Forest Management in Romania and Bulgaria - IKEA

Geographical location:

Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Bulgaria

Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Romania
Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Ukraine

Summary

The purpose of the project is to achieve responsible forest management and widespread multi-stakeholder based forest certification in Romania and Bulgaria. The primary focus of the project will be on Romania. In addition, some work will be carried out in Bulgaria, and a watching brief will be maintained over Ukraine with a view to the allocation of resources to that country, should conditions permit.

Background

IKEA sources nearly 25% of its solid wood supply from Eastern Europe. Major supply countries are Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, with IKEA owned Swedwood operations in all these countries. An emerging supply is Ukraine.

Romania contains some of the most biologically important temperate forests in the world. The WWF Carpathian Ecoregion Initiative has carried out a gap analysis of the protected area network and identified the most significant forests which still require protection.

The forest sector in Romania is, at present, dominated by the state. However, the restitution of up to half of all forest to new owners is in progress. This is the most significant problem and challenge, requiring the development of an institutional framework and the enforcement of forest regulations as there is potential for major negative impacts on forest ecosystems and their biodiversity. The system of protected areas and protection for biodiversity values is undeveloped, and the level of standards in operations is low.

In Bulgaria, the tenure situation and restitution process is similar to that of Romania. However, market mechanisms are less developed here and a high proportion of plantation forest complicates the picture. Long-term contracts are possible, making chain-of-custody easier to establish. This also makes it easier to establish demonstration forest projects. There is an FSC national initiative in place and the Government is supportive of certification.

World Bank/WWF Alliance, Swiss-Bulgarian and German-Bulgarian projects have shown or indicated interest in funding the national initiative. A first draft of the standard has been produced and this is being revised prior to a first field test. Bulgaria has a relatively well developed system of protected areas with thorough documentation including digital maps. Some Bulgarian forests are also of high conservation value and use of the HCVF Toolkit and certification assessment capacity building is of importance.

Cooperation between governments in the region on forestry issues is increasing and it is important that this project should build upon this.

Objectives

Certain activities have been selected for funding by IKEA.
The goals are:
1. Adapt the High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) toolkit to Bulgarian and Romanian conditions and promote widespread use of the toolkit.
2. Establish a producer group in the region.
3. Establish a demonstration group certification scheme for private owners in Romania.
4. Provide support for multi-stakeholder standard setting process in Romania.
5. Provide certification capacity building and improve communications, education, training and outreach to suppliers.