In recent decades, the concept of forest certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has been widely adopted in selected Southeast European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia). As sustainability is traditionally recognised as a leading principle in the forest management doctrine in these countries, the aim of this study was to understand whether, and how, FSC forest certification contributes to the sustainable management of state forests. The research was carried out in two phases. First, in order to assess forest management compliance with FSC standard, non-conformities for the period 2014–2018, identified in audit Public Summary Reports, were analysed in all public companies that managed state-owned forests in selected countries. Further, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the professionals responsible for forest certification in these companies were conducted (n = 11) to determine the contribution of forest certification to the economic, ecological, and social aspects of sustainable forest management. In total, 185 non-conformities were analysed. The results showed that FSC certification was successful in addressing certain problems in forest management practices and contributed to sustainable forest management, mainly covering social and ecological issues. The most frequently identified non-conformities were those related to FSC Principle 4 Community relations and worker’s rights (32.3% of all non-conformities) and Principle 6 Environmental impact (30.4% of all non-conformities). The contribution of FSC certification to sustainable forest management is mainly reflected in the following aspects: Worker’s rights; health and safety of employees; availability of appropriate personal protective equipment; consultation with local people and interest groups; awareness of environmental impacts of forestry operations; waste disposal and storage of fuel; improving the image of forest companies and maintenance of high-conservation-value forests. The majority of non-conformities were minor and required procedural changes to be closed. Moreover, there are no statistically significant differences between the countries with regard to the number of non-conformities for all principles. It can be concluded that FSC certification, as a market-driven mechanism, plays an important role by influencing forest management practices and business operations of public forest companies in a positive manner.

The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe’s water bodies to “good ecological status” by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions – including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forests-carbon policy nexus.

The purpose of this study was to assess the most frequent non-conformities identified in different European countries in the processes of forest management certification according to FSC standards. A total of 31 active certificates from five countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) were analysed, including all active certificates (as of 1st of June 2014) from three countries along with a sample of 13 FSC certificates issued in the UK and one certificate covering 95% of the certified forest area in Slovenia. 253 non-conformities in relation to FSC standard requirements were identified as formulated by the audit teams and the most frequently identified non-conformities in the certification process were those related to Principle 6 - Environmental impact (34%), Principle 4 - Community relations and worker’s rights (17%) and Principle 8 - Monitoring and Assessment (13%). A slight positive correlation was noticed between the FSC certified area and the total number of non-conformities, with a closer link in the case of Principle 9 - Maintenance of high conservation value forests, and Principle 4. The non-conformities related to Principles 4, 6 and 9 appeared to be significantly influenced in occurrence by country development; less often in the UK compared with the other four countries.

UDK: 630*9(497.6 Unsko-sanski kanton)“2003/2013“ Investments in forest sector represent an important issue that is regulated by legislation. Legislative framework that regulate forest sector in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been changing recently - from the Law on Forests of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002 – 2009), Forest Regulation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2009 – 2012) and finally cantonal Laws on Forests (2012 to date). Cantonal laws currently represent the only valid legislative documents that regulate forest sector in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper analyse the investments in the public forests at the territory of Una-Sana Canton, managed by forest management enterprises "Unsko-sanske šume", within the period 2003-2013 in dependence of the valid legislative frameworks. Having in mind the various regulations that prescribed the financing of the biological investments, scope and structure of the performed activities together with the amount of invested funds have varied between particular periods. The biggest share in total investments to forest sector belongs to the silvicultural measures (66%) and forest road construction (17%). The analysis included the trend of realised biological investments and invested funds. It reveals the mutual incompatibility that causes the differences in unit costs of biological investments in various periods. This implies the need for creation and implementation of unique methodology for cost calculation respecting the basic principles of econometrics. Conducted analysis indicated that previous legislative frameworks did not prescribe appropriate financing model. One should bare in mind this fact during the prescription of new financing model in the ongoing proposal of new Law on Forests of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

UDK: 630*92(4) Social, economical and political changes in South-east European countries have led to significant shift from traditional pattern of forest policy to new, more complex paradigm when it comes to forestry and forest resources management. Among other things, this implies increasing of private forest owners’ heterogeneity which is reflected in changes of their expectations, objectives, attitudes and management practices. In this context, it is important to explore how private forest owners obtain information useful for forest management but also to analyze in which way their characteristics influence fulfilling of informational needs. The objective of this paper was to analyse sources of information that private forest owners are most likely to use, and to assess how owners’ characteristics, property conditions as well as management behaviour, affect it. Surveys were conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina (n=350), Serbia (n=350), Croatia (n=350) and Slovenia (n=322) on random samples of private forest owners while the data were analysed by using logistic regression model. The paper examined five models of information providers: private forest owners associations (1), relatives (2), public forest administration (3), other owners (4) and public forest companies (5). Comparison between countries indicates the differences regarding to informational providers, caused mainly due to importance of private forests to their owners and different organizational structure of national forest sectors. Comparing to other countries, it seems that Slovenian private forest owners are more active in searching for information. Public forest administration is the most preferable provider of information in Slovenia while in Bosnia-Herzegovina these are public forest companies and public forest administration. In Serbia and Croatia the most common providers of information are public forest companies. Only Slovenian private forest owners use interest associations as the source of information. The traditional providers of information (other owners) are still important for private forest owners in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at least. The results of logistic regression models reveal that forest property size, fragmentation, harvesting activities as well as owners’ age influence the source of information that private forest owners are most likely to use. The model 3 (pubic forest administration) is statistically significant in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, while in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina the model 5 (public forest company) is significant. None of the models is statistically significant for Croatia. Besides, the model 4 (other owners) was statistically significant in Slovenia.

UDK: 630*93:712.2(1-751.2)(497.6 Una) Protected areas have significant role in protection of biodiversity, social and cultural values followed by improvement of life standard of local population. As a country with economy in transition, Bosnia and Herzegovina is trying to follow globally increasing trends in nature protection. Yet, Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to the group of countries that have difficulties to meet European criteria for minimal percentage of protected areas. Although in the last two decades numerous initiatives for proclamation of protected areas have been launched, the percentage of protected areas is still far from the European average. Establishment of new protected areas is often followed with certain misunderstandings between interest groups, lack of participation, transparency and involvement of all interest groups. The concept of cross-sectoral cooperation imply interaction between different interest groups in specific area characterized by efforts, cooperation and responsibility in order to accomplish joint consensus about the improvement of management of natural resources. This paper is focusing on the concept of cross-sectoral cooperation through the analysis of its implementation in management of National park "Una", as the youngest proclaimed National park in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The attitudes of interest groups related to cross-sectoral cooperation will be discussed together with proposal of several activities for improvement of cross-sectoral cooperation in National park "Una". Results could be useful for key decision makers in nature protection sector and institutions responsible for management of protected areas to recognize importance of cross-sectoral cooperation and promote its implementation and everyday practice.