Creating Strategies for Improving Kosova's Forests Resources: Reforestation and Afforestation Activities Carries a Significant Potential for Yielding Benefits

Total surface area of Kosova is 10,877 km² or 1,087,700 ha, where about 47 % or 512,714 ha is comprised by forest and forestland. The forest resources of Kosova is known to have a problem with degraded forests and shrub forest. These forests comprise about 40.9 % or 182,202 hectare of the total forest area indicating that in terms of quality and timber mass production it?s actually not very rich. The alleviation of firewood shortage is one of the major challenges as well. The goal is to gradually transform the degraded forests and shrub forests into higher producing forests, with the aim of improving the wood productivity, an advanced forestland management and the environment benefits that they offer. Sustainable forest management (SFM) requires the balancing of economic, environmental, and social objectives. The linkage between SFM and timber economics lies in the desire to achieve a sustainable flow of economic goods from forests and to maintain healthy forests capable of providing benefits into the future.