Natural resources and rural development in western Balkans: translation and communication

In the period 2011 to 2014 we conducted an ambitious research project in the mountains of the western Balkans. This work built on a previous research project from 2007 to 2010. During the last few years we have been trying to wrap up the analysis and communicate the results. The project?s overall goal was to explore how remote rural communities use natural resources in the mountain areas where Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia meet, plus in parts of Croatia. The project was motivated by a desire to build knowledge which could inform resource-use planning to ensure sustainability in a region undergoing rapid change. In Albania and Macedonia field work was conducted by teams based in NGOs, whereas in Kosovo and Croatia we worked with universities as partners. In each country we administered a standardised household questionnaire survey and conducted in depth issues on specific topics. The results revealed that the mountain villagers of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo were heavily dependent on natural resources. Most households engaged in some small-scale agriculture, used fuelwood, and gathered wild plants for medical and nutritional use. The natural resources appeared to buffer the rural household economies against poverty. Tourism was poorly developed. However, the tenure or rights that the villagers had to these resources was usually informal and unprotected. In almost all cases, the local use of local resources was being threatened by poorly controlled or illegal commercial use by external actors where the main benefits flowed outside the local community and threatened the resource base through unsustainable practices. Croatia was very different. Natural resources where mainly of recreational or of secondary importance for rural households. Tourism and salaried income where much more common. Furthermore, the use of and access to resources was much more regulated through functional formal institutions. The main conclusion is that there is still a massive need to build effective institutions to govern the use of natural resources in the mountains of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. These resources are crucial for rural economies. A failure to ensure their sustainability will have dramatic consequences for both rural livelihoods and biodiversity. The project has shown the importance of conducting this type of research in the region, and of working with NGOs who are able to begin the process of using the results in their advocacy to try and bring about institutional change.

The research project "The role of natural resources in sustainable rural livelihoods in the western Balkans" ran from 2011-2013 and involved cooperation between Norway and partners in Croatia, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. The study focused on the way in which natural resources provided a foundation for rural livelihoods in mountain villagers. This included an assessment of their sustainability, as well as an exploration of the formal and informal institutions within which they were embedded. The results of the study have clear implications for both natural resource management and rural development. At present, the results from this project are scattered in various reports and publications and available only in English. In this short project we propose to integrate our diverse findings into the recently emerged ecosystem service framework, present it in a popular style booklet / report and then translate this into Albanian, Croatian and Macedonian. This will then be distributed as both a paper copy and downloadable pdf.