1. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Decision Support for Mainstreaming and Scaling up of Sustainable Land Management
Country Presentation
Republic of Srpska Entity
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Presentation made by: Prof. Dr. Mihajlo Markovic
Global Meeting of the DS-SLM Project
April 2018
FAO, Rome, Italy

2. Objectives of the project
To establish active partnership with decision makers at entity and local level in implementation SLM;
To conduct institutional analyzes, programs, incentives, local financial mechanisms to support implementing and scaling out best SLM practices;
To identify main gaps and barriers at institutional and political level to mainstream SLM;
To create, with participatory approach and disseminate “SLM operational Strategy” on the basis of the results obtained at the 3 pilot areas with different SLM approaches and techniques and so to create preconditions for the creation of the SLM Strategy for the whole Republic of Srpska;
To build capacity on local level for strategy development, new SLM measures and future projects;
Introduce new SLM approaches and techniques possible for natural conditions of the Republic of Srpska;
Scaling out the best selected SLM approaches and techniques;
Active promotion of SLM;

3. Institutional arrangements
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sovereign state with parliamentary state regulation and a decentralized political and administrative structure,
Consists from three separate administrative units:
Republic of Srpska entity (RS),
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity (FBiH)
and
Brčko District (BD).
Land and land resources are under exclusive jurisdiction of the entities and regulated by the entity legislation.
Project activities are divided between two entities.

4. Institutional arrangements
National Steering Committee established:
Mr. Ljubisa Lalovic, Ministry of Foreign trade and Economic relation of BiH;
Dr Zoran Maletic, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Srpska entity (RS);
Mr. Besco Alibegovic, Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry of the Federation of BiH entity;
Inception workshop for the Republic of Srpska, January, 30, 2018., Teslic, RS, BIH, with active involvement of key Governmental institutions:
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Srpska;
Ministry of Spatial Planning, Civil Engineering and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska;
Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska;
Local Stakeholder workshops on SLM Delivery Building Capacities, including important and beneficial SLM opportunities for delivery in pilot areas: Trebinje, Šamac and Pelagicevo, with active involvement of local governments and stakeholders in targeted pilot areas in Republic of Srpska:
Trebinje;
Samac and
Pelagicevo.

5. DS-SLM Methodological framework

6. Module 2. National /subnational assessment
Process undertaken for the assessment :
National assessment (including ecological, social economic conditions etc.) for RS is ongoing by national experts.
Methodological aspects :
Overview of existing relevant land resource databases and documents:
LDN report BiH and UNCCD AP BIH (NAP BIH);
SOTER - Global Soil and Terrain Database;
Various national and regional overviews of agricultural production statistics;
Results :
Adaptation of National assessment according to WOCAT tools (QA, QT) is ongoing.

7. Module 3. Selection of priority landscapes
Criteria used for the selection of the landscapes was:
socio-economic analysis;
state of land resources in terms of land degradation;
analysis raised from land degradation neutrality target setting process
in the Republic of Srpska afterward;
Landscapes – demonstration sites in the Republic of Srpska are:
Pelagicevo – irrigation;
Samac – flood control;
Trebinje – reforestation of bare land.

8. Module 4. Local / landscape assessments
Process undertaken
Local stakeholder workshops in 3 pilot sites (5th, 13th and 15th February 2018);
Methodological aspects
Assessment conducted by a multidisciplinary team using all available data (including ecological and social economic conditions) and DPSIR, to assess and document SLM best practices on the ground;
Results
Selected SLM best practices will be assessed and documented on the ground (using QT and QA) by a team of trained SLM experts.

9. Module 4. SLM best practices identification
Examples of best practices:
Irrigation Agricultural firm "Napredak” Pelagicevo – SLM measure for drought
control;
Flood protection in Samac – especially in areas with highly productive agricultural
land;
Reforestation of karst and bare land by planting seedlings in Trebinje;
Use of WOCAT tools:
WOCAT SLM questionnaires are translated (guidelines and instruction for questionnaires) and used in local stakeholder workshops;
WOCAT web page was analyzed and quite number of same approaches and techniques were identified, but in different regions and different names;
Number of practices identified :
26 possible SLM approaches from WOCAT data base;
48 possible SLM techniques from WOCAT data base.

10. Module 6. SLM implementation and scaling out
Practices under implementation
Intensive irrigation in the Pelagicevo municipality (Posavina Region) on the fields of Agricultural firm "Napredak" was carried out on about 40% of the area (80 ha);
Flood protection measures on river Bosna: Construction of defense embankments, rehabilitation and extension of canal drainage network channels (Tinja – Tolisa, Kladik, Eginovac, Brvnik, Kosnice, Grebnice) in the Samac municipality ;
Reforestation by planting seedlings in pilot area Trebinje depends on Entity budget (average ha/year), and scaling out in Herzegovina (same ecological conditions 130 ha/year);
Scaling out activities
Irrigation (Bratunac 436 ha, Ljubinje 280 ha, Maglajani 160 ha, Bijeljina 620 ha);
Flood protection (construction of embankment on Sava and Drina river, maintenance of water channels etc.);
Reforestation by planting seedlings in the Republic of Srpska, average 1000 ha/year or ,00 EUR investement;

11. Module 1 & 5. Mainstreaming strategy and Territorial planning
Process for formulating a mainstreaming/upscaling strategy :
National Inception Workshop for the Republic of Srpska has been organized on January 30, in Banja Vrucica, Teslic, RS, BIH;
Legislation analysis at state and the Republic of Srpska level has been done (envisaged in LoA);
Possible gaps and barriers for implementation of SLM strategy were partially identified through out meetings with national and subnational stakeholders;
Design of mainstreaming strategy using Sustainable land management mainstreaming tool is in progress;
Development of strategic territorial planning documents "Basis for Agricultural Land Protection, Use and Restructuring" at municipality levels for pilot areas;
Objectives and activities for mainstreaming SLM :
Objective is to strength the enabling environment for sustainable land management (SLM) while ensuring political and participatory support for the process;
Previously developed partnerships for SLM implementation are encouraged and operationalized with extension programs, financial institutions, incentive mechanisms, programs and projects;
Prepare draft documents for integrating SLM into Forestry and Agriculture Policies;

12. Conclusions- lessons learned
OPERATIONAL STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA IS NEEDED;
THE FUNDS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES COLLECTED FOR CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES HAVE TO BE INVESTED APPROPRIATELY;
EXISTING FOREST – MANAGEMENT PLANS DO NOT INCLUDE SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT APPROPRIATELY – NEED TO BE IMPROVED;
SLM IS NOT SUFFICIENTLY APPRECIATED AND INCLUDED IN THE TERRITORIAL PROCESS  PLANNING AT THE LOCAL AND ENTITY LEVEL;
EXISTING SLM TECHNOLOGIES ARE POORLY REPRESENTED DUE TO LOW AWARENESS OF FARMERS THAT ARE ORIENTED TOWARDS TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY;
REFORESTATION IS NON-FUNCTIONAL WITH A TRADITIONAL APPROACH AND POOR EFFICIENCY;
NATIONAL MONITORING OF LAND RESOURCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA IS NEEDED;

13. Conclusions- lessons learned
CAPACITY BUILDING FOR LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS IS NEEDED FOR SLM IN THE FUTURE TROUGHT CONTINUOUS EDUCATION ABOUT NEW AND APPROPRIATE SLM AND WOCAT TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON EXPERIENCE OF OTHER COUNTRIES;
SEEDLING PLANT PRODUCTION IN FOREST NURSERIES MUST BE ADJUSTED TO EXISTING ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS. INTRODUCTION OF NEW PLANT SPECIES ADAPTED TO DROUGHT, IS ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP;
LAND PLANNING PROCESS AND LAND MANAGEMENT ON LOCAL LEVEL SHOULD APPRECIATE SLM, BUT ALSO PROCESS OF ACHIEVEMENT LAND DEGRADATION NEUTRALITY BY 2030;
STRONGER COOPERATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND PRACTICE IS NEEDED;
PROMOTION AND COOPERATION WITH THE NGO SECTOR MUST BE RAISED ON HIGHER LEVEL;
STRENGTHENING OF LOCAL AND PUBLIC AWARENESS IN GENERAL HAVE KEY IMPORTANCE.

14. Inception FAO GEF DS SLM project Workshop in Teslic 30th Jan 2018 - photos

15. Thank you