Productive and protective clusters of trees and shrubs outside the forests in public and private areas excluding forests and green lands with cities and rural.

Their purpose is wood and non-timber production, impact on natural environment and landscape development. Plantings in the form of hedges are present along roads (wayside hedges), watercourses, and among agricultural crops (field hedges, meadow hedges, as well as meadow and pasture hedges), by homestead and farmstead (farmstead hedges) and within plant areas (e.g. on dumping grounds, spoil heaps, and workings).

The term excludes: forests and forest land, non-forest land designated by binding decisions for afforestation, orchards, plantations, forest and shrub nurseries, cemeteries and municipal green belts within cities and rural (municipal parks, municipal forests, public utility green areas), area of coastal bands, home gardens and allotments surrounding historic places.