Badge of First Inspector of Waters and Forests of Illyria

Emperor Napoleon I founded the Illyrian Provinces by special decree following the Treaty of Schönbrunn of 14 October 1809. The government, which was headed by a Governor-General and based in Ljubljana, became the owner of about eight hundred thousand hectares of forest in Carniola, Carinthia and Croatia. The Inspector-General (inspecteur général) of Forests, Alphonse La Devese, was responsible for the administration and supervision of forest management and, indirectly, also for mining, an extremely important branch of the economy. A forest administration was founded at the beginning of June 1810, headed by a Conservator-General (conservateur général) for Waters and Forests, who had under him two first class and two second class inspectors (inspecteur) and nine sub-inspectors (sous-inspecteur). The badge inscribed EMPIRE FRANÇAIS // EAUX ET FORETS / D’ILLYRIE / 1ere CONSERVATION B / Double // 30B belonged to an inspector of the first class. The forestry administration office for the regions of Carniola, Carinthia and Istria was in Ljubljana, for Civilian Croatia, Reka and the Kvarner islands in Karlovac and for Dalmatia and Dubrovnik in Split. Forest administration conservators and inspectors were responsible for the systematic exploitation and maintenance of the forest wealth, the work of forest management offices, inspectors, foresters and other forest workers. Sustainable exploitation of the imperial forest was determined for the needs of factories and mines, primarily the mercury mine in Idrija, for making charcoal and potash and for shipbuilding. Although the forest management policy itself was sound, its execution was totally unsuccessful. The new forestry officials were not professionally trained, they were inadequately supervised, and some forest regions suffered enormous damage.