Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Maxhun Dida, Vasillaq Mine, Hilmar Foellmi, Haki Kola and Janaq Male [1]
Abstract
More than half of Albania's surface is classified as forests (1 026 000 ha) and pastures (446 000 ha), and more than 50% of the population live in these rural areas. No other sector has such a fundamental impact on Albania's poverty-stricken rural population as the forest and pasture sector. In Albania, poverty reduction is a national objective and most projects or programmes have at least a partial objective to reduce the nation's poverty. The Albania Forestry Project (FP) funded by the World Bank (WB) and by the Italian and Swiss Governments is being implemented with the objectives, among others, of Achieving a sustainable increase in the productivity of forest and pasture areas and Empowering local governments in order to meet requirements of the population for forest and pasture products, developing non-wood products, protection and restoration of natural ecosystems. The FP focuses on four main aspects of forest and pasture management: institutional strengthening, sustainable forest management, communal forest and pasture management and protected areas management. In combination, these components are expected to have a direct and positive impact on the productivity of these areas, on the reduction of erosion and protection of the many irrigation schemes in rural areas. Project activities are also expected to lead to a more rational use of pastureland and to halt the current degradation process that is most threatening to biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystems. At the same time the project is supporting the government's decentralization efforts and is facilitating the actual transfer of forests and pastures to the communes and the strengthening of capacities at all level of the forestry and pasture sector. Since 2001, the World Food Programme (WFP) has also been supporting the project through food aid to ensure a sufficient level of food security for the workers. As a result of the FP, there have been attitudinal changes towards health and education, although a quantitative assessment was not possible. An interesting fact is that about 45% of families rely on at least some income generated by school-aged children, which may explain some lower school attendance figures in rural areas. The effects of the FP on reduction of risks and on the increasing involvement and influence in the decision-making processes are easier to assess. The FP has very much contributed to increasing the transparency of the processes and to facilitating communication and common decision-making in forest and pasture resources management.
Introduction
In 1995, the Albanian Government, the WB, the Italian Government and the Swiss Government signed the project documents of the Albania Forestry Project (FP). Poverty reduction is one of the overriding objectives of the FP that in the course of its six years of activities has involved a wide spectrum of the country's population. Qualitative assessments indicate that the project as a whole has had a positive impact on poverty alleviation and that particularly the Communal Forest/Pasture Management (CFPM) component with its targeted interventions in rural areas, has contributed significantly to reducing poverty in very vulnerable areas. Based on defined national indicators, this study has been designed solely to assess the impact of the FP on poverty reduction as related to these five indicators.
Lack of access to and the quality of health services has been identified as a main indicator of Poverty in Albania.[3] According to Ministry of Health statistics, the average life expectancy in Albania is relatively high: 69 years for men and 75 years for women. In 1996, only 6% of the health budget was spent on basic health services in rural communities. The inefficient use of these insufficient funds by local authorities further exacerbates the poor quality of preventive and curative services in rural Albania.
and participation of communities and local government. This process is already completed on 40 percent of the communes.One key problem encountered in this process that still needs to be resolved is the sharing of responsibilities and cooperation between the district forest service, local government and community and the extent of communal authority in using their resources
Main Findings
The analysis of the responses from the numerous households and organizations has provided very valuable information that allows the authors to formulate the following specific findings. Probably the most important finding of this assessment is that the FP has been able to work with the most appropriate target group, namely the extreme poor in the rural areas, mainly, but not exclusively through the communal forest component. The median total income of the surveyed households in 2001 was 130,000 Lek (USD 929), including the cash contributions of the FP and in-kind benefits such as food supplements and the benefits from the utilization of forest and pasture resources. 1. The level of income from forestry activities for participating households is estimated at about 39,000 Lek (USD 270/year), or 30% of total income. This is in line with the level of input, which is on average about 3 months. The contribution of WFP is targeting the most direct need and gives households some more room to make expenditures for other needs. Furthermore the people indicated that the income obtained from the FP is mainly used for food, to a lesser extent for health, transport and education 2. In providing these opportunities for additional income and in improving the forest resources potential, the FP has contributed to strengthening the sense of security by increasing the disposable income. The findings of the survey suggest that financial resources from the FP are a contributing factor for health and education and that the awareness about both aspects has increased due to the FP. 3. One of the critical findings of this survey is that people want to work and be self-reliant. Employment opportunities are what most people want and only a minority of those surveyed think that assistance programmes such as the FP and the WFP are the long-term solution to their problems. They are seeking other options for realizing their own economic potential and a majority would like access to a small loans/credit programme to help them get started. Economic hardship is by far the most cited risk factor in rural areas and also the main reason why almost 70% of the respondents have considered migration. Barriers to migration have prevented them from doing so, and for many the FP has made staying a bit easier. There is a definite expectation for increased benefits in the future from the forest resources, particularly in terms of fodder for livestock, timber and from increased site productivity. These benefits are directly linked to the investments made into forest and pasture. Participation in project activities has strengthened the participation in forest and pasture resource management. Most respondents are satisfied with their associations and also find the collaboration with the DFS as a productive, although there is considerable room for improving the participatory processes at all levels.
Effects on Organizations
The majority of organizations, state or private, noticed an overall increase in funding over the last five-year period and for 57 % of the respondents this increase is due to FP activities. The contributions of the FP is especially important for the CFPUAs (almost 100% of investments come from the FP) and the private companies who received some 80% of their 2001 revenues from the FP. This strong economic dependency of CFPUAs and private contractors is a risk for future viability of these non-state organizations, although some 73% of the organizations expect the future situation in the forest and pasture sector to improve, even without the assistance by a project. At the commune level, the overall condition with respect to forest and pasture resources should gradually improve, especially in areas where the CFPUA manage their forests and pastures properly and generate revenues from fees and from the sales of products from forests and pastures. The contributions made by the FP in terms of infrastructure, communication equipment, and transportation and particularly training, have significantly increased functionality and the efficiency of the DGFP.
3. That the institutional strengthening, sustainable forest management and protected areas management component also support the poverty reduction objective is also evident from the survey. This process, however, is still at an early stage and should increase with further decentralization. 4. Closer analysis however shows that this optimism rests on the assumption that the government of Albania continues to invest into the sector after the completion of the FP. Indeed, achieving these general expectations, the efforts towards sustainable forest and pasture management have to be continued.
Recommendations
1) Government and donors have to continue the efforts to reduce extreme poverty in the rural areas of Albania. The considerable technological and infrastructural improvements introduced by the FP should be an incentive for the government to secure the needed resources to build on and fully benefit from the investments made so far by the FP. 2) Decentralization within the Forest Administration should proceed in close collaboration with other Ministries to ensure proper cooperation and allocation of resources; 3) Capacity building and participatory processes should be further developed in connection with the decentralization process and DGFP extension services should be strengthened. 4) Since in many areas it will take considerable time until communal forests and pasture areas become sufficiently productive to provide a net return to the people in the communes, longerterm cash flow projections based on management plan interventions should also be prepared. 5) Communes could be specifically supported to facilitate integration into these regional plans that should cover broad economic development objectives based on resources, skills and tourism potential. 6) Environmental and natural resources management planning should be more and more based on watersheds, rather than on smaller management units. 7) Capacity building of all actors (DGFP, DFS, CFPUA) is needed to achieve sustainable natural resources management. An integrated multi-disciplinary approach to capacity building should be aimed at - driven by government policies. 8) In line with decentralization, the main partners for implementation of any assistance programmes should be the DFS and the local governments. 9) CFPUAs should be formally organized at the regional and national level. 10) With the review of the legal framework of the forest sector, the further steps towards private ownership of forest and pastureland should be considered as one of the options to solve rural poverty.
[1] [2]
Email: jmale@dppk.net Michel Midre report "Communal Forest and Pasture Management Evaluation Report" [3] Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy - GPRS 2002-2004 [4] Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2001 [5] Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2001