The Man Who Planted Trees

by JEAN GIONO

About forty years ago I went on a long hike, through hills absolutely unknown to tourists, in that very old region where the Alps penetrate into Provence .
     This region is bounded to the south-east and south by the middle course of the Durance, between Sisteron and Mirabeau; to the north by the upper course of the Drôme, from its source down to Die; to the west by the plains of Comtat Venaissin and the outskirts of Mont Ventoux. It includes all the northern part of the Département of Basses-Alpes, the south of Drôme and a little enclave of Vaucluse.
     At the time I undertook my long walk through this deserted region, it consisted of barren and monotonous lands, at about 1200 to 1300 meters above sea level. Nothing grew there except wild lavender. More

FOREST AS A SAEFTY NET FOR THE POOR

Prepared by: Haki Kola, Maxhun Dida, Vasillaq Mine, Hilmar Foellmi and Janaq Male

More than half of the country's surface is classified as forests (1026000 ha) and pastures (446000 ha), and more than 50% of population still live in these rural areas. All forest and pasture areas are administrated and managed by the Directorate General of forest and pasture (DGFP). No other sector has such a fundamental impact on Albania's poverty-stricken rural population as the forest and pasture sector.
Albanian society has undergone a fundamental transition since 1990, marked by changes in the production structures, high unemployment, unprecedented emigration, changes to the family structure and to the socio-economic dynamics within the family itself. Compared to other sectors, the forestry sector has suffered greatly from this transition.
In Albania, poverty reduction is a national objective and most projects or programmes have at least a partial objective to reduce the nation's poverty. More

EFFECTS OF THE ALBANIA FORESTRY PROJECT ON POVERTY REDUCTION

No other sector has such a fundamental impact on Albania’s poverty stricken rural population as the forest and pasture sector. More than half of the country’s surface is classified as forests (1026000 ha) and pastures (446000 ha), and it is in these rural areas where poverty is the most extreme. In Albania, poverty reduction is a national objective and most projects or programmes have at least a partial objective to reduce the nations poverty. Thus project impact assessments are of great importance for the government and for donors to find out how well project objectives are being achieved. It is with this perspective that the effects of the Albania Forestry Project (FP) on Poverty Reduction have been assessed. More

THE STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORESTRY AND PASTURES SECTOR IN ALBANIA

In the implementation of the government program and the instructions of the President of our Republic, that emphasize the urgent need to re-examine the long term strategy of development of forest and pasture sector, DGFP has worked in order to a more complete strategy of this sector. More

Draft Report on the Development of a National Forest Fire Management Strategy and Action Plan for Albania

Albania , despite its very small territory, is one of the European countries with rich vegetation, which originated during the Tertiary era. Today's vegetation of Albania is composed of endemic relic vegetation and of species that have invaded from neighbouring regions thought migration, having phytogenetic similarities with floristic elements of neighbouring countries. More

CHANGELES TO ACCEPT THE FOREST FAMILY

The “visibility” project for family forestry

“ What kinds of forests are there in the world?” If we could put this question to a cross section of city people and opinion leaders around the country, there is good reason to believe that the answer we would get from most people including many leaders of forestry agencies would be: “Well, there are two kinds of forests. There are natural forests with no people, except, that is, for tourists and park rangers and poachers. And then there are industrial forests, plantations and so on, managed for one purpose, to produce raw material for industry. There are those two kinds of forests”. There is a third type of forest. It is owned, used, managed, and protected in various ways by families and communities. It does not fit the simplistic description of forests of the first and second type. Management is generally on a small scale, and for a wide range of uses, products and services.More

ANALYSIS OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
ON THE COMMUNAL FORESTS AND PASTURES
IN ALBANIA

Prepared by: Prof. Dr. Vezir Muharremaj
January 2008

In partnership with:

Netherlands Development Program and Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Water Administration

In the framework of policies for decentralization of the natural resources management and the legalization of the long existing informality in the possession of forests and pastures close to villages, and the EU integration, the process of forest and pastures transfer under the ownership or use of communes or municipalities has become a problem for the central government and the local government units, users (villages, agricultural families) and the associations throughout the country. The legal and sub-legal acts enacted after the '90, such as the law on forests, the law on pastures and meadows, regulation No. 308 date 26.01.1996 “On the transfer of the communal forests and pastures under use and administration”, the law on local government (2000), on the public property and on their transfer (2001), etc., have made possible the transfer of forests and pastures under communal use. More | Comments / Foto from the seminar

Enhancing Tenure Security
Through Transfer of State Public Property
(Forest) to the Communes

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. more

NATURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROJECT(P082375)TECHNICAL SUPERVISION MISSION

A joint Technical Supervision Mission of the world Bank and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) was carried out from march 31-april4,2008, to assess the progress in the implementation of the albania Natural Resources Development Project(NRDP). The mission comprissed of Drita Dade(Task Team Leader,ECSSD), Robert Kirmse(Senior Forest Specialist, ECSSD), Carrl-Federik Von Essen(Junnior Proffesional Officer, ECSSD), Elona Gjika(Finacial Specialist, ECSPS), Daniel Gerber (Operations Analyst, ECSSD), ANa Gjokutraj(communications Officer, ECCAL), Peter Troste(Councelor, Sida Tirana), And Lennart Ljungman(Forest specialist, Sida Consultant. MORE

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