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clearly defined through activities such as ‘establishing and maintain-
ing special services for private forests, while continuously supporting
PFOs and PFOAs’ as well as setting up a Forest Fund as a main source
for financing forestry activities linked to the development programme.
Institutional reform, based on the Forest Law, comprises:
• Redefinition of roles and responsibilities at all levels and of
relations between institutions
• Increased share of the private sector in providing goods and services
• Development and strengthening of capacities in the NGO sector,
institutions and organizations at the local level
• Definition of forestry’s role in rural development and
transparency.
In the framework of redefining roles and responsibilities, the signifi-
cance of the private sector is emphasized, with special attention to
the development of adequate advisory services for PFOs.
The previous model of support to PFOs through public enterprises
has proved inefficient, as has the earlier approach within municipality
services. Public enterprises do not have either sufficiently developed
capacities for advisory support, or adequate interest in conducting
activities in private forests, which is a significant problem. It was
necessary to overcome existing issues related to organization and
structure of employees and in services for professional and techni-
cal affairs in private forests, and to improve their capacities, either at
the level of public enterprises, or via other solutions outside public
enterprises. Direct financial measures of support were in most cases
oriented towards the afforestation of private forest land.
Some indirect supporting measures exist in Serbia, but they are not
in the form needed and are inadequate for the demands on them. The
new Law on Forests will show efficiency in providing services for PFOs.
Support for organizing PFOs within the Directorate of Forests is the
initial phase and presently there are just 17 PFOAs with very low capac-
ity to fulfil all the obligations arising from the new law.
According to the law, professional activities in small-scale forests can
be performed by appropriately registered legal entities and entrepre-
neurs. Because of the large number of small-scale forest
owners, it is a challenge to provide them with adequate
attention from PFS, with the aim of enabling them to
conduct sustainable forest management in all forests.
The total amount of financial resources for the
implementation of all planned measures in the Forest
Development Programme 2011-2020 over a 10-year
period is nearly
€
900 million. The commitment of public
funds needed for realization of the proposals is around
€
18 million (average for the whole period) for co-financ-
ing of activities in forests. In the area of financing of
forestry activities, Serbian Forest Law is completely in
accordance with modern tendencies. Foresters succeeded
in establishing a Tax for Ecosystem Services for all legal
entities that do business in Serbia in an amount of 0.025
per cent of their total income. This generates a finance
source for forestry activities that is four times higher
than before. The future will show whether the solutions
offered in the Law and NFP are adequate for continuous
development of private and forests in general.
In the forestry sector, based on the new Forest Law,
organizational constraints should not exist. This observa-
tion is based on a short period of implementation of the
law (adopted in May 2010, and in force from November
2010). To date, there have been no objections to the
proposed solutions. This is the case especially in private
forests, where much more freedomwas given to PFOs and
especially PFOAs in planning, utilizing and selling wood.
It is quite clear that Serbia has made a significant step
towards prioritising forestry issues in general, especially
with solutions that support private and state forests on
equal basis. This is especially noteworthy given that,
up to this point, the forestry sector has borne the entire
burden of financing forestry issues alone with only small
amounts of financial contributions from other sectors.
Community participation is key to evolving the Forest Development Strategy
Image: MATFW Serbia