PREFACE
Since the early 1990s, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been experiencing tremendous changes in their economic, political and social life: these changes are also affecting the forestry sector. New issues, linked with the process of compensation, restitution and privatisation of forest land, are facing many CEE countries. The Forestry Department of FAO undertook a number of activities to assist CEE in addressing these issues, including a regional study on "Issues and Opportunities in the Evolution of Private Forestry Extension", in 1997 and a meeting on "Environmentally Sound Forest Operations for Countries in Transition to Market Economies" in 1998. An issue of Unasylva was dedicated to "Forestry in Countries with Economies in Transition" in April 1994. Moreover various Technical Co-operation programmes are currently in place: they address various aspects of the development of private forestry in the region.
According to a survey carried out in 1997 in ten different countries of the region, over 2.000.000 ha of forest are under the responsibility of more than 1.000.000 new forest owners. However, these important stakeholders lack experience, technical expertise and information, which are necessary in their new responsibilities as forest managers. Furthermore the process of privatisation resulted in fragmentation of land tenure, which is a constraints to sustainable forest management. Forest owners’ organisations of various types have proved to be successful options to overcome these constraints in several Western European Countries.
The present paper provides an overview of different options for forest owners’ organisations through analysis of their characteristics and the main factors influencing them. It can be considered a background paper to stimulate discussion and support private forest owners in decision making processes, in the context of CEE.
Mr. Roland Beck, Chair of Forest Policy and Forest History, Technical University of Munich, developed the study and wrote the paper: both were also presented during the 4th Extension Working Party Symposium of IUFRO (Slovenia, October 1999) in collaboration with Mr. Jon Anderson, then FAO Forestry Extension Officer. Mr. Jonathan Cook was responsible for the revision and the editing of the entire paper. Ms. Yolanda Avetikian finalised the editing and the lay out.
El-Hadji Sène
Director
Forest Resources Division
Forestry Department
