Due to National Association Private Forest Owners’ (NAPFO) successful negotiations with the government, 60.000 families in Macedonia don’t have to be concerned this winter how to warm their houses. The Ministry agreed to allow private forest owners to cut 15 m3 this winter from state forest until the owners mark their forest borders.

According to the forestry law, private forest owners are not allowed to cut wood from their own forest before marking their forest borders. Also the law obliges the private owners to pay 100 Euro to a private geodetic company per parcel for marking the forest borders before supplying wood. This creates false deficit on the fuel wood market. “Prices for fuel wood from own forest in Macedonia is 2-3 times higher than any other country on the Balkan. These additional costs (for marking the borders) are real burden for people living in rural areas,” says Branko Skenderski, President of NAPFO.

NAPFO organized a protest on 21 October and then after a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Waters to discuss its concerns. Beside the agreement on the possibility to use state forests for food fuel, the parties agreed also on the timeline for the rulebooks regulating the services in forestry (one month), have urgent meeting with head office of the state cadastre office and have legal advice from a lawyer on the problematic article in the forestry law.

SNV has been involved in the process of forestry law changes since 2006 by supporting the National Association of Private Forest Owners in advocacy, empowerment, participation and lobbing.

For further information, please contact Anela Stavreska, SNV Forestry advisor at astavreska@snvworld.org