IUCN projects

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IUCN projects to support biodiversity in forests
of Central Europe Piotr Tyszko, Ph.D. Project
Officer IUCN Office for Central Europe
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IUCN
The World Conservation Union
Vision A just world that values and conserves
nature Mission To influence, encourage and
assist societies throughout the world to conserve
the integrity and diversity of nature and ensure
that any use of natural resources is equitable
and ecologically sustainable
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Who are we?

• A union of over 980 members
• 79 State Members
• 112 Government Agencies
• Over 760 NGO members
• 6 scientific and expert commissions
• 10,000 scientists from 181 countries

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What we do?

• Generate and provide biodiversity information
• Build capacity to ensure that information can
  be employed effectively
• Facilitate stakeholders to identify and
  established the right conditions so that
  capacity can be used effectively

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IUCN European Offices
HQ
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ARICOLA-FAO
In Central European countries, there are 3
million new private forest owners managing over 6
million hectares of forests ARICOLA addresses
the negative impacts of forest privatisation on
biodiversity conservation in 10 CEE project
countries the project builds on previous
activities of IUCN Partnership with FAOs
project on sustainable private forestry.
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ARICOLA
The ARICOLA project will work on

• Training and awareness raising of private and
  communal forest operators to include nature
  conservation objectives into forest management
• Providing Forest Owner Associations and State
  Extension Services with support and advice on the
  projects theme.
• Seminars, trainings, education materials.

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AFFORESTATION
Nature Conservation Guidelines for Afforestation
Programmes
Tadeusz Zajac, Ph.D. and Jacek Slizowski
Publication preview IUCN Office for Central
Europe
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Environmental functions

• Goal healthy, stable and biologically diverse
  ecosystems.
• Priority environmental functions of forests.
• Concentration on deforested regions and areas of
  high natural value, which could benefit from
  afforestation.
• Species composition adapted to ecological
  conditions and anthropogenic pressure.

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Biogeography

• Species in their natural range.
• Where possible, use natural regeneration.
• Preserve populations of ecotypes, relict species
  and endemics, respect historic ranges of tree
  species.
• Restore ecosystems that have lost much of their
  original territory, such as riverine and
  broadleaved lowland forests.

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Space management

• Connect existing forests and afforested lands
  into larger spatial structures.
• The forest ecotone should be graded from lower
  plants to higher growing trees and should be
  curvilinear.
• Non-forest areas of high natural and historical
  value may need to be preserved.
• Afforestation of protected areas should be
  regulated by conservation plans.

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Space management

• Landscape and cultural values have to be
  preserved.
• Species composition should be diverse and
  compatible with habitat types.
• Species of high ecological value should be given
  priority.
• A mosaic of spatial and temporal diversity should
  be created.

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Policy aspects

• Adequate regulatory environment national
  policies on afforestation, rural development and
  nature conservation.
• Collection and integration of data on areas of
  high natural value and development of ecological
  networks.
• Monitoring implementation and results of
  afforestation programmes.

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Policy aspects

• Public educations campaigns to raise awareness
  and gain public support.
• Working with land and forest owners, supporting
  forest owners associations.
• Payments of afforestation subsidies should depend
  on compliance with conservation guidelines.
• Subsidies for maintaining non-forest areas of
  high natural value should be higher than those
  for afforestation.