Closing Conference on the International Day of Forests in Belgrade

The Closing Conference of the EU Twinning project "Improvement of forest management in Serbia as a contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation" was held on 21 March 2023 at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

The purpose of this two-year EU-funded Twinning project with a budget of € 1.000.000 was to strengthen the capacities of the forestry sector in Serbia to implement obligations stemming from EU standards and regulations in forestry and related fields. The project partnership consists of Austria as lead Member State (MS), Slovakia as junior partner MS and the Ministry of Finance, Department for Contracting and Financing of European Union Funded Programs (CFCU) as Serbian contracting authority. The project was implemented by the Directorate for Forests of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.

The Conference was opened by Mr Veljko Odalović, State Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. “Twinning projects are essential for sharing experience and building long-term partnerships among institutions, but also among people”, stressed Mr Odalović. Welcome remarks were made by H.E. Mr Christian Ebner, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Mr Fedor Rosocha, Ambassador of Slovakia to the Republic of Serbia and Sakellaris Hourdas from the Delegation of the European Union. It was attended by policy makers, forest practitioners and other key stakeholders of sustainable forest management in Serbia, experts from competent institutions from Austria and Slovakia, the diplomatic core, and the press.

Mr Saša Stamatović, Beneficiary Country Project Leader, Acting Director of the Directorate for Forests, highlighted key outputs of the Twinning project. The Twinning experts assisted the Directorate in developing a Roadmap for the national forest development programme and setting up a forest policy cycle with public consultations. The joint activities also lead to improvements in the current subsidies payment system used in Serbia. Furthermore, recommendations were made for aligning Serbian legislation with the EU timber trade system. Mr Stamatović emphasized that “The project had a training programme that reached out to policy makers, forest practitioners and even small forest owners, which is very important for us”.

Representatives of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development from Slovakia offered their insights on cooperation in the area of sustainable forest management. 

The Conference panel members were Mr Saša Stamatović, Mr Peter Mayer, Member State Project Leader, Director of the Austrian Research Centre for Forests, Mr Milan Sarvaš, National Forest Centre of Slovakia and Mr Predrag Jović, FAO. They provided interesting views on the role of forests and forestry in adapting to climate change and mitigating its impacts in Serbia and Europe-wide. The panel discussion was facilitated by Mr Jozef Turok, Resident Twinning Advisor (RTA), and Ms Ljiljana Sovilj, RTA Counterpart.

The Conference was concluded by signing a Memorandum of Understanding by the Directors of the Institute of Forestry (Serbia), the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW, Austria) and the National Forest Centre (NLC, Slovakia).