As a result, farmers and other independent landowners have begun receiving the right to utilize small, but for them valuable, forests and pastures, which they can utilize in accordance with regulated cultivation plans.
A brighter future for rural areas
The formal right to use the land not only provides security and increased income; it also contributes to a brighter future for rural Albania, where there is still widespread poverty.
Local governments now have the power to decide how 60 percent of this type of productive land will be used. The local authorities are also responsible for drawing property boundaries, issuing title deeds and establishing and examining cultivation plans together with the organized forest owners.
To do this, local government authorities need to have better knowledge, routines and information technology tools.
These are some of the results of a project that Sida has supported in Albania. The project has been carried out by a Dutch non-governmental organization, SNV, which specializes in improving opportunities for those living in poverty to support themselves and their incomes through their own work.
Organization the most important success factor
The project has specfically helped small forest owners to organize themselves in the past three years.
The most important aspect of the project has been driving the issue of decentralizing decisive power and management for the ownership and cultivation of local forest and pasture land. SNV began on a small scale in a few Albanian municipalities and managed to spread successful methods for organization to more areas.
There is now a national organization for forest farmers, which includes many regional associations. They have begun providing services to their members. Creating associations and finding common goals was essential in influencing the government and legislators in the capital Tirana.
About one million farmers are affected by the new legislation.
Nuts and herbs provide important income sources
In the three districts – Korça, Kukes and Diber – where the project was mainly carried out, small-scale logging is not the only important issue for forest farmers’ incomes. Families also gather nuts, chestnuts and herbs for medicinal and aromatic purposes.
With more farmers having been given rights of use, rights of ownership and the chance to join associations, they have begun to study and apply more modern cultivation and marketing methods. Planting oak trees is one example.
Forest farmers from various countries learn from each other
The project has included several exchanges. Forest farmers from Armenia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia visited colleagues in Albania. Some families visited Austria to learn more about cultivating medicinal plants.
Getting women on the board
One of the targets of the project has been to improve women’s opportunities to participate in the new forest-owners’ organizations. Women have a traditional role in rural Albania.
Many activities in the project have been about influencing the attitudes of men and women about the idea of women being allowed on the boards of forest-owners’ associations. This process will take time.
