Changes in political, economic, social and environmental conditions that Albania has gone through after the Second World War and especially in the last 17 years, have created new interests and demands on natural resources. When these interests and needs are incompatible, there is a potential for conflict. A recent study (AFP, 2002) has shown that, ensuring a sustainable forest management, the total potential of Albanian forest is ca. 864 000 m3/year, where almost half of it (414 000 m3) is comprised of firewood. The same study showed that the needs and consumption of firewood is ca. 2 300 000 m3/year, most of which coming from the forest nearby the villages. As such, Albanian forest have been degraded significantly, particularly in areas close to rural communities. At the village level, adverse human impact is manifest by unregulated and intense wood-harvesting to satisfy household needs for fuel, timber and livestock fodder, and to exploit new commercial opportunities in the domestic timber market.
International Land Coalition has supported the project
“Enhancing tenure security through support the communities to improve the laws on
Transfer of State Public Property (forest and pasture) to the communes” ,
contributing to enrich the forest policies with customary right in forest and pastureland tenure to make a difference.
The project has been implemented by National Association of Communal Forest and Pasture with networking of
important stakeholders including the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Water Administration, representatives of
Directorates of Forestry Services of respective Districts and private companies, regional federation of communal forest
and pastures, commune representatives with the overall support of SNV. The overall objective was
“preparation in participatory way of clear guidelines and criteria on fixing and demarcating boundaries
between state owned forest and communal forest and share of the rights and responsibilities between them,
guiding the local government and forest service in the same time how to resolve border disputes between state and communes,
neighboring communes and villages”.
The project was executed in four regions located in different geographical position,
differing not only in the total area, area covered by forest, and number of villages in each commune,
but differing also in the traditions and customs of forest and pasture ownership and management,
being as such representatives of the whole country.
The project was executed in four regions located in different geographical position, differing not only in the total area, area covered by forest, and number of villages in each commune, but differing also in the traditions and customs of forest and pasture ownership and management, being as such representatives of the whole country. In all the four regions, initial appraisals were conducted as a take-off activity by an interdisciplinary project team for the collection of basic information on the villages and the communes These appraisals used various instruments, such as observation, interviews, meetings and secondary sources. The most common approach was to start with a concentrated effort of data collection, so that a first assessment could be made of the general opportunities and constraints. As soon as a working relationship had been established between the community and the project, complementary information was collected as part of the responsibilities of the field staff. Simultaneously, participatory assessments were conducted in specific problem areas, such as land use management, abandoned land and forestry resources. In other words, the rapid appraisal in all communes collected general information using "traditional" research tools. The participatory assessment was problem-focused and action-oriented, conducted by the field teams and the concerned interest groups in order to elaborate project plans.
Pursuits of the project’ objectives have led to many deliverables. The achievements of the project extend beyond their physical outputs on the ground, to include a range of “process outcomes”. The deliverables fall into two broad categories: Contributions to fixing and demarcating boundaries between state-owned forest and communal forest, and Operational Deliverables. In the former category there are 7 significant contributions.
- Establishment of local structures for project implementation which represented the main partner of consultancy in the first stage of the transfer process. These structures included forest and pastures commissions at commune level (appendix 2; (responsible for setting the boundaries villages of the same commune) and at village level (responsible for defining the users and setting the boundaries between and within the parcels and users of the same parcel). The work of these local structures will be very valuable in solving problems and disputes (if that will be the case) even after the termination of this project.
- Preparation of guidelines and criteria on fixing and demarcating boundaries between state-owned forest and communal forest. In an assessment of the dependence of the people on forest for fuel wood, fodder, grazing and Non-Timber Forest Products, the overall survey statistics indicated a high dependence of the people on forest. Thus, in preparing the guidelines, both the traditions and the actual regime of land tenure were considered.
- Preparation and approval of activities for transferring communal forests and pastures in use of the village.
- Preparation of the user’s right certificate of forest transfer with the duties and rights deriving from it Demarcation of village boundaries.
- Demarcation of village boundaries carried out by the working groups in close collaboration with representatives from the DSF, the village commissions, and with boundary villages’ commissions. Demands for restoring pre-1945 ownership and use rights, whether previously documented or not, have persisted, and have been widely reasserted de facto, particularly in Albania’s north. The ascertainment started with the well-known or documented boundaries, and walked along the boundaries discussing and marking in the field and in the map the boundary lines.
- Transfer of the state- owned forest to the communes in the four selected communes and Certification of forest/pasture land users. The decision to divide the communal forest /pasture land to the users was taken by the villages’ commissions. If they decided to divide them, users were identified and certified by village commissions. In doing that, the requests or traditional claims of neighborhoods, clans, group families or separate families for the forest/pasture land they had used in the past were collected, and then decided accordingly. The user’s right certificate issued for every case, clearly defined the conditions for using the forest/pasture land, rights and obligations.
- Preparation of sketches and cartographic description of each forest/pasture land parcel or sub-parcel used by individual household or collectively by the whole village. In the second category, that of Operational Deliverables, there are 6 significant contributions.
- Capacity building of all the stakeholders. The commissioners, representatives from each stakeholder group within the communes, were trained in one-day training, on the issues dealing with the identification and legalization of the village boundaries on forest and pastures, and the certification of the use and users of the forest. In addition, information workshops were organized by NACFP in ten other communes with broad participation of local people.
- Organization of a national conference “It’s time for deep reform in Albanian Forestry”.
- Organization of International workshop “Sharing knowledge on Participatory Mapping for Forest and Pasture Areas - Combining different mapping techniques to address policy challenges in the management and use of forest and pasture lands” with participation of experts from ILC and the main stakeholders from the central institution and donors of Albania. Intensive lobbing activities
- materialized on Four Resolutions, 1 Memo, 3 Requests, and 3 amendments for the Law on forest/pasture land were sent to the decision-makers (Directorate of Forest Policies, MEFWA, Prime Minister, President of Republic, Parliament, and World Bank).
- Considering the suggestion from the NACFP and supported also from the donors (SIDA and World Bank), an action- plan for the Implementation of the Strategy for the Sustainable Transfer and Management of Forests and Pastures in use/ownership of communes has been formulated by the MEFWA.
- Communication of activities and results through the following:
- six papers published in national newspapers;
- more than 25 papers published in local newspapers or newspapers of ecological character;
- several TV chronicles of the transfer process in the national and local TV-s of Kukes, Puka, Dibra, and Korca.
- extensive contacts with staff of Prime Minister, speaker of the parliament, and two main parliamentary groups;
- extensive interaction with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Water Administrations, the ministry responsible for forest policy and management. A landmark achievement of the project was, the people associated with the Community Forest agreed in many cases to use collectively forest/pasture land and decided that nobody would damage the reserved areas.
The lessons learned national forestry and pasture land policy. The Council of Ministers on its meeting of February 3, 2008 decided that ca. 500 000 ha of forest and pasture will be transferred to the local governments, aiming a better administration and management of forest. A related question that is often raised concerns the comparative advantages and disadvantages of working with small groups as opposed to working with the whole community. This project indicates that small groups with shared interests can serve as more effective vehicles for promoting participation, and produce better results. Within the framework of this study, it has not been possible to elaborate on the important issues of impact and sustainability. Community forestry is meant to be a feasible alternative for promoting sustainable development of forest and tree resources at the local level. It has yet to be demonstrated that this method fulfils these expectations from political, economic, technical and social points of view. This would require more intensive and lengthy fieldwork than was possible for this study. Therefore, there is a great need to carry out ex-post studies on the impact and sustainability of past community forestry interventions. The transfer process in Albania is currently incomplete. The transfer of forest and pasture should be considered complete only with the registration of the title and the title-holder’s possession of the registration document, together with an accompanying map. This last step should be integrated into current Albanian legislation by working more closely with IPRO (Immovable Property Registration Office). In this scenario, property titles can pave the way for increasing farmers’ interests in managing natural resources in a sustainable manner, and consequently in inducing sustainable income generation activities.
