GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

 MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND WATER MANAGEMENT

DIRECTORATE OF FORESTS

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

PROJECT TCP/YUG/2902

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING FOR THE NATIONAL FOREST PROGRAMME IN SERBIA

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„Private Forest Owners Associations” workshop is a crowning highlight of the work in the past two year on Project “Institutional Development and Capacity Building for the NFP of Serbia”, during which were set the basis for improvement of private forests and private forestry in Serbia. Since the start of the Project, in June 2003, the group for participation has visited several regions in Serbia, and had meetings and contacts with more than 200 private forest owners. This experience showed where the forest owners were most interested in idea of creating association, and this was used in as selection criteria for the participants of the Tara workshop
 

The organisation of this event has been trusted to the Management Centre “Modus Vivendi” (www.modusvivendi.org.yu) from Belgrade, and the participants were private forest owners from four different regions in Serbia: Tara, Zaovine, Valjevo and Podgorac. They were accompanied with the representatives of Private Forests Servcie of Public Forestry enterprises in selected regions; in total 21 participants.

As a result of the workshop, the main goal, objectives and activities of the Private Forest Owners Association were commonly defined. Besides, the participants had an opportunity to inform themselves on current situation in private forestry in Europe, problems and challenges in private forestry in Serbia as well as on the registration procedure, rights and obligations of an Association. Significant contribution to the overall success of the workshop was given by the representative of Confederation of European Private Forest Owners – CEPF, Mr. Atilla Lengyel. He presented the work of CEPF and possible way of support to the participants. The representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water management participated with the presentation of Agricultural Strategy; Rural development support and draft Law on cooperatives.
 

prepaed by: BDj

25th February 2005

The Public debate started after the finalisation of draft Forest Policy Document in November 2004. The document was placed on the Internet presentation of the Project and a number of printed copies was distributed to all relevant stakeholders in forestry sector, as well as in other related sectors  (nature protection, agriculture, environment etc).  Final workshops were organised in Belgrade with different stakeholder groups - Forestry Faculty, representatives of forestry sector, representatives of wood industry sector and representatives of environmental government and non government organisations. The participatory methods and tools were used at the workshops, so that all participants, more than 60 of them, had an equal possibility to present their opinion.

prepared by: BDj

The series of workshops has continued. These workshops aiming at getting opinions and ideas related to future development of sector from all stakeholders. At the workshop in Sombor (Hunting ground Backi Monostor) participated representatives of PE “Vojvodinasume”, regional chamber of commerce and private wood processing industry. The meeting was conducted by Vlade Zaric, national forest economics consultant. Project team leader, Haluk Hilmi and National project coordinator Predrag Jovic were present as well. At the end of the meeting, Predrag Jovic presented Draft Forest policy document.

prepared by: BDj

28-29 September 2004

Two workshops related to Forest sector development scenarios were held in Kraljevo and Ivanjica

In accordance with the Terms of references  national consultant for forest economics, Vlade Zaric, has organized first two workshops in the cities Kraljevo and Ivanjica. The subject was "Forest sector development scenarios", and the participants were representatives of different stakeholder groups: PE "Srbijasume",  wood processing industry, private forest owners, Directorate of forests, PE "Beli izvor" and Regional industry chamber-department for forestry and wood industry. The SWOT analysis of current state in sector was used during these workshops, with special emphasis given to the section opportunity . 32 participants have attended both workshops.

prepared by: BDj

13-16 September 2004

Team leader, Haluk Hillmi and National Project Coordinator, Predrag Jovic participated at CEPF (Confederation of Private forest Owners) meeting

Workshop on “Assistance to Private Forestry Sector in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), Zamardi, Hungary, 13-16 September, 2004.

This workshop was organised jointly by the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The joint initiative is intended to assist private and community forest owners in Central and Eastern European countries. The initiative began with a workshop in Zidlechovice in the Czech Republic in December, 2002. As an outcome of the various activities undertaken since then priority issues in the target countries have been identified by a network of country representatives as follows:

- Management and marketing skills,

- Strengthening of private forest sector institutions   (associations)

- Capacity building for protection of forest resources and conservation issues,

- Land consolidation and land tenure issues

- Income diversification in rural areas,

- Investment in the Eastern European forest sector and access to capital,

- Promotion of traditions in environmentally friendly use of wood,

- Strengthening the links of CEEC and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) with the international forestry community, and

- Public communication on social and environmental benefits derived from forestry land use, particularly on biodiversity and conservation issues.

There was consensus among the organisations involved that time had come for implementation. Hence the organisation of the workshop in Hungary to take stock of what had been done in the countries that participated in the Zidlechovice workshop and what was needed to be done to carry the process forward. The objectives of the workshop were thus set as follows:

- To exchange experiences in assistance actions for private forest owners;

- To discuss opportunities for improving and enlarging this assistance; and

- To design a plan of action to assist private forest owners in Central and Eastern European Countries.

In total forty five participants from fifteen countries participated in the workshop, including two from Serbia (Predrag Jovic, National Project Coordinator of FAO/TCP/YUG 2902 – Institutional Development and Capacity Building for the National Forest Programme of Serbia, and Vladislav Mladenovic, Secretary General of the Forestry Association, Beocin Selo. Haluk Hilmi, International Team Leader of the TCP Project also attended the meeting.

The participants gave a detailed account of activities undertaken in their countries since Zidlechovice and made new proposals for action in the coming years. They also drafted a Zamardi Declaration drawing attention to the needs of the sector and the support that the sector needs internationally and at local level.

Details of the outcomes and the Declaration will be published on the Web page of CEPF in due course.

prepared by: H.Hilmi, Team leader