Leveling up national biodiversity conservation in North Macedonia

Project title: STAR 5 – Achieving biodiversity conservation through the creation and effective management of Protected Areas and mainstreaming biodiversity into land use planning.

Geographical scope: North Macedonia

Time frame: Ongoing

Partners:

UNEP Europe Office
Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of North Macedonia

Co-financiers:

UNEP Europe Office
Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of North Macedonia
Embassy of Switzerland
Forestry Faculty of University of Skopje
National Academy of Sciences and Art
Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition

Contributions to SDGs:

Goal 15 - Life on Land

SDG indicator(s)

15.3.1 Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area.
15.4.1 Coverage by protected areas of important sites for mountain biodiversity.
15.5.1 Red List Index.
15.9.1 Progress towards national targets established in accordance with Aichi Biodiversity Target 2 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

Project:

The overall project objective is to help expand the national protected areas system and enable biodiversity conservation to be effectively managed and mainstreamed into the production landscape.

The goal of the project is to promote biodiversity conservation by supporting North Macedonia to increase the proportion of its territory covered by national protected areas, to create a good policy and capacity environment, and to enhance land use planning, management, pilot testing and inclusion of local stakeholders throughout the process. In this way, the project will enable the national laws and policies to be implemented, and relevant strategic documents to be produced. This will contribute towards the implementation of the Convention Biological Diversity Global Strategic Plan for biodiversity 2011-2020 and UN Convention to Combat Desertification strategic plan.

The project aims to achieve its objective through three main components.

Component 1: Increase of Protected Areas Network

This component concerns the expansion of the national protected area network and testing of site-specific measures from the National Ecological Network. It will support the country to expand the current protected areas network by at least 1.5%, which complies with national and international standards foreseen by the National Spatial Plan and the First National Strategy for Biological Diversity and Action Plan. One of the newly developed targets in the draft revised plan refers to increasing protected areas network so that they cover up to 15% of the country territory. This will include preparing a study of valorization for areas proposed for protection (e.g., Shar Mountain).

Component 2: Increased effectiveness of biodiversity management

This component aims to improve management effectiveness and increase capacity for biodiversity conservation in North Macedonia and the protection of threatened species and habitats.

Component 3: Land Use Planning and Biodiversity Mainstreaming

The third component seeks to mainstream biodiversity conservation into land-use planning; supporting future processes of revision and incorporating biodiversity conservation into National Spatial Plan and Forest management plans.

Major achievements:

Valorization study for Shar Mountains, extensive stakeholders’ consultation process, followed by the proclamation of parts of Shar Mountains as a national park in June 2021,
Valorization study for Ohrid Lake, stakeholders consultation – to support the re-proclamation of Ohrid Lake as Monument of Nature,
Draft Management Plans for NP Shar Mountains and MN Ohrid Lake,
Testing of site-specific measures involving local stakeholders for management of restoration of high nature value forests and other habitats on two selected pilot corridors from the proposed National Ecological Network (MAK-NEN),
Red lists for reptiles and amphibians; priority list for vascular plants and RL assessment of selected vascular plants; National RL Platform promoted and operational www.redlist.moepp.gov.mk
Identification of high nature value forests at the national level and development of guidelines for the management of two selected pilot HNVFs sites (Bukovic and Belasica),
Training programme on sustainable management of protected areas for rangers, environmental inspectors and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning; as well as training of mountaineers and development of mountaineering guidance,
Updated soul erosion map,
Database of soil erosion risk, soil sealing rate and loss of soil organic matter on three pilot sites i.e. Strumica, Prilep and Ohrid region,
Two manuals for improvement of urban planning in terms of mainstreaming biodiversity into land use planning,
Report on the use of non-timber forest products (socioeconomic overview and legal analysis),
Assessment of Bearberry status (identification of quotas for non-timber forest products at national level) and Assessment of the resources of Juniperus communis in village Umlena as a forestry unit. Based on the Bearberry findings, the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning has issued an order to restrict the collection of Bearberry (ARCTOSTAPHYLOS UVA URSI) for use and trade.