It was one of those days when Ylvi Çengaj was working intensively in the village of Rrenc in the southern part of Kosovo1 to establish forests with native seedlings in an abandoned area.
Contracted as a casual worker along with dozens of others by a forestry programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), he participated in planting 33 000 beech and spruce seedlings in the surrounding areas of his village in Dragash municipality.
“We are planting these trees for the future of our children,” Çengaj said. “Afforestation is very important to have cleaner air and to further develop tourism in this area.”
Looking after forests is one of Çengaj’s biggest concerns. His family uses wood for heating, as many other families in rural areas do. Çengaj and his fellow villagers are fully aware of the benefits of forests, and struggle to protect forests from illegal logging.
“We are planting these trees for the future of our children”
“Forests provide three major functions; social, economic, and ecological, so we must all be committed to conserving this resource that the Earth has given us,” said Muhamet Sofi, who is supervising afforestation activities by Çengaj and his co-workers in the Dragash area. “Here many areas are bare, thus, it is important to reforest them.”
Forests cover 44 percent of the total area of Kosovo, which is higher than in neighboring countries. Through a programme co-funded by the European Union and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, FAO is supporting the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development and the Kosovo Forest Agency in sustainable and multipurpose forest management for improved rural livelihoods and to address climate change. The programme aims to increase the forestry sector’s contribution to Kosovo’s economy through participatory and multi-purpose forest management.
In this regard, FAO is also supporting implementation of the “National Afforestation and Reforestation Programme” as a major programme to restore forest cover, with an emphasis on natively grown species, improve productivity, and reduce effects of climate change in Kosovo.