of director of Lesy ČR due to an alleged managerial mistake and inefficient reorganization of the company.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs are now managing the Ministry of Agriculture temporarily until the appointment of Zdeněk Nekula (KDU-ČSL) as Minister. After Vojáček’s dismissal, the remaining four top managers of the company decided to resign on January 3. Jiří Groda, the forest administrator of the Vítkov Forest Administration in the Opava Region, was temporarily entrusted with the management of the state enterprise Lesy ČR. The Ministry of Agriculture announced a tender for the head of Lesy ČR on Thursday. The application deadline is January 16.

This week, Jana Černochová and Marian Jurečka decided to postpone the exchange of assets between Lesy ČR and VLS, which was approved by the former government and which was to apply from January. According to the ministers, the shift was accompanied by doubts. In the next six months, both ministries want to clarify the list of land that these state-owned enterprises were to exchange.

The forests of the Czech Republic were to gain the right to manage land with an area of ​​almost 32,500 hectares, including buildings located throughout the country, mainly in the canceled Ralsko and Mladá military training areas. The land still belongs to the Military Forests and Farms of the Czech Republic. They were to reciprocally acquire continuous parts of forest property with an area of ​​over 41,000 hectares of forest land adjacent to the military districts of Boletice and Hradiště.

Currently, the Military Forests and Estates of the Czech Republic manage approximately 126,000 hectares of forest land, mainly in military training areas, which represents about five percent of Czech forests. It also farms on about 6,000 hectares of agricultural land. The company with more than eighty years of tradition has about 2400 employees and, in addition to forestry, doing business in agriculture and fishing.