Annex 1
Phase 1: Building consensus on priority issues at sub-regional level
Objective:
The purpose of this first phase was to:
- have a common view and understanding of the current situation in CEEC
- state and reach some consensus on important and priority issues at sub-regional level
Tool:
Affinity diagram. This tool is used to produce and organize in a "visual way" a large amount of information, ideas and issues
Focus question:
"What are the main problematic topics (=priority issues) that forestry sector has to face?"
All priority issues identified by participants in sub-groups, reviewed in plenary and grouped into categories are listed below. This final list reconfirmed in whole group served as base for voting. The participants had to vote for 1 category and 2 priority issues. The number between brackets shows the number of individual votes (on category level, on issue level).
Comments:
It is interesting to note that:
- The categories which included more priority issues were not specially those one which were most voted
- Four categories of priority issues can be perceived as real priority, since they were recurrently voted at both level: category and issue:
- Multi-sector
- Policy & Law
- Economic/Finance & Investment
- Communication
- Private forestry is a topic that seemed to interest all participants even if none of them voted for it.
- For Institution & Capacity and Education & Training, it was shown, further in the workshop, that those 2 topics were intermediary steps to reach other priorities.
Results - Identified issues at sub-regional level by category (number in bracket corresponds to the number of votes ascribed either to the category or the issue):
Multi-sector (6)
- Implementation of cross-sectoral responsibility for forests and forestry issues (5)
- Lack of inter-sectoral institutions/mechanisms to coordinate (2)
- To recognize the cross-sectoral nature of SFM (1)
- Forest clusters = cross-sectoral approach (1)
- Forest protection
- The needs for evaluation all services and goods provided by forests
- Valuation of non-wood benefits and other services and goods offered by forests to society
- Forest contribution to sustainable development
- Low importance of forestry sector (marginalization)
- Balance between interests of timber industry and environmentalists
- Health state of forest ecosystem
- Income contribution of forests to sustainable development
- Non-optimal share of forest cover
- Bio-fuels and bio-energy
POLICY AND LAW (6)
- Balancing private owner ship and public interest on biodiversity conservation (4)
- Long term vision: strategic planning on priorities, functions (control and management) - strategic planning in accordance with biodiversity conservation, increase land cover (3)
- Rural development (1)
- The forest policy is not a main policy in the general economic development policy for the country (1)
- Constitutional limitations
- Low share of forested land and fragmentation of forest
- Cut forest regulations by half; there still will be enough
- Local people have poor opportunities to benefit forest resources
- Restitution/ privatisation
- Reduce public activities - increase private activities
- Development of European forestry legislation (if possible)
- Decentralisation of the forestry sector (participation on equal level)
- Illegal logging and trade
- Lack of economical evaluation of nature protection measures (estimation/establishment of new protected areas)
- Increasing protected areas in forest
ECONOMIC (4)
- Improving economic viability of the forest sector (8)
- Decreasing profitability of the forest sector
- Economic efficiency of forest enterprises
Communication (2)
- Improving image and profile of the forest sector (1)
- Low importance of forestry (1)
- Collaborative partnership in solutions of emerging issues; foresters vs green NGOs and criticism without responsibility or responsible joint solution of ... (1)
- Foster contacts Europe/World; professionals/students
- Poor public relations of forest sector
- Bad communication ; train foresters to communicate better
- Improvement of forestry sector image (forestry is not a four letter word)
- To inform on what is forestry
- Forests vs timber/wood (awareness)
- Balance between interests of timber industry and environmentalists (communication with society)
- Improvement of communication between agencies responsible for forests, nature protection, state civil service, private sector and media (PR)
- Cross-sectoral communication
- Propaganda and training local people near forests concerning ecological functions of forests
- Enhance communication with the public
Finance and Investment (2)
- Development of the European forest fund with the aim of faster development of forestry in countries in transition (2)
- Lack of financial resources for the forest sector (1)
- Insufficient financing of multifunctionality of forests
- Compensations for forest conservation and protection
- State is not able to compensate the reduction of income because of biodiversity conservation
- Finding of appropriate ways of financing forestry sector
- Investments into the forest sector
- Poor capacity to invest in forestry and lack of financing schemes to insure sustainable forestry
- Increasing investments in the forest sector and forest industry
PROMOTION OF WOOD AND NON WOOD PRODUCTS & SERVICES (1)
- Wood promotion (putting together all the chain from forest owner up to final consumer of wood products (1)
- Promotion of wood based products
- Stimulation of the development of internal market of timber and (foster) wood processing industries
INSTITUTION & CAPACITY (1)
- Development of the forest institutions (on national level) and their capacities
- Building capacity of forest owners
- Insufficient knowledge in forestry of new forest owners
- Statistics robust & reliable
- Lack administrative knowledge/skills (EU + international)
- Lack of capacities to implement SFM
- Establishing of fully functioning state forest services
FOREST & FORESTRY
- Promotion of SFM (2)
- Balance between forest use and nature protection (2)
- Balancing biological and economic part of forest management (1)
- Increasing need for forest protection
- Simultaneously increasing demand for wood and environmental services/conservation
- Increase productivity wood production
- Worsening of quality of premature forest due to unsustainable forest management
- Increase the efficiency of forest sector
- Adaptation to climate changes
- Improving the present condition (quality)of the resources
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS (SUB-CATEGORY UNDER FOREST&FORESTRY)
- Increase of recreation
- Insuring social benefits from forests
- Green tourism (in Carpathian region) - eco-tourism
BIODIVERSITY (SUB-CATEGORY UNDER FOREST&FORESTRY) (1)
- Biodiversity (habitats) protection (1)
- Protection of forest ecosystems
- Biodiversity conservation in private forest
INNOVATION IN WOOD INDUSTRY SECTOR
- Increase competitiveness wood processing and trade/export (1)
- Weak internal market of forest product and consumption of small and medium quality and size timber
- Foster new technology wood industry
- Utilisation of the diameter low grade material value-added manufacturing
- Need for increasing of wood processing industry capability
- Deep crisis of wood processing, pulp wood, and paper industries; lack of innovation
EDUCATION TRAINING & RESEARCH
- Insufficient development of human resources both in (management and society) in term of SFM (1)
- Unification of educational and training system at EU level
- Open up minds in forestry community
- More economic + management expertise (training/teaching)
- New + more research socio-economic _>natural sciences
- Education & training non industrial private forest
- Education & research
- Improvement of education
- More effective research capacity
Public Awareness
- Promotion of wood in people's mind as a ecological advantaged product (1)
- Opening up forestry sector to the public
- Promoting interests of forest sector by lobbying the relevant sector/organizations
- Forest sector has bad image in society/public awareness
- Effective lobbying at national and international levels (competition with environmental NGOs)
PRIVATE FORESTRY
- Low level of management skills of private forest owners
- Finding the proper tools to activate consolidation of private forest properties
- Lack of cooperation among forest owners
- Private forest owners are only partly organised
- Small and inefficient size of forest units
- Forest management in private forest
- Establishing of fully functioning private forest sector
- Not readiness to pay for environmental services privately
- Small size of private forest holding and split distribution
- High tax load to forest owners
- Cooperation - small forest owners
SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE PRIVATE FORESTRY (SUB-PRIVATE FORESTRY)
- Support of private forestry sector via creation of forest owners associations to be functional
- If Natura 2000 be realised solution of compensation of restrictions of forest owners
- The sustainable management of small individual properties which were created by the forest restitution process
- Achieve sustainable private forest management improving the extension and the training opportunities for private forest owners
- Supporting of private forest owners in using environmental approach of the forest