Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe: Background study for the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration and the Bonn Challenge
Körperschaft
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
This study identifies key drivers of forest degradation and the potential for forest landscape restoration in 17 countries of Eastern and South-East Europe. It builds on assessments from national experts and the best available data to support countries in preparing restoration pledges in the run up to the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe, scheduled to take place in 2021. Countries: Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Moldova, North Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Turkey This study identifies key drivers of forest degradation and the potential for forest landscape restoration in 17 countries of Eastern and South-East Europe. It builds on assessments from national experts and the best available data to support countries in preparing restoration pledges in the run up to the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe, scheduled to take place in 2021. DATA SOURCES: Data and inputs for this study were primarily collected through UN and FAO publications, statistical data, government documents and reports. National experts completed an online questionnaire to provide country-specific information and were given an opportunity to clarify this by e-mail and at a workshop held in Belgrade in December 2019. UNECE/FAO focal points identified national experts who were delegated by national institutions as representative national respondents. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data reported, it should be noted that the data from international sources are sometimes inconsistent with reporting at the national level and were occasionally modified, in consultation with national experts. Introduction and the scope of the study; Forest and landscape restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe
Bonn Challenge and FLR; Methods ; Overview of the state of forests in Eastern and South-East Europe ; Forest resources ; Socio-economic significance of forests in the region ; Summary of the survey and group exchanges at the workshop in Belgrade ; Forest degradation definition ; Current and expected future degradation issues ; Review of forest landscape restoration definitions and institutional settings ; Forest landscape restoration: lessons learned ; Challenges for forest landscape restoration ; Country analysis of forest status, degradation and forest restoration ; Eastern Europe subgroup ; Belarus ; Moldova; Ukraine ; . EU countries; Bulgaria; Croatia; Czech Republic; Hungary ; Poland ; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; Balkan countries; Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Serbia ; Turkey Background and introduction: The study “Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe” is developed to support policy-makers to prepare restoration pledges for the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration and the ECCA30/Bonn Challenge in Eastern and South-East Europe. It examines the existing forest cover, degradation causes, and the potential for forest landscape restoration in seventeen countries of Eastern and South-East Europe. The report is based on three sources of information: (i) a review of relevant literature, (ii) an online survey completed by national experts of the participating countries, and (iii) discussions and outcomes of the sub-regional workshop for countries of Eastern and South-East Europe that was held in Belgrade, Serbia on 16-17 December 2019 (hereinafter referred as the “Belgrade workshop”). The mostly state-owned forests in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova have similar ecological conditions, with forest cover of 39.8%, 15.9% and 11.2% respectively, and are therefore grouped in this study as the “Eastern Europe subgroup”. Of the eight EU countries covered by the study, constituting the “EU countries subgroup”, Hungary has the lowest forest cover at around 21%, followed by Romania (28.8%), Poland (30.9%), Czech Republic (34%), Bulgaria (37%), Slovakia (45.1%), and Croatia (47%). Slovenia has the highest percentage of forest cover (62%). The study also covers five countries in Western
Balkans, grouped as “Balkan countries”, out of which Serbia has the lowest forest cover (29.1%), followed by Albania (36.6%), and North Macedonia (42.5%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (43%) and Montenegro (60%). Forests in Turkey cover 29.2 % of the land area and are ecologically quite different from other countries reviewed in this study, which is why Turkey is placed in a standalone, separate subgroup.
The study found discrepancies between data submitted by national experts and international reporting sources. These types of discrepancy may arise from the differing definitions and methodologies used when collecting data. They may also be due to the lack of reliability of data from multiple sources, the lack of national forest inventories in some cases and deficiencies of systematic data collection. Bosnia and Herzegovina, for instance, reported forest cover of 63 %, based on its second national forest inventory, which differs from the 54% reported by their national Agency of Statistics, and the 43% in the most recent Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2020 report. For consistency, all data appearing in the four paragraphs below have been taken from FRA 2020 and United Nations (UN) sources.
