Development of Forestry Strategy of the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Mission Report
12 to 21 July, 2008
Franc Ferlin,
Forestry consultant
Ljubljana, 31 August 2008
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AFWMC Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Committee
CTA Chief Technical Advisor
FA Forest Agency
FC Forestry Council
FP Forestry policy
FL Forest law
FSDS Forestry Development Strategy
FSDP Forestry Development Programme
FDS WG Forestry Development Strategy Working Group
MAFWM Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management
NFP National forest programme
PFC Public Forestry Company
RS The Republic of Srpska
ToR Terms of Reference
WS Workshop
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Background
This mission was arranged between SNV Bosnia and Herzegovina – Portfolio
Office Banja Luka (PO BL) and the Consultant for his advisory support to
Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWM) of Republic
of Srpska (RS) and its Working Group (WG), appointed by the Minister on 24
April 2008. The WG consists of nine members from whom one was nominated
as Coordinator.
Main objective of the WG is creation of the RS Forestry Development Strategy
(FDS) document. The timeframe for its elaboration was set as very short by the
Minister, i.e. for 15 November 2008, regardless the new FL which defined now
longer, nine months timeframe for the FDS adoption.
The assignment of the Consultant consisted of the following more specific tasks
and deliverables:
1) Presentation of Serbian national forest programme / forest sector reform
experiences and providing his opinion and recommendations to
development of RS national forest programme / forest sector reform,
particularly the FDS as the second1 RS forestry reform element.
2) Contribution to preparation of a longer-term work plan (or project) for
forest sector reform development.
3) Contribution to preparation and finalization of the Terms of reference
(ToR) for development of FDS study to be financed by the World Bank
“Forest Conservation and Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina”
project extension.
Anticipated contribution of the Consultant has dynamically being adapted on
actual FDS WG’s facilitation policy (performed by its Coordinator in collaboration
with the Consultant) and current development of WG’s work and agreements
during his mission.
The WG’s working process has been divided into two parts accompanied by two
workshops, the first one (in Banja Luka) lasting for one day, and the second one
(in Drinić and Banja Luka) lasted for two days. The first WS was mainly devoted
to the above point one, the second to point three matters. The Consultant
participated in both the workshops (WSs).
1 In this context, the new Forest Law is considered as first RS forestry reform element.
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Results, conclusions and recommendations
Development of the Republic of Srpska forestry reform
Overview over current forest sector reform status, development and
plans
Launching of the RS forestry reform was initiated by the Agriculture, Forestry
and Water Management Committee (AFWMC) of the RS Parliament, on 13 April
2007, after the AFWMC was informed with, and discussed on "The condition in
Republic of Srpska forestry sector and forestry strategy development needs",
prepared by MAFWM. As a result, the following conclusions were made: (a)
MAFWM is obliged to prepare new FL by the end of 2007; (b) MAFWM is
obliged to start with preparation of the "RS Forestry Development Strategy"
document by the end of 2007; and (c) MAFWM is obliged to resolve the forest
administration issues, through general public administration reform, by
establishing the Forest Agency (FA) and other means.
Based on the above, the new FL was prepared2 with certain delays and adopted
by the Parliament (in July 2008) right during the mission. For that reason, start of
the FDS preparations has also delayed. For a formal start of the FDS
preparation process, the appointment of the FDS WG could be taken into
account (i.e. end April 2008). Regarding the forest administration issue and it’s
resolving through establishing of new FA within general public administration
legislation, this has not been done yet. One of main problems for its establishing
lied in non-clearly defined (by FL) competencies of FA with regard to forest
administration or service function, in relation to Public Forestry Company (PFC)
which already performs the function to certain extent. Now, the FA is part of new
FL and shall be established based on it.
The FL foresees, among others, development of FDS, and subsequent the
Forestry Development Program (FDP) as its action-wise document, within
defined timeframe. For adoption of the FDS, the FL anticipates 9 months, and
for the FDP additional 12 months after that. Both documents shall be adopted in
the RS Parliament. By this, the FL defines also a clear time framework for
preparation of further forestry sector reform development plans.
2 As main platform for the new RS FL, the Draft FL of Serbia (which was developed under an FAO
Forest Sector Development Project, 2005 – 2008, leaded by the Consultant as its former CTA) was taken.
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Based on this, the deadline for elaboration of the FDS (required by the Minister)
could be extended in order to assure sufficient time for preparation of its
professional bases (background analyses and studies), as well as of its very
draft FDS versions, its public discussions, harmonization and finalization for
Governmental and Parliamentary adoption procedures.
Since the adoption of the Law preceded the development of the Forestry Policy
(FP) and the FL already defined key elements of the policy (e.g. forestry
planning, administration, management, organization and financing), the
anticipated FDS and FDP will also serve as instruments for the FL and its policy
implementation.
Foreign experiences in the national forest programmes or forest
sectors reforms
In order to contribute to the most appropriate further planning of RS national
forest programme / forest sector reform concept and process, the Consultant
presented his experiences to the WG members, particularly based on results of
Forest sector development project in Serbia of which he was the Chief Technical
Advisor (CTA). The summary presentation used for that is available at
http://www.forestryprojectserbia.org/PDF/engleski/project-dokuments/.
The Consultant shared also his Slovenian experiences in national forest
programme developments (available on
http://www.forestryprojectserbia.org/PDF/engleski/nfp-documents/nfp-
conferencedokuments/slovenija-ferlin.pdf) as well as from other EU countries.
The experiences solved as a background for clarification of the RS forest sector
reform concept and process.
General recommendations for RS forest sector reform development
The Consultant provided the following two general recommendations for further
RS forest sector development to the WG (at its first meeting):
1) Taking the RS situation with already adopted FL, in which also key FP
issues were defined, into account, the FDS should also be an instrument
for implementation of the FL and its appurtenant policy.
2) A body of a high-level advising on FDS (and FDP), i.e. Forestry Council
must be established as soon as possible in order to provide political
guidance for the FDS WG.
As result of the WG discussions and the Consultant’s contribution, the following
joint conclusions and recommendations of the WG on further forest sector
reform development process have been adopted (at the first WG meeting) and
sent to the Minister:
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1) The WG accepts the obligation for elaboration of FDS and considers that
could realize it in qualitative way.
2) It is indispensable to assure full cadre and logistic support of MAFWM to
realization of activities on FDS elaboration.
3) The WG members consider as necessary and supported by MAFWM, to
prepare a general plan of RS forest sector reform (for the period of next
three years), which would serve as framework for planning the
development of individual elements of the reform, e.g. FDS, as well as
for searching of wider international technical and financial support to that
reform (e.g. through FAO). From that aspect, it would be useful to orient
further activities also into preparation of a NFP project proposal (at
Bosnia and Herzegovina level) for FAO support.
4) It is indispensable to assure financial means for elaboration of Terms of
reference for the FSD study (by MAFWM) and for the study itself (which
will be performed by the WG)
5) It would be appreciated to incorporate new members into the WG or to
form more FDS development teams, i.e. policy/strategic team, technical
core team and wider technical team).
6) Coordination of further activities on FDS preparation should be taken
over by MAFWM in collaboration with FDS Project / Study Coordinator.
The Consultant contributed particularly to the above recommendations No. 3, 4
and 5.
Development of a longer-term work plan for forest sector reform
Although the WG has adopted the above recommendation No. 3 (necessity for
preparation of longer-term forestry reform work plan) on its first meeting, further
WG activities were not concentrated on that issue. One of the reasons lies in the
fact that new FL was already adopted in the meantime, defining also general
elements (i.e. the FDS and the FDP) and timeframes for such a plan. Another
reason was in the fact that for the support to FDS study, financial means from
the World Bank’s “Forest Conservation and Development Project” have become
available. And the third reason lied in the most recent agreement between the
Consultant (as future SNV Senior Forestry Advisor), the SNV and the FDS’ WG
by which the SNV could provide its additional support to the MAFWM including
the mentioned advisory support.
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Elaboration of the Republic of Srpska Forestry Development Strategy
General recommendations for elaboration of the FDS
Based on his experiences, including Serbian ones, the Consultant provided the
following general recommendations for the RS FDS development:
1) Development of the FDS, and particularly the FDP, must be based on
previous analyses and studies, e.g. on forest and forest management
conditions, forest functions and their evaluation, forest biological and
technical reproduction needs, forest economics and financing, public
forest administration and service development needs, private forest
support needs etc.. These studies could/should be prepared before very
elaboration of the FDS.
2) Development of the new FDP should start already before the FDS is
elaborated.
3) The FDS should be developed in a way which would already take the
anticipated FDP contents into account. For that reason, the Consultant
suggested to the WG, to preliminary consider also that possible FDP
contents, based on draft Serbian National Forest Action Programme
(which could serve as a general example for such contemporary
programme). However, this attempt showed that it was a premature
exercise for the WG, in order to harmonize the FDS and FDP contents in
so short time. Consequently, the WG started to concentrate itself on the
FDS contents and structure only, based on corresponding Serbian
example.
Development of draft Terms of reference for RS FDS
The WG Coordinator prepared in advance, in collaboration with a few WG
members, a preliminary proposal for development of the RS FDS. That proposal
as already quite complex one was prepared by using the Serbian FDS example,
and served as a background for the WG’s work (on its second WS).
After two days of discussions and reconciliations of that FDS proposal within the
WG, the final draft ToR was generally agreed.
The Consultant took over an obligation from the WG to finalize and complement
it, with all necessary (standard) contents and matters, after the field mission.
Based on this, he finalized the ToR (Appendix 1) and sent it to the WG Leader
and the WB Project Implementation Unit Director.
The ToR for FDS “project” anticipated the preparation of certain preliminary
analyses and studies (to be used for description of forest and forestry situation
and problems as well as the elaboration of necessary strategic guidelines with
corresponding generic measures) development as well. Part of the ToR is
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devoted also to coordination and facilitation of the FDS preparation process,
including its public discussion.
As partly mentioned above, the realization of the FDS “project” is mainly
anticipated to be financed by the WB (covering national consultants) with
additional support of the SNV to be assured by both, PO BL national forestry
advisors (Nenad Buzanin and Aleksandar Mrkobrada) and international forestry
advisor (Franc Ferlin). Both institutions could provide also certain financial and
other support for covering the costs of participation process.
The deadline for execution of the FDS “project” segments has been set as
follows:
- Elaboration and presentation of forest and forestry condition including
problems (by end November, 2008);
- Elaboration of principles, objectives, guidelines including instruments for
their implementation (by end February, 2009);
- Public discussion on, and harmonization of the FDS proposal (by end of
March)
- Submission of final FDS draft (by end of April).
With regard to available future Consultants’ capacities (as international SNV
advisor) for development of the RS FDS, it could be counted for a maximum of
up to 15 working days of his services until the draft FDS is submitted.
The Consultant provided also corresponding elements for preparation of
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MAFWM, on that mutual
cooperation. The draft MoU was prepared for signing.
By the time of finalizing of this report, the ToR has already been adopted by WB
and individual contracts for local consultants are about to be prepared for
signing.
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LIST OF APPENDIXES
APPENDIX 1: Terms of Reference for preparation of the Republic of Srpska
Forestry Development Strategy study (in English) to be financed by World Bank
Forest Conservation and Development Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina –
Extension phase (prepared by Milan Mataruga, Franc Ferlin and other WG
members). Not for public use!