In Poland, the public believes that the main objective of urban forests is rather to conduct forest management focused on the recreational needs of residents than to produce timber. Considering this belief, it becomes reasonable to distinct the principles of forest management in urban forests from those related to the forests of the State Forests National Forest Holding. Because of the permanent presence of people in the city woods, the managing authorities of such areas should also educate the residents, while forest management should be subordinated to social functions, especially the recreational one. However, Poland lacks the unified system of managing the urban forests, not only at the national scale (there is no central independent organizational unit), but also at the level of individual cities, where various municipal units manage urban woodlands. In practice, each city has its own, individual solutions in this regard. The governing bodies of urban forests face with many problems in their activity. These problems are associated with a strong process of urbanization and human pressure on forest areas, while on the other hand there are no formal legal basis (laws, regulations, instructions) relating the municipal forests. The paper reviews the literature on urban forestry and urban forests worldwide to present the existing legislative frameworks and to propose some changes, based on the current Act on Forest. It was stated that urban forestry in Poland is located in its ‘narrow' definition, based on the traditional forestry, giving priority to the multiple social functions. The proposed changes in forest legislation are part of the discussion on municipal forests and urban forestry in Poland, aiming once again to draw attention to the fact that they are almost ignored in the Polish legislation. The indicated areas for improvements and supplements suggest issues the most important and urgent to solve, but they are not a comprehensive solution on this subject. In order to strengthen the supervision of urban forests in Poland, it is essential to consider the restoration of central supervision, coordinating activities of urban foresters by the development and implementation to the practice unified legal regulations, as well as to give wide autonomy to cities.
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