Protected areas in Serbia cower 6% of the country. Forest management in protected areas is a complex problem, which requires taking into account not just forestry, but also nature protection goals. These two sectors formulate their goals through policy program documents, and the realisation of goals is achieved by choosing the adequate instruments. Forest policy instruments can be classified into three basic groups: regulatory, economic and informational. Regulatory instruments refer to the regulations which prescribe certain ways of behaving and acting. In Serbia there is a scarce literature about the legal and other elements of the policy program framework related with the forest management in protected areas. The main goal of this paper is to provide a review of such a framework, in analytical terms. A detailed list of laws, regulations and ordinances has been provided, including also strategic documents that have influence on forestry and nature protection; also hierarchical relation between particular elements is illustrated, as well as relation between different types of program elements.