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Description
Over the last decade, we have been increasingly confronted with the effects of climate change, which are becoming more visible and intense (e.g. heat waves, droughts, floods, etc.). Climate change is also one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. The project "ForestNet" addresses the loss of biodiversity in Slovenian forests due to climate change and economic exploitation of forests. The solution to preserving biodiversity in forests, allowing forest ecosystems to function normally even in times of climate crisis, is the creation of protected areas - forest reserves. Only biodiverse ecosystems can provide benefits for society, e.g. water and air filtration, carbon storage, soil retention, a source of raw materials and space for relaxation, recreation, etc. Forest reserves are natural forests that are left to develop naturally and are no longer managed. In the course of the partners'' past activities, the need to systematically and comprehensively address the issue of scarcity and to establish forest reserves also on the land of physical owners has become apparent. The ForestNet project is addressing the problem through an advocacy campaign, where we will build evidence to establish legal-formal options for contractual and trust protection on forest land owned by private owners, thus enabling the establishment of forest reserves of smaller sizes (e.g. 1ha and larger) on land owned by private owners. Private owners will be entitled to compensation by committing to cease forest management in their forests, while still owning the land, which is not the practice for establishing forest reserves and protected areas. The project "ForestNet" addresses the problem of disconnected civil society in the field of forest protection, which is reflected in the absence of timely and professional responses to ad-hoc interventions in forest space and the lack of civil society participation in the processes of adoption of strategic and legislative documents.
Summary of project results
This project addressed the issue of biodiversity loss in forests due to various factors – both climate change and human activities. This problem is most significant in forests that are left to nature (forest reserves, natural reserves, and eco-zones).
Therefore, through various activities, such as establish an ad-hoc response mechanism, conduct an awareness and advocacy campaign, develop a communication plan and develop a website, we addressed the necessity of increasing these areas.
The main outcome of the project was an awareness-raising communication campaign about the importance of leaving parts of forests to nature to preserve biodiversity. Legal-formal possibilities for establishing natural reserves were reviewed, along with transferable examples of best practices from abroad. A protocol for responding to all ad-hoc unsustainable decisions in forest management was prepared and tested, and collaboration with other organizations working in the field of forests was established. Procedures for establishing new eco-zones were initiated. During the "Role of Forests in the Context of Climate Change" conference, a consensus was reached among all major stakeholders about the necessity of increasing the area of natural and forest reserves in Slovenia, and close and effective cooperation with government institutions was established.