 Sustainable natural resource management (NRM) requires a balance between different concerns and interests. Sustainable NRM also requires consensus and action by all stakeholders supported by an appropriate regulatory and institutional framework.
Biodiversity CDD and Forestry Sector Reform in Romania
The forestry sector in Romania has the potential to significantly increase contributions to the national economy and alleviating poverty, but important threats are undermining this potential. Threats include:
1. Unsustainable use of forest resources by local stakeholders (timber, grazing, hunting);
2. Unplanned development (e.g., construction of private chalets and hotels, "buffer" zone encroachment);
3. Displacement of community interests by local elites.
Thus, local communities are both the problem and solution in addressing local level threats. It has been learned from the Romania experience that success of biodiversity projects are reliant to CDD approaches to land and natural resource use, planning and management. Success in CDD approaches, in turn, is reliant on such factors as:
1. Leadership by counterpart teams who are equipped with practical skills in participatory techniques and processes;
2. A flexible project framework that is responsive to stakeholder needs; and
3. Taking the time to get it right.
The concrete skills and concepts acquired can be transferred to sector wide reform operations at the national and local level. Whether sector-wide forestry reform will succeed is also reliant on CDD.
Albanian Forestry Project
The Albanian Forestry Project has an experimental component of participatory management of natural resources. This approach is new in Albania and neither the population nor administration were prepared for its proper implementation. Nevertheless, achievements have been far beyond expectations. This approach was widely accepted by both the local people and administration and was repeated at the national level. Furthermore, the government followed the suggestion of the project to establish a new Directorate for Communal Forests and Pastures. Additionally, the forest service has need decentralized and communal services strengthened. Also, 60 new communes were added to the original 30 communes and the budget for communal component was drastically increased. However, serious concerns affecting sustainability have arisen. For instance, farmers complain that funds provided for each commune are not sufficient, pastures and forests are too degraded to produce immediate revenues, and 20% of all families are not able to
pay fees for using firewood in the village area.
The Eastern Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project
The Eastern Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project has been active since 1993 and will be ending this year. During the life of the project, the level of interaction between community groups and provincial government agencies has improved significantly and solutions to all the important NR issues have been cooperatively pursued. The micro-catchment component of the project has been very successful. A total of 88 micro-catchments in eleven provinces involving 350 villages have been planned and 79 micro-catchments are either under implementation or completed. The number of beneficiaries is estimated to be 300,000 and the total area where rehabilitation has taken place is 716,945 ha.
 Presentation on the Albanian Forestry project (455k ppt)
Presentation on Community Driven Development in Natural Resource Management in Romania (8mb ppt)
Presentation on the Community Driven Development in Natural Resource Management (86k ppt)
Notes from the BBL (8k pdf)
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