Policy options for private forest owners in Western Balkans: a qualitative study

Private forest owners start to play an important role in Western Balkans’ forestry and they are essential to the successful implementation of environmental policies. Little is known about how forest policy can support private forest owners in these countries and therefore this study was conducted though a qualitative method, based on personal interviews with representatives of 54 stakeholders that include state forest authorities and administration, private forest owners associations, forest science and research and private sector in Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. The results show significant homogeneity across the region towards creation of independent interest forest owners associations based on financial support. Regression analysis identified stakeholder attitudes as significant predictors of policy preferences and also identified owners of production forest as more supportive of such policies

Two decades of forest-related legislation changes in European countries analysed from a property rights perspective

In the last two decades, attention on forests and ownership rights has increased in different domains of international policy, particularly in relation to achieving the global sustainable development goals. This paper looks at the changes in forest-specific legislation applicable to regular productive forests, across 28 European countries. We compare the legal framework applicable in the mid-1990s with that applicable in 2015, using the Property Rights Index in Forestry (PRIF) to measure changes across time and space. The paper shows that forest owners in most western European countries already had high decision-making power in the mid-1990s, following deregulation trends from the 1980s; and for the next two decades, distribution of rights remained largely stable. For these countries, the content and direction of changes indicate that the main pressure on forest-focused legislation comes from environmental discourses (e.g. biodiversity and climate change policies). In contrast, former socialist countries in the mid-1990s gave lower decision-making powers to forest owners than in any of the Western Europe countries; over the next 20 years these show remarkable changes in management, exclusion and withdrawal rights. As a result of these changes, there is no longer a clear line between western and former socialist countries with respect to the national governance systems used to address private forest ownership. Nevertheless, with the exception of Baltic countries which have moved towards the western forest governance system, most of the former socialist countries still maintain a state-centred approach in private forest management. Overall, most of the changes we identified in the last two decades across Europe were recorded in the categories of management rights and exclusion rights. These changes reflect the general trend in European forest policies to expand and reinforce the landowners' individual rights, while preserving minimal rights for other categories of forest users; and to promote the use of financial instruments when targeting policy goals related to the environmental discourse

An analysis of briquette value chain at the Limsko forest area

Value creation represents an increase in the value of assets in the manufacturing process. Business processes that lead to value creation can be presented as a value chain. For wood products, total value creation takes place in the complex processes of production and exchange between forestry and timber industry. The research on the use of biomass for energy purposes is increasing in recent decades. Within the research on value chain, in our country were, to less extent were represented those related to woody biomass products. In this sense, the aim of the research is to determine the organization of woody biomass products (briquettes) value chain and its analysis in the Limsko forest area. A “door-to-door” survey was used as a research technique. Data collection was conducted in the period from April to May of 2013. In total, 19 representatives of enterprises, which are participants in the woody biomass products value chain in the Limsko forest area were surveyed. Manufacturing enterprise, located in Nova Varoš, was analysed as the main participant in this chain. In addition, its suppliers (15), wholesaler (1), retailer (1), and consumer (1) were analysed. The manufacturing enterprise exclusively used raw material produced in sawmills. The results indicate that an increase in value occurs, primarily, during the transportation of raw materials from sawmill to the manufacturing enterprise. The next increase in value occurs during the storage of raw materials within the manufacturing enterprise and with the emergence of new stages in the production process, as well as during the transportation of products to the wholesaler, retailer and consumer

Organization of private forest sector in Timok forest area

<span>Today, private forest owners (PFOs) in Serbia cooperate in form of private forest owners associations (PFOAs). Currently, there are 20 PFOAs, of which 15 are in Timok region. Initiatives of PFOs from Timok forest area, animated the owners from other parts of the country and led to foundation of Serbian Federation of Forest Owners' Associations. Twelve of PFOAs from Timok forest area are the founders of Serbian private forest owners' umbrella organization. Restructuring of Public Enterprise (PE) "Srbijasume", which started in 2001, led to development of private small and medium forest enterprises, engaged as contractors of PE for harvesting, timber transport and construction of forest roads. The objectives of this paper are to elaborate if there are differences between PFOs in Serbia and Timok region and to analyze organization of private forest owners in Timok forest area. In order to reach these objectives, results of PRIFORT project were used. This project focused on four countries of Western Balkans region: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. The aim of this project was to explore precondition for formation of PFOs in this region. Quantitative survey (n = 350) of randomly selected PFOs was conducted in nine municipalities in Serbia, of which two were in Timok region (n = 100). The results show that there are differences between PFOs in Serbia and Timok region in number of PFOs, size of private property and in additional incentives. These results also indicate that economic interest is a motive for establishment of PFOAs and that state support is very important for their development. Since a number of PFOs are entrepreneurs, it can be assumed that, further development of theirs organizations could lead to development of SMEs clusters. </span

Non-wood forest products based enterprises’ cooperation and business networking forms in central Serbia

Collaboration between enterprises includes all activities, which are undertaken in order to achieve common goals and interests. Business networking involves the establishment of various forms of associations and business communities, with or without the creation of new economic entities. The aim of the paper was to study the forms of cooperation between non-wood forest products based small and medium enterprises, as well as to determine the attitudes of their representatives towards cooperation and business networking with other enterprises in Central Serbia. Research included 91 non-wood forest product based small and medium enterprises and 19 representatives of leading enterprises, which were selected based on specifically defined criteria. Both the methods of analysis and synthesis and comparative and statistical methods were applied in the paper. The results indicate that almost all analyzed enterprises cooperate with other enterprises. The most common form of cooperation is present “during selling” and “during purchase”. The majority of leading enterprises’ representatives are members of some of the existing associations of entrepreneurs. Based on the analysis, it was found that there is a need for development of cooperation between the analyzed enterprises. In accordance with that, proposals for the improvement of business networking were given. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 43007: Istraživanja klimatskih promena i njihovog uticaja na životnu sredinu - praćenje uticaja, adaptacija i ublažavanje”, podprojekat 43007/16-III: Socio-ekonomski razvoj, ublažavanje i adaptacija na klimatske promene i br. 37008-TR: Održivo gazdovanje ukupnim potencijalima šuma u Republici Srbij