Forest Strategy in Republic of Macedonia: Barriers to Effective Implementation

Background and Purpose: In recent years, implementation of forest strategies and programs has been acknowledged as an important phase of the forest policy process. Forest policies such as conflict management concepts between deferent interests of stakeholders, are a dynamic route that needs to be managed carefully to achieve its goals. Creation of the forest policy document entitled “Strategy for sustainable development of forestry in Republic of Macedonia” was introduced for the first time in 2005 as cooperation between the Government and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Action Plan was brought in the same year including the strategy and validity until the end of the year 2009 now is out of date for undetermined reasons, due to lack of analysis of the level of implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Materials and Methods: Through exploratory qualitative method using a case study, this paper attempts to explore different stakeholders perception of the most common barriers for implementation of the Strategy for sustainable development of forests in Republic of Macedonia and ascertain if implementation variables are identified as barriers in the implementation stage. Results: The research showed that environmental and organisational barriers such as legal restrictions, political willingness, social change, control, leadership and clear responsibility are the most common barriers impeding forest strategy implementation in Macedonia. Conclusions: The paper concluded that the three year action plan was too ambitious, given the existing human and technical capacities in the forestry sector, recommending participation of all included stakeholders in the implementation as an important fact in overcoming the current barriers and moving forward the process