Webinar given on 17June 2024 as part of the international public consultation on the Croatian forest certification system.
a warm welcome everyone on today’s public consultation webinar my name is Hubert in Heiser from PFC International and I’m very happy to be your host today today we are talking about Croatia the re recent addition to the Balkan Regional Forest certification system the public consultation webinar uh has free items as usual I will have a very short introduction about PFC International and the for system and after that of course the main item for today is the presentation of the creation for a certification system as part of the balans and I’m very H happy to have Milenko here and sash today who will guide us through first of all what is the Balan Regional Forest certification system and of course the main item uh which is the creation uh Forest certification part of it and at the end there will be time for questions and answers as we go ahead so with this short overview of what we have today let’s go ahead about BFC International BFC the Acron stands for program for the endorsement of forest certification systems we are an alliance of independent National Forest certification systems Under the Umbrella of PFC International while besides National we also have Regional systems such as we discussed today the balham regional system system being including National elements of it uh all of these uh uh systems are based on or sustainability Benchmark standards such as the sfm standard or they adopt the international standards such as the chain of custody standard please bear in mind that these are voluntary mechanisms promoting sustainable Forest management through independent third-party certification of course we are very uh proud that we are the world largest Forest certification system and provider of three quarter of the world sustainable certified Timber on this map you can see our Global coverage in dark green you can see the countries which are covered with endorsed PFC systems and with light green you see the countries where there are no endorsed cert ification systems as of today in the blue dots you can see uh the countries where we do have chain of custody certificates since PFT maintains an international chain of custody uh standard it is possible as you can see on the map that we operate chain of custody certificates without having sfm components or national government bodies attached to it and just couple of introductory remarks uh the Croatian sustainable Forest management standard uh was submitted for assessment as part of the Balkan Regional Forest certification system the recent addition to it you may recall that previously we had a webinar uh about the Bulgarian uh component which was another addition to the Balan Regional Forest certification system which is now covering five countries uh this assessment will be carried out by an independent assessor yet to be appointed um and as part of this assessment process there’s a 60 days International public consultation so you can uh access the complete uh system documentation on our website you can see the link here and during the 60 days if you have any comments to it please let us know because all of these comments submitted during this uh consultation period they’ll be considered by the assessor um in the assessment report we open uh this consultation today so the 60 days will end on 16th of August so please uh make sure that you will submit uh your comment or if you have a say about the system until 16th of August and that was it from my side so I will just uh stop sharing my screen and invite Sasha and Milenko to guide us through the presentation Gentlemen please unmute your microphones and the floor is yours thank you so much who is first maybe mileno should I go first yes please yes okay then I will share my screen uh yes this one I hope you see it put it in a different mode do you hear me well yes yes a show everything is good full screen uh just just wondering if you hear me well okay if you can put it yes exactly you can hear you good please go so good morning also from my side my name is Sasha Petroski I am uh supporting development of the PFC on the Balkans uh so as ubert already explained to you uh we are going to present the Balkan Forest certification system that now provides coverage to to five countries uh from the Balkans so in curent we have uh Slovenia Bosnia and heroina Croatia North Macedonia and Bulgaria as particip ating members of this Forest certification system uh we have in common that all the countries belongs to the Balkans geographically we are let’s say uh close to each to each other and up to 90s four of these uh countries were part of the one state federal system part of Yugoslavia so still there market and other relation uh existing uh in this in this part of the of Europe and I can say that uh from the perspective of Education the way of management of forests and at some part also the composition of forest we have similar uh Forest tradition uh the initiative the discussion to create the Balkan Forest certification system started on the meeting in Croatia in February 2018 where exactly these five countries had a meeting and we discussed about the opportunity that we work on development on S on such a system I can say that at that time the only system in development was on I think on kogo Basin uh as Regional system so after that me meeting in uh 20203 countries started the process Slovenia Bosnia and herzo North Macedonia so we have jointly developed the system we didn’t start it exactly at the same date but we end up uh on the same date that we submitted the the system for assessment to PFC and after uh assessment process and an improvement of the part of documentation after the assessment the uh the Balkan Forest certification system was endorsed fully by the PFC Council uh on 17 of February 2023 in this uh where I can I will explain that also Croatian NGB the Croatian Union of private Forest Association officially joined to the system in December 2023 after they become endorsed by the PF Council as the national governance body for Croatia so they have formally requested membership in this system and we are considering now ca’s fifth member in the Balkan system uh some figures about the members and certificates what is the current situation I can say for example the Slovenia is one of the is the oldest and of course in that respect they have uh almost 300,000 of hectares of PFC certified forests according to my recent research the 81 chain of custodies so 59 individual plus several multi sight and producer group certificates Bulgaria managed to develop let’s say also quite uh let’s uh development so they have incurrent 245,000 of hectar of BFC certified Forest uh in state ownership and the number of CH chain of custodies is also significant in Macedonia the situation is that in current we have only one Forest management unit certified so it’s just 1,600 hectares but we are now in the process of certifying over 100,000 hectares of State Forest uh we have passed in April the first phase of the auditing called pre- audit so we expect the the audit as a second phase to be conducted uh in September October this year in 23 Forest management units and only two individual chain of custody certificates you see we expect that there will be slight increase after uh certification of State on Forest at least plus 10 certificates on chain of custody uh uh regarding bosnan there are no Forest management certificates yet um we discussed uh mutually there’s large potential in the private Forest we are still significant resources of the of uh oak wood lays in in private Forest so there’s opportunity to certify this forest and only three chain of custody certificates exists in Bosnia at the moment in Croatia since they are now in the process of assessment we hope there will be soon let’s say in Period of one and one and a half year certified forests under the PFC FM uh certificate and there are 21 chain of custody certificates in in curent so that provides good start for Croatia I can say uh if you look at the composition of the the system um I can say the all the all the documentation where you see the shorts PFC BS uh so it’s uh we use the same documentation as a basis only the sustainable Forest management standards are unique for every country uh and you see in red that we have uh Bulgaria and the the revision the National Standard for sustainable Forest management and in Croatia they just submitted uh also the National Standard for sustainable Forest management and it’s under assessment as Hubert also mentioned we accepted those few documents of PFC Council uh Global documents documents on the trademark trademark Ru requirements chain of custody of forest and three based products and requirements for certification B this operating certification against chain of custody uh what are the benefits to become a part of the Balkan Forest certification systems it is considered as a facilitation tool with a to support also the PFC Global benchmarks but also to of course to support the forest development in the C countries that are joining in uh we have uh common approach uh on at the Balkan uh region to provide as I said development of the forestry uh but also that we aim to reach uh the cost Effectiveness and to develop synergies among the members so if any country that is part of the Balkan region or Jo or neighboring to it um the members of this system are willing to to support we provide support they want to become members of this system uh since if they accept principles of of this uh system and adopt the system documentation that is out outside of the forest management standard uh one of the major benefits is reducing the cost for the assessment uh because um once it is endorsed the documentation on the system will be changed once that there will be changes in the global benchmarks of the PFC but uh the the process of revision of the sustainable Forest management standards will stay regular so every 5 years every country has obligation to to do so uh I can say that not all the count will have the same date for revision for example Macedonia will have to announce the start in 2025 next year while Croatia while Slovenia and Bosnia heroina will do do so in 2026 I see I think and regarding the the the costs uh it’s very important to say that we are sharing the cost regarding the system documentation equally uh while the cost for the assessment of the national standards for sustainable Forest management is covered by the by each country the general principles to to be member of the to to to how the system functions is that the the this system is not uh is nowhere registered as a legal entity actually the system is a regional platform for cooperation of the PFC National governance bodies from the Balkan in future we may decide if necessary to officially register uh this uh entity as as a legal entity somewhere in these countries we by now cooperate based on the memorandum of understanding that uh we have signed in Scopia last September so we also the part of that document uh says that the ownership of that memorandum are by the signatur parties of that document uh as I said before you see that the dates for validity of national sfm standards are different for every country depends when they have adopted their national standards uh one of the condition to become member of PFC Balkan Forest certification system is that the NGB has to be officially recognized by the PFC Council as a member and uh then the countries apply for participation in in writing to close this is that the Balan system is geographically covering the Balkans region but also countries that are neighboring so let’s say yeah Greece is anyway part of the Balkans but also mavia Georgia May in this system if they if initiatives in their countries decides to to join and and accept the principles of this of this Regional system so that was shortly about the the system so if you have something to to ask please thank you much sash for the for the overview I think for now we can continue with milaku and the creation comp component of the ban system Milano please go ahead share your screen thank you thank you hbert good morning to everyone uh first of all I would like to introduce myself I’m midan kupan and I am Secretary General of creation Union of priv forest Association a uh we are NGB and actually I am also uh now president of the council for certification which is independent body established under the uh our Union I will now share the presentation can you see I see it yeah it’s good is it okay yeah okay so uh first of all I would like to say a few facts about uh state of forest in Croatia uh Croatia uh is quite full of forest so uh 47% of uh land area are covered by Forest uh in hectars it is 2.7 million hectares and approximately 2 billion 800 uh trees um most of our forest are uh natural Forest so 97% and we we have 943 species in in this uh in our natural forest and also our forest are in a good excellent and good condition so 98% of forest and bird stock are in these conditions we can thank you this because we we traditionally take care of balance between the three pillars of sustainable uh management so environmental social and economic so I will now say just a few things about each of these pillar so as I say we have mostly natural Forest we take care of conservation of FAA and Flora uh also uh the ecological balance is is good for us in our Forest according to the last National inventory we have uh 33 million cubic M of Deadwood so of this uh Co wooded debris is 19 million and standing Deadwood is 14 million cubics our forest are also sink for for 640 million tons of of C2 and uh this environmental pillar also also include that our forest are are very very important for climate change mitigation for carbon storage for release of oxygen also for regulation of water regime mitigation of extreme veter events and all others like functions like nutrient cycling decomposition soil production and conservation or pollination concerning the social pillar I have to say that our forest most of them are uh actually open for public only only national parks are not uh open without without paying the the fee but but all other Forest uh private and state are open for public so we fulfill to tourist medical and Recreation role of forest also uh conservation of the landscape uh water and and purification and our forest uh take uh care also on educational aesthetic and cultur cultural values the economic pillar is also very important in Croatia since we have wood stock of 550 million ion cubic M annual growth is 11 million and we cut 8.4 million which is 76% our forestry and wood industry uh [Music] are have impact uh in in economy because they in this income is uh yearly approximately 20 billion k and uh secure for 35,000 jobs in in this in this sector uh primary biomass production we do main uh locks and firewood but we also do uh produce other things in Forest so very important is Forest productive materials mostly seed and plants and uh also for food production fruits mushrooms and other things like medicinal herbs Cork and hunting so in numbers and perentes you can see that in in our uh State Forest 97% are natural and 3% are plantations in private is little bit different but not so much 90m P2 uh also uh we have mostly High Forest uh in in uh in state is 78% uh and 22 are Copus in private uh privately own forest it’s it’s more Copus Forest 32% and concerning the the composition also mostly we have broad leaves uh with smaller amount of conifers and um we have also significant part of mixed Forest but in this mixed Forest I um think that you must know that this is so mixed from broadleaves and conifers it’s natural Forest of Beach and and fur you can see the the percentage uh concerning the quality of of our forest we can say that uh 50% of our forest are also included in NATA 2000 ecological Network so uh as we have uh in total land area under NATA 37% so we are actually the the second one after Slovenia we can say that a lot of our forest are in in N concerning the most common species by area in state forest the the most common is Beach then we have penot 14% silver fur n then cilo and other species uh in private Forest also the the most common is common Beach but not with so high uh percentage it’s only 22 then is cilo and and uh hornbeam some black locust European Lo and pedon and other species now I will like to say a few facts about uh forestry policy makers in CIA since uh uh our ministry uh decided to to to take multi-stakeholder approach in preparation of all Leg legislative proposals so um we have always uh participation participatory process in in preparation of these proposals so uh all the stakeholders from science Forest owners uh practitioners Chambers uh also entrepreneurs or stage Forest company are always in invited in this uh preparation process at and at the end we always have public consultations normally they did that’s sometimes we have problems with matching the requirements of all stakeholders but at the end we can say that we produce uh some some uh documents with it’s with with good manner for all uh concerning the forest Management in C in Croatia everything is prescribed by Forest act or Forest Law so uh as I said before the state uh are the biggest forest on them it has 76% uh from this uh 76 uh 73 is uh managed by creation Forest company so one company manage all the state forest and then uh also Forest faculty has some uh small areas and uh national parks the these uh categories are are Alt from the from the normal management and concerning the private uh Forest owners uh in ctia we have now uh 24% but this uh could in in the next year also be high because the restitution process is still ongoing so maybe in in the next year we will go up to 30% uh I would like also to to share with you that our forest law uh divide private Forest owners uh in three categories so small medium and big small are up to 20 hectar medium 20 to 300 and big are from 300 hectares and also according to this categorization they have a little bit different uh uh obligations uh in Croatia uh Forest managements uh management always uh are based on Forest management plans the plans are obligatory for whole uh for all forests so uh for the for the state and and big uh big private Forest owners they they uh has to prepare by themsel Forest management plans and the small and medium Forest oner uh for them the ministry take care about making the forest management plans but nevertheless uh in in this uh process of preparation of forest management plans uh always uh is uh public consultation at the end and also uh it so it doesn’t matter if it’s private own forest or State on Forest uh concerning the administrative obligations in in uh Forest manager in Croatia it is uh obligatory to issue a logging permit uh by state Administration this is uh mostly for for uh small and and medium Forest Private Forest on but because the the State Forest company and Big Forest must have licens at companies for managing so they can they can do it without logging permit only based on Forest management plans then for all of uh all of uh owners is obligatory tree marking so uh it has to be done by licensed companies so this state compan licensed and for all private uh Forest owners there are different licensed companies who who can do that and also when you want to to put uh the the uh wood products on the on the on the transport you you you must get specific transport document also issued by licensed companies and for for medium uh big private Forest owner and State uh Forest company um you have to pay Forest contribution as a special tax uh which is 5 to 10% of uncut value for local self-government [Music] units concerning the the issues of this U uh permit for for for the logging uh small and medium Forest onus uh has to apply request for marking the trees uh and in this process they has to prove ownership and possession you know also uh if there are corner you must have consent of all of them uh this is for us also administrative barrier because all these documents uh produce extra costs you know then uh we we have also uh problems with prop property legal uh because we have nonc confirmity of land register and cadaster so some of the private Forest owners cannot apply for for for this permit and a lot of this is Heritage this problems is Heritage from the former State because uh we are forced to have small states and and also uh to divide cadaster Parcels on on the smaller areas uh concerning this uh special transport document which was mentioned on the previous slide uh so uh the licens contractors has to has to issue this document and marking all all load it also produce additional cost for the forest own as I said uh Forest Management in Croatia is based on tradition of sto Forest management uh which is based on Forest management plants uh in in these plants we we force to have uh natural regeneration uh with some rotation period in it uh which is various uh according to the climate vegetation types or or or the main species so maybe the beach is uh from 80 to 100 years rotation period then then the Cog is 120 and pedon talk is actually now 140 years but with with these forcing of climate vegetation types we preserve habitats and and we we uh have mixture of Native Native species but in in our Management in the last years we we get some limit itations uh mostly it is uh for conservation measures for bird species and habitat types so this is according to these two natural directives uh it is negative impact on the natural regeneration of forest uh also because disruption of the normal scale of H classes in Forest because they they would like to have uh more and more uh old old uh Forest uh it could uh result with reduction of available Timber by 30% annually and uh actually that is contrary to to our old tradition of 20 250 years of forest management uh so I think that we we are we are actually prove that that we can continue with with uh with no other uh conservation measures we can we can uh uh manage our forest like we we did uh until now and we will have uh all all these sustainability pillars uh in balance and and and we will fulfill all the all the uh request of uh natural protection more most of these limitations are based on uh European biodiversity strategy and and so we will see in the future how it will end uh one one of the best practice in in Croatia I I mentioned before is this close to Nature sustainable Forest management which is based on natural seed regeneration so we maintain the natural structure of of all species in forest and related to biodiversity we with this we ensure resilience and vitality through climatic vegetation types and also ensure climate treat adaptation and mitigation and uh the second thing why I would like to share is restoration so uh as you seen on the previous slides that we have uh some uh part of of Copus forest and also uh plantations and and and Forest cultures so in last uh I would say 10 years we we start with with the measures to to restore this uh these degradation forms to high Forest stands and also these these plantations because most of these plantations are are are actually uh fast growing conifers which are now during the climate change or in in process of declining so we have to improve the forest ecosystem also improve the structure stability and resilience of this forest ecosystem against climate change and of course increase the economic value of of these Forest stands uh and with that you you get also uh increase in carbon sequestration in in existing Forest so we Preserve naturalness of forest and diversity thanks to centuries of sustainable Forest management as I said 250 years even more uh also the heal condition and vitality of the most common threee species in Croatia are satisfactory and you can see this in typical lowand pedano Forest you have a lot of different ages uh forest in in the same stand it is the the goods landscape and and the and this this kind of uh stance preser uh have a lot of different habitats for for for different uh birds and and and [Music] animals so we with this natural regeneration we preserve genetic diversity uh which represent the potential for restoration of climate vegetation types resistant to climate change and we think that close to Nature forestry is base uh for climate change adaptation and mitigation so that that is mostly everything what I want to say for uh state of forest in creation now just a few facts about private Forest uh we have estimated about 600,000 private Forest owners so with with the area you can see that in in average it is less than one hectare for 87% of private Forest owners uh we have problems with with updating of registry of private ownership and also as I said before non-conformity in cadaster and land registry uh our private Forest are used mostly for personal Le uh goals are mostly oriented towards Family Heritage and economic gain uh in private Forest there is actually no low level of forest management but it could be big potential for future management so in in the future we expect uh to have more intense management and Forest maintenance adhering the principles of the foresty profession and management regulations in management plans and also shaping quality and productive standby implementing procedures of care cleaning teaming and Restoration in a timely appropriate Manner and appropriate amount few things about uh our organization uh cretian Union of private Forest owner association are established in 2008 uh now we have uh 14 United Local uh Association as a members and some private persons our main goal is lobbying for the interest of forest owners and uh with this we we are involved in Forest policy and law regulations we cooperate with expert and and scientist ific institutions uh so we Implement a lot of project and also give support to the members uh we are financed only from membership fee donations and uh we are participating in European and national projects now I will start uh to to talk about certification of forest in Croatia concerning the PFC we do not have as Sasha said before but all State Forest are certified by another system and also uh some of the these big private owners also have certified Forest uh but we see that is a large potential in private Forest where significant resources exist and uh we start with the introduction of PFC in Croatia in 2017 with the project supporting stakeholders for development of PFC certification standards in Croatia uh which was co-financed by the PFC collaboration fund and uh with this uh project we we start with development but we in the in the first years we have problems with establishing the NGB uh because it was first uh idea that we have a creation Forest Research Institute as NGB then they in the in the after few years they decided not to be so uh at the end we we have final decision in in 2021 uh so major stakeholders uh uh agree so Ministry of Agriculture uh and and the cretian forest uh company uh and normally uh private Forest own Association agree that standardizing body will be creation Forest Research Institute and the NGB creation Union of private Forest customer Association so with this we actually start with with the uh standard setting and revision procedures we uh adopt from this this document from uh PFC balcon and it was approved on the uh second March of 22 2023 also we we uh make um stakeholders mapping according to the procedure uh it was also uh implemented according to requirements of PFC procedures uh the stakeholders M mapping was done by uh cretian Forest Research Institute and was identified to ministri four chambers and Association State Forest company two big biggest NGO organizations University Research Institute and two Syndicate of forest workers so we can uh we was able to start the process uh after the stakeholder mapping on uh 3rd of uh March 2023 so this process was begun for the third time as we have the uh this project before uh from 2017 so we two times we start the process and then stop because of different reason first was was uh because of NGB and the second one is because we have to wait to to adopt all the PFC balcon uh documents so at the end we we start in on this date and uh uh we we all identified stakeholders were invited to join the process uh eight eight of them uh nominated their representatives so it is Forest owners M Ministry of Agriculture creation Forest company and Association of food processing industry VF Adria then faculty of Forestry Forest Research Institute and chamber of Forestry and wood technology engineers so we start we drafting the standard on 14 of April in 2023 and we have a first work session uh the second meeting was held on uh 25th of April on uh on this uh meeting uh process of consensus building was achieved between the present participants positive voting for missing was sent by email and uh until the last member of the work group has voted positive for acceptance on the draft uh of this National Standard uh maybe you will say that this all procedure was was uh not so long but uh as I said before we have also uh we start with this process from from from 2017 so most of uh this this uh part of National Standard was was done also in the past so it was just uh to to uh to see see what it is and also I would like to say that since the uh since the uh National Forest are uh was uh certified in 2001 and uh according to the FSC so in in 2005 when uh the new uh natural protection act was was uh prepared uh the NGS uh was able to put a lot of of FSC criteria into this uh act you know so actually uh we we have almost everything prescribed in in our uh natural protection act and and the forestry act so there was not so much uh questions from from stakeholders uh about the the the this National Standard so then we uh start with with the public consultation so first was launch on uh 8th of May and was uh lasting until uh uh 8 of of July and no objection on any other common all compliance were received we invite all all the stakeholders again to to to to see and to to take comments what they want so as this is the first time we were uh we have to do the second public consultation on third so we executed it on 1st of August and it was lasting until uh oh was this mistake uh it was not 8 of uh July was uh until until 1st of uh September and also no objection or any other comments were received so at the end we we also uh implement the pilot testing with uh Mr herv boras which is expert in Forest certification and independent auditor uh some minor comments were received and uh actually working group considered these comments and included in final draft which was accepted on 18th of March in 2024 because there were no objections and any other comments and complaints [Music] uh the the acceptance was officially confirmed by decision of the NGB on 22nd of April 2024 so as Sasha already said that in this PFC Balon system uh all countries geographically all close to each other and some of us were in the same uh stay before so we have we still share the market and and relations for us it was it was quite normal to to join this gpfc Balan system and and also because we we share the similar Forest tradition and and of course one of the reason was that we would like to share the cost because uh we we are so small in in global terms so we hope that we will have sustainable future in in this PFC balcon system and with this I would like to thank you for attention and please if you have any any comments to to to share well thank you so much mil enro for this very detailed uh presentation and I think that this just shows the level of energy and time invested in this process that now we are very very happy that we are at this stage that we can look into this and hopefully welcome soon endorsed uh sfm standards from Croatia um I think that uh for now I don’t see any uh questions from the audience until maybe they uh prepare it would just have only from myself that um as you as you mentioned that there were quite a high number of requirements already covered by legislation uh and I was just uh wondering that you know when you were in the working group what were the requirements which were maybe provided an additional element to the legislation which is not described in the legal system so which are the ones which were I don’t want to say challenging but maybe were required technical consider ation from the working group I’m sorry just I have to adjust uh actually there I think there was no such of because our our uh Forest Law and and the natural Protection Law is so so uh how can I say complex uh usually I would like I I say that we have more most restrictive forestry in Europe you know everything is prescribed as as you said that for example even uh Forest owner cannot you know decide so much in in the in the in their Forest because they they can uh apply for for for logging permit but uh then then the uh Forest engineer came out and mark the trees but okay sometimes it could be on the on the vies of the of the forest owner but it mostly it is not not because uh this is always also some uh work when the when the forest engineer have U uh you know influence on Forest owners how to improve the the management and and in their Forest also you know to to to educate them and and so on so that that is and and also for example uh it is not allowed to in ctia only only Forest owner can can work in their Forest if you hire another uh contractor this contractor has to uh be licensed by the chamber so immediately uh you know you you you don’t have to put all these all this uh criteria because chamber chamber uh prescribe in in their documents that licensed contractor must have uh employed one technician or Forester or or if if they are bigger then must have engineer you know and and all the workers must be uh educated for the work have have all the all the all the uh this uh trainings done and so on no that that is what what I want to say that we are we are over over over prescribed yeah no thank you for this uh this addition because indeed that was something which I was really uh interested to see that uh for small owners you have the mandatory element of support for marking the trees uh and I think it also maybe you can on the one hi one side you can see this as a as a free service uh for having these technical um elements or uh especially when you think about the transition from copies first into high first in private lands maybe that’s something which is really an added value but on the other hand you can see this also a limitation on your management activities on your private property so that’s something which which clearly has both sides of this so uh I think with this uh thank you so much uh M yeno again and everyone who joined us today to learn about the creation approach and as part of the uh Regional system uh I just would like to remind everyone that the Croatian documentation is open for your comments until 16th of August please make benefit of this take a look and if you have a comment please uh Supply it uh through the channels what we provided you on the website until 16th of August with this I wish you a r uh rest of the day and I see you in another webinar soon all the best bye-bye goodbye thank you