Workshop report

Participating in the capacity building workshop on “Preparing the forest sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to meet global challenges” held in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, 29 October - 2 November 2012, jointly organized by the Czech Republic (Ministry of Agriculture, Forest Management Institute and Forestry and Game Management Research Institute), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, and the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe)/FAO Timber Section;

Building on inputs provided by members of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Management in Eastern Europe in 2005 and discussions and exchange during the subsequent workshops;

Welcoming the input provided by FAO and UNECE, especially on policy formulation and on emerging opportunities for the forestry sector, including green economy;

Recognising the dynamic development of new and revised policies and legislation, institutional reforms and national forest resource assessments;

Reaffirming herewith the importance of the Krtiny Declaration as adopted in October 2005, updated in Zamardi, Hungary, in May 2007, and in Krtiny, Czech Republic, in November 2008, and noting its concrete impact to forest policy decision making in the target countries; and herewith updating the Declaration;

¹ Forest management herewith describes to all human activities on forest land

² Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan did participate in the Krtiny workshop in 2008, but did not participate in the Issyk-Kul workshop in 2012.

A. Recommend that national governments:

Promote diversification of incomes through multifunctional forest management;

Take steps to encourage the outsourcing of state forest management related to production activities to commercial entities (state or private), to consider the separation of management functions from controlling functions and to apply international experiences;

Encourage diversification of forest tenure, considering various types of devolution of forest ownership and management rights;

Ensure that the forest sector plays a leading role in the Green Economy;

Develop, support the implementation of and monitor national forest programme activities;

Develop methods for evaluating forest ecosystem services based on international experience and practices;

Allocate adequate public budget to the provision of forest services, according to societal needs, including the application of innovative financing and fiscal mechanisms (e.g. payments for environmental services);

Ensure the stability of professional staff and decent jobs for sustainable forest management in the context of ongoing restructuring processes in the forestry sector;

Strengthen national, regional and international training capacities in forest policy and social science;

Support academic and research institutions in the development and strengthening of curricula addressing forest policy, taking into account changing needs and conditions in forestry, and prepare academic staff;

Strengthen the dialogue with the public, taking into account societal considerations and concerns, using mechanisms of participatory approaches; invite representatives of different NGOs and scientific institutions as full-capacity partners, when developing and implementing forest policies;

Take into account new trends and emerging opportunities (e.g. Green Economy, wood energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, combating desertification) in forest policy formulation and implementation.

Ensure the participation of experts in forest-related international forums at global and regional levels.

Facilitate training of and information exchange between National Correspondents (e.g. on forest resources assessment, forest products statistics, and forest policy);

Inform international organizations of changes of contacts of national correspondents;

Promote and support innovations in forest management, including by providing government incentives;

Ensure, to the greatest extent possible, the translation of international documents into national languages;

Undertake necessary steps towards the implementation of the suggested recommendations with increased efforts in the following two years;

Intensify cross-sectoral cooperation and strengthen synergies with other sectors that interact with forest management; especially in the areas of integrated national forest and landscape inventories, watershed management and sustainable wood energy production and consumption;

Develop forest cover and promote public forest services according to societal needs;

Foster the sustainable and sound use of wood as long as the public forest services are not under threat and take effective measures to combat illegal logging;

Fully utilize the potential of forest management practices to combat desertification;

Gather and disseminate adequate data and information for support to policy decision-making (e.g. forest inventories, forest products statistics, state of current policies and institutions).

Pay adequate attention to the preservation, conservation and management of forest genetic resources as a prerequisite for sustainable forest management, to effectively address climate change adaptation and to combat desertification.

B. Recommend that UNECE and FAO and, where appropriate, potential donors:

Facilitate the harmonization of forest-related terms and definitions taking into account development in other relevant sectors;

Conduct capacity building on developing effective forest policies in the context of the green economy.

Continue facilitating the implementation of national forest programme processes on the basis of the national forest programme principles (sovereignty and country leadership, consistency within and integration beyond the forest sector, partnership and participation);

Conduct studies that support forest policy;

Facilitate the strengthening of regional and international training capacities in forest policy and sustainable forest management;

Support the development and implementation of mechanisms for the payment for ecosystem services based on international experience and practices, and ensure the related capacity building;

Encourage international cooperation of national experts and stakeholders through the organization of study tours and networking, and promote international training and fellowship programmes;

Regularly update the official list of national correspondents, based on information from the countries;

Analyse recent forest-related policy developments and outcomes of forest policy studies and workshops, and present a compilation of policy relevant recommendations at follow up workshops;

Improve the capacity of countries to use, for sustainable management of natural resources, adequate inventory methods and forest management; taking into account the multifunctional role of forests and stakeholders’ capacities and needs;

Undertake further activities in capacity building, gathering and dissemination of data and information on forest policies, institutions and products, and enhance cooperation between the different initiatives carried out by international organizations;

Facilitate the exchange of experiences with different forest tenure schemes based on FAO forest tenure studies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia;

Invest in translation and interpretation into Russian, particularly in order to improve the quality of meeting documents; and, as much as possible, ensure translation of publications also into national languages;

Undertake the necessary steps to intensify the dialogue with the public, such as the promotion of international youth competitions and the International Forest Days/Weeks;

Request that participating countries and international organizations organize and finance meetings of forestry experts and stakeholders in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, such as the National Forest Policy Dialogues;

This document was approved by the participants in a plenary session of the workshop “Preparing the forest sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to meet global challenges” held in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, 2 November 2012.