Rural Development and Natural Resource Management policies in SEE Towards the European Integration

Status of the Forest Governance and Forest Management Policies in Kosovo

Qazim Kukalaj

Tahir Ahmeti

Pristine, May, 2016 Avdulla Nishori1

KOSOVO OVERVIEW

Kosovo has a central geographical

position in the Balkan Peninsula. It

lies between 41°50’58 “and 43°

51’42”of north geographical

latitude and 20°01’30” and

21°48’02” of east geographical

longitude. Kosovo has a total area of

10,887 km²,with about

1,820,631million inhabitants and the

average density of around 167

inhabitant’s per square km².

FOREST AREA AND LAND OWNERSHIP – OVERVIEW

During 2012/13, an inventory of Kosovo’s forests was completed. General

data as a result of this process can be summarized as follows:

Overall forest areas and forestry land is calculated to be around 481,000

hectares or 45% of total territory of Kosovo, or about 0.27 hectares per

capita.

The total growing stock of Kosovo’s forest it’s around 40 milion m³

Area of bare forests is between 20 000 – 30 000 ha.

Forest management institutions need to take care of these lands and

enables realistic planning of forestation and proper selection of seedlings

( species site matching).

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Land Structure in Kosovo

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Forest types

Coppice forest...

Degraded forest

High forest.

Mixed forest

Other forest

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Series1 61 13 17 7 2

1 2 3 4 5

Graph 1. Area, mean growing stock and annual forest increment by tree species and

ownership( ha, m³,%)

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The National Forest Inventory found that 959 000 m³ was harvested every

year. Annual increment of trees with dbh>= 7 cm. almost balances the annual

harvesting which has been calculated to be around 1.56 mil. m³ vs.1.60 mil. m³

Age class ( years)

Without trees

Coniferous Broadleaved Mixed Unknown

0-20 3,800 1,000 121,000

20-40 4,200 104,800 400

40-60 5,200 66,600 1,400

60-80 4,200 36,800 800

80-100 2,000 11,800 200

100-120 1,000 5,400

120-140 1,200 4,200

140-160

160-180 200

180-200 200

No data 4,200 200 2,400 77,400

Total 8,000 19,000 353,400 2,800 77,400

Table.1. Forest area by age and tree species structure (ha)

Table 2.Kosovo growing stock in 1000 m³ on 2002 and 2012 per tree species

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PROTECTED AREAS IN KOSOVO, ACCORDING TO IUCN

Protection category IUCN No. of

Protected zones

Surface (ha) %

Natural reserves I 11 698.40 0.56

National Parks II 2 116,957.00 94.16

Natural monuments III 38 4,868.00 3.92

Protected landscape IV 2 1,681.00 1.36

Total: 52 124,204.40 100.00

Table 3. Number of protected zones in Kosovo

The new laws on National Parks are promulgated by Kosovo Assamble.

There are more than 2,000 species of endemic species in the forest of

“Sharri Park” and 26 of them are involved in the Red List of IUCN

threatened plants.

Based on U.S. EPA one acre ( 0.4 0 ha.) of trees ( on marginal land

would sequester 0.6 to 1.6 metric tons of carbon annually in the first

five years of growth.

Assuming that one hectare of trees sequester about 2.47 ton of carbon

each year and that 1.0 ton of carbon is contained in 3.67 tons of CO2

The forest and forest land area of Kosovo of 468, 800 ha will sequester

(save, reduce, or prevent from escape to the atmosphere) about 464, 800

ha x 2.47 t/C= 1,148,056 t/C or 1,148,056 x 3.67 = 4,213,365.52 CO₂

Calculation of the amount of fForest Carbon sequestration in Kosovo

Year Baseline 1 (t Co₂) Baseline 2 (t CO₂ )

2003 4,375,978 645,974

2004 4,442,789 610,468

2005 4,716,819 815,714

2006 4,786,711 779,988

2007 4,905,477 951,366

2008 5,061,366 884,924

2009 5,230,909 950,098

2010 5,435,864 1,049,843

1011 5,522,212 1,083,926

2012 5,623,672 1,140,902

2013 5,751,193 1,172,485

2014 5,897,243 1,232,863

2015 6,020,700 1,284,419

2016 6,142,173 1,333,262

2017 6,265,734 1,382,621

2018 6,388,580 1,428,095

2019 6,538,274 1,488,460

2020 6,661,770 1,537,683

Source: Climate protection strategy in the forest sector in Kosovo

Baseline Carbon emissions /removal by sink (2003-2020)

Main existing forest laws and strategies

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Green Book”, May 2003;

Agricultural and Rural Development Plan 2007-2013;

Agricultural and Rural Development Plan 2009-2013;

Agricultural and Rural Development Plan 2010- 2013;

Strategy for Game Management in Kosovo, 21.10.2003 and

Document on Policies and Development Strategies of Forestry Sector

in Kosovo 2010-2020.

Necessary amendments to the New Draft Law on Forests

1. Forest property decentralization reforms ( denationalization, restitutions

and privatization).

2. Land destination of low quality agricultural lands, overgrown with

bushes

3. Forestry law harmonisation with laws of other related ministries,

especially with the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

(MESP),

Ministry of Economic Development (MED) and Ministry of Trade and

Industry

4. Law harmonization with EU and other Regional and World Forestry

Directives, Conventions, Regulation and with linked legal instruments

especially with EU Forest Law Enforcement , Governance and Trade

(FLEGT) Action Plan

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Assessment of wood residues as wood biomass potential

Region Area Volume/ha Tot Volume m³

1. Peja 103.746 1.06 109.951

2. Ferizaj 46.983 0.70 33.040

3. Gjilan 57.344 0.62 35.404

4. Mitrovice 94.261 0.88 83.417

5. Prizren 67.714 0.38 25.800

6. Prishtina 80.294 0.56 45.046

Total: 464.800 0.71 332.658

There are no forest residues regulation in place nor organisation and management structure

GENRAL PRINCIPLES OF THE KOSOVO FOREST POLICY

Some general principles of forest management are determined by the Law

on Kosovo's Forests 2003/3

Article 3 - Kosovo aspires to manage its forests in accord with the statement

of principles for a global consensus on the management, conservation, and

sustainable development of all types of forests set forth in Annex III to the

Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14, June 1992), including the precautionary principle,

conservation of biological diversity, the principle of intergenerational equity

and ecologically sustainable development

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Policy and Strategy Paper on Forestry Sector Development in Kosovo 2010 – 2020

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development through the

project GCP/KOS/004/SWE- SIDA and FAO produced Policy and Strategy

Paper on Forestry Sector of Kosovo, 2010-2020.

Strategy” has analysed the role of the Government of Kosovo in developing

the sector with special emphasis on the importance of understanding of the:

economic, social and environmental role of the sector, to continue the

analysis with development and strengthening of institutional and regulatory

framework, development of modern management of forests, consolidation of

forestry land, management of protected zones, cooperation with line

ministries and cross-sectorial cooperation on other issues. 16

Main forestry strategy findings

The main institution responsible for forestry issues, Kosovo Forestry Agency

(KFA) was established based on an UNMIK regulation of 2000 as Kosovo’s

Forestry Authority and it was transformed into Kosovo’s Forestry Agency in

2003, and it still face numerous challenges such as:

Lack of staff competence, lack of funds and resources, overlapping mandates

and responsible, unclear roles, inadequate planning and inadequate control

and monitoring.

According to this document, the listed weaknesses produce the following:

Lack of collection of sub-optimal revenues from selling logging products,

Logging permits in some cases are based on informal criteria.

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Non-use of forest residues, especially where illegal logging takes place etc.

Wood market is not fully transparent and it does not promote an efficient

market for sound business;

Forest management does not take place consistently, which leads to

reduction of productivity and reduction of the value of standing logs, and

Forests were not protected from fires, diseases and pests.

Kosovo still lack of concrete forestry policies in the following segments:

Setting of policies for forest and forest land privatization (denationalization,

restitution or another form).

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Kosovo National Development Strategy (2016- 2021)

The Government of Kosovo has produced National Development Strategy

The forestry objective in the “PLAN” is defined towards prevention of the

deforestation in Kosovo, and give a restart afforestation and sustainable use,

for the benefit of consumers and industrial sector.

The concrete activities of the measure defined in the “ Plan” stated as:

1.Forestation of degraded forest areas, recovery of fire-damaged forests and

implementation of preventive protective measures.

2) Enforcement of tougher sanctions against illegal loggers, which requires

better institutional setup, legal amendment and strengthening capacities of

Kosovo Forest Agency ( KFA) and introduction of a forest information system

for integrated protection.

3) Develop forest management plans for the all public forest areas by 2020. 19

POLICY INTERVENTIONS IN PRIORITIZED AREAS – STRATEGY PROPOSAL

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Forest Sector Progress Report 2014 - 2015

Implementation of activities in 2014 and 2015

Forest Management

1. Capacity development: Forest Laboratory in Peja Forestry Institute, was

inaugurated on 15 October 2014.

Kosovo Forest In-formation System was developed as an IT tool to cover the

KFA needs in carrying out its forest management mandate.

2. Plantation management

A National Afforestation and Reforestation Program 2016 – 2025 was

prepared in 2014 and completed in 2015.

The Afforestation Pro-gramme identifies 101,656 hectares as land suitable

for planting under an afforesta-tion program and a total of 7,448 hectares

has been identified as being suited for immediate reforestation.10

Non-use of forest residues, especially where illegal logging takes

place etc.

Monitoring of forestry health

Non-use of forest residues, especially where illegal logging takes place etc.

The National Forest Health Programme 2016 - 2025 was finalised in 2015.

Supported by FAO.

The objective of the Kosovo National Forest Health Program ( NFHP) is to

enable establishment of an efficient and functional Forest Health Service

( FHS), which can provide reliable data on current physiological condition

of Kosovo’s forests, assess the level of damage and changes to forest

ecosystems due to the impact of biotic and abiotic factors, advice on forest

health related topics and, whenever necessary, undertake preventive and

suppressive measures.22

Other activities outlined in the progress report

Tending of young forests

Treatment of forest – Forest fires treatment , silvicultural activities (

thinning, cleaning, pruning, road construction, marketing of wood mass

Aforestation of bare land –Average annual aforestation of 400 hectares

Growing of forest seedlings in forestry nursery in Peja

Forest education and training – No activities carried out

Higher forestry education- No activities reported

Awareness raising – Communication and Information Strategy for the

Forestry Sector in Kosovo 2010-2020, was prepared and approved in year

2014-th.

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Forest environmental protection –Training on planning of

afforestation and reforestation

Privatisation of Socially Owned Forest Enterprises – Process

is not completed

Support to Forest Owner associations – CNVP/SIDA project

has supported organisation of forest owner’s association

Training in entrepreneurship- No activities reported

Wood processing - No significant activities reported

Bioenergy production – On 2015-th the WISDOM ( Woodfuel

Interpreted Supply and Demand Overview Mapping report

for Kosovo was officially published .

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Forest land consolidation- No activities reported

Forest Inventory – Second Kosovo forest inventory is completed on 2013-th

Illegal wood logging -The problem of forest damage through

illegal cutting is of concern ,

Activities are mainly focused on confiscation illegally

harvested wood material, punishment of illegally wood

cutters, and other executive measures , without undertaken

any preventive measure in direction of solving the demands

of population for the wood material.

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Summary of indentified constraints and problems

Lac of stakeholder participation in decision making (participation approach )

Lack of subsidies for forestry and nature conservation, especially to private forest

owners

Lack of forest codification

Wood industry in Kosovo acts separately from the forestry sector, with most wood

being imported;

Land tenure – Private forest ownership is highly fragmented, forest owners are poorly

organised

Lac of competency of Government Forest intuitions - Kosovo Forest Agency (

Executive Agency), Forest Department ( Regulatory and policy making body),

municipalities are responsible bodies for forest protection.

Decisions based on bottom - up approach 26

Development of strategies, legal framework, programs, plans ,

capacity building and other activities continua's to be based on “

donor driven “ approach

The value of forest and wood industry products still are undervalued

Political culture is in the transition.

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Thank you for your attention