Forest-related conflicts in the South-East European region: regional aspects and case studies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia.

This paper presents preliminary results from a first regional survey and a number of case studies conducted in five countries. The aim of the study was to identify the most pronounced forest related conflicts in south-eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia) at the policy and management levels in terms of types, conflicts dimensions, actors and their attitudes. Data were collected on policy level by semi-structured mail questionnaire with multiplechoice, ranking, and a few open-ended questions and on management level by face-to-face interviews in chosen case study areas. All collected data were assembled in a joint database consisting of 505 questionnaires and 111 interviews from case studies. Results revealed forestry related conflicts with significant differences between countries. The most often mentioned were: forestry vs. nature protection, forestry vs. wood processing industry, forestry vs. grazing and overgrazing, forestry vs. building and construction and forestry vs. water management. For case studies areas the Nature and National parks were chosen. In most cases conflicts appears between public forestry and environmental sectors. They were manifested in wide range of actions, from silent conflict far away from public, over disputes, argues and discussions on meeting and public forums up to intensive lobbying and political influence. Overlapping legislation, struggle for competencies, different interests, values and attitudes of forestry and nature conservation sector is likely source of these conflicts. The conflict management was introduced either at the beginning of the conflict or when the conflict escalated, carried out by relevant governmental and public institutions which are at the same time stakeholders of the protected areas. Furthermore, respondents in cases employed in forestry sector are dominantly with forestry background, and in environmental institutions people have various professional backgrounds. Conflict parties show differing attitudes to conflicts. Some of them deny the very existence of the conflict; others find conflicts neither negative, nor completely positive. There are evident some improvement with regard to communication among, some policy changes have been reported, as well as changes with regard to legislation.