Information about the project “Institutional development and capacity building for the National Forest Programme of Serbia”
After long period of isolation, Serbian forestry was faced with the need for changes. Changes were needed in all aspects of forestry due to outdated organizational concept and economic devastation in the past decade. Since the forestry sector in Serbia was not capable of bringing about changes on its own, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management – Directorate of Forests requested assistance from the FAO.

FAO agreed to provide technical and financial support in the realization of project “Institutional development and capacity building for the National Forest Programme of Serbia”. This project is essential for further development of the forestry sector in Serbia; its main goals are being the formulation of Forest policy document and revision of the Forest Law. These two main outputs are the basis for further development of the National Forest Programme of Serbia.
The project became operational in April 2003. The whole project is based on a new approach in the forestry sector in Serbia - participatory forestry. The idea is to have opinions and suggestions from various stakeholder groups and to incorporate these into the new forest policy and forest law, so that these documents can meet their needs much better than before. A group of local forestry professionals was trained in how to use FAO participatory methods and tools, which were applied during the meetings with stakeholders in different parts of Serbia.
The group of local consultants, supported by the international consultants, is working on preparing the policy and law documents. A number of interim reports on forest policy, forest economics, forest legislation and participation have been produced up to now.