FAO Sub-regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Sub-regional Office
for Central and Eastern Europe (SEUR)


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FORESTRY

COORDINATION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT POLICIES

Introduction:
The subject of lacking coordination between the various forest land use policies was perceived as an issue from a range of international meetings in Europe, most recently from the Joint Session of the FAO European Forestry Commission and Timber Committee in Geneva October 2004 (UNECE/FAO, 2004). Also the EU forestry strategy addresses the matter explicitly (EC, 2005).

FAO Sub-regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe participation in the process:
Based on its overall mandate to analyze and facilitate policy processes in member countries as well as on an international level FAO has thus initiated an activity with the aim of promoting more coordination of forest land use policy, developing a common understanding among various forest land use stakeholders about possible options, discussing possible measures to reach a more coordinated forest land use policy in Europe and elaborating policy relevant recommendations, which could potentially lead to a substantial input to the various European institutions dealing with forest land use policy issues.
An initial brainstorming meeting on the subject in February 2005 held at FAO SEUR in Budapest. The meeting recognized that the lack of coordination between policies addressing forest land use in Europe may lead to contradictions and conflicts between the respective policy instruments and hinder an adequate comprehensive respond of policies to societal demands (FAO SEUR, 2005).

The Regional approach:
A potential way of reaching better coordination in forest related instruments and institutions could be a regional forest land use instrument. There have been various attempts in the past to set up a legally binding instrument on a Pan-European level. Such an instrument (e.g. European forest land use Convention) represents a tool to comprise different policy areas, mitigating overlaps and discrepancies of European policies with regard to forest land use.

The Sub-regional approach:
A regional forest land use instrument could also be initiated on a sub-regional level in a Forest Land Use Convention (e.g. Balkan countries, the Caucasus or the Baltic States), following examples of environmental agreements such as the Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians (UNEP, 2003). With this regard cooperation with UNEP and IUCN has been initiated (e.g. Bolzano workshops, December 2005).

Last developments on the topic: The lack of coordination of forest land use related policies was further discussed and confirmed on the following meetings:

2005	Location	Title
20-21 June	Budapest, Hungary	FAO/UNECE Workshop on Policy Consequences of the European Forest Sector Outlook Study (EFSOS)
06-09 June	Durdevac, Croatia	Policy options for improved forest land use in South-East Europe
11-15 May	Zlatibor, Serbia and Montenegro	7th International Symposium on Legal Aspects of European Forest Sustainable Development - IUFRO
28-29 April	Geneva, Switzerland	Brief information to the bureaux of EFC and TC.
18-21 April	Zvolen, Slovakia	Policy options for storm damage management - Workshop

Further background documents:

	Jansen, G.: European co-operation and networking in forest communication. EFI, Joensuu.
	Pülzl H. (2005): Evaluation of European community Regulations and Policies Relevant to Forest Policy. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and water management of Austria, Vienna.
	EC (2005): Communication from the commission to the council and the European Parliament. Reporting on the implementation of the EU forestry strategy. Brussels. European Communities, Luxembourg.
	Worldbank (2005): Forest institutions in transition. Europe and Central Asia Region (ECSSD). Washington D. C.
	Scheme on Forest land use policy framework(HAS TO BE CREATED)

Links to major international processes and conventions concerning forest land use:

GLOBAL

	United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF)
	UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
	United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
	UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

REGIONAL/SUB-REGIONAL

	Carpathian Convention
	NATURA 2000 Network
	Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union(CAP)
	Ministerial Conference on Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE)

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