The process of forest management plans preparation in the Republic of Macedonia: Does it comprise governance principles of participation, transparency and accountability?

Abstract

Leaving the centralized and trying to embrace the market economy, the forestry sector of the country has been brought to a challenge of moving from government to the new trend of governance. The paper examines whether governance principles of participation, accountability and transparency are comprised in the process of preparation of forest management plans. By scrutinizing the prevailing governance theory through a relevant legislative content analyses and conducted in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders, the paper provides findings about cooperative forest policy-making in the process of forest management plan preparation through self organizing networks of participants from policy and society. Results obtained from the Law on forests and other related secondary legislation show that only two entities are involved in the preparation process, whereas the Ministry of forestry, agriculture and water economy and the Public enterprise “Macedonian Forest”. On the other hand, results obtained from the conducted in-depth interviews and the legislation content analysis correspond to the situation where the governance principles of participation, transparency and accountability are not respected in the process of creation of forest management plans.