Publication Name

Over the past decades, drought-related damages

have had a significant impact on welfare and the

economy within the Western Balkans. In 2009,

a Drought Management Centre for South-East

Europe (DMCSEE) was established, largely

thanks to the work of the International

Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID),

the World Meteorological Organization (WMO),

UNCCD and national meteorological and

hydrological services.

Regional cooperation on drought monitoring

The mission of the DMCSEE is to coordinate and

facilitate the development, assessment, and application

of drought risk-management tools and policies in

South-Eastern Europe in order to improve drought

preparedness and reduce drought impacts. It also

focuses onmonitoring drought and assessing its related

risks and vulnerability. As part of its information

services, it publishes a monthly drought bulletin.

For more information, please visit

www.dmcsee.org

management and land monitoring; establishing

measures against fires and floods; and raising

public awareness about the importance of land

protection. Although issues regarding climate

change adaptation are not mentioned specifically in

laws, there are competencies among ministries and

relevant bodies.

In addition to these strategic documents, all

countries except Kosovo

have undertaken the

National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) for

Global Environment Management, which assesses

the key capacity needs and cross-cutting capacity

bottlenecks in relation to implementation of the

three Rio conventions (biodiversity, climate change

and desertification/land degradation). This NCSA

document calls for the fulfillment of national

reporting obligations by each UNCCD Party,

which the countries have accomplished to varying

extents over successive reporting cycles.

All

countries except Kosovo

included performance

indicators in their Fifth National Reports to the

UNCCD in 2014.

Another significant document on land degradation is

the National Action Program (NAP), currently being

developed through a participatory approach. The

NAP should provide practical steps and measures

to combat land degradation in specific ecosystems.

Most of the NAP documents are under different

stages of development,

and none of them have yet

been officially adopted.

One of the significant initiatives/programmes for

climate change adaptation at the regional level is

the Drought Management Centre for South-Eastern

Europe (DMCSEE). Other interesting and relevant

initiatives/programmes for land resources are the

Adriatic Ionian Program 2014–2020 including

Croatia, Albania, BiH, Montenegro, and Serbia,

among others; the Danube Transnational Programme

2014–2020 including Croatia, BiH, Montenegro, and

Serbia, among others; and the Balkan-Mediterranean

Transnational Programme 2014–2020 including

Albania and FYR Macedonia, among others.

Mountainous areas are partially mainstreamed

through the land resource sector policies. For

example, in strategic documents, mountain areas are

mentioned in terms of sustainable land management

(e.g. rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage

infrastructure, improving watershed management,

and forest regeneration/afforestation), which can be

indirectly linked to the climate change adaptation

responses. For instance, the National Adaptation

Strategy (2014) for Kosovo

foresees several actions

to address adaptation for mountain regions, which

include soil conservation measures.

Monitoring and reporting on land resources is

generally scarce in Kosovo,

FYR Macedonia and

BiH since there is no national soil monitoring.

Efforts are limited to ad hoc observations on

the scope of projects, soil quality evaluations,

studies and other activities performed by different

institutions and organizations. However, in

the other countries monitoring and reporting

is being enhanced. In Albania, the Integrated

Environmental Monitoring System has been

established and expanded for soil pollution and

monitoring, while in Montenegro, monitoring of

soil contamination by hazardous substances and

monitoring of soil quality is undertaken. The

Croatian Environment Information System (CEIS)

is underway to link various databases including

soil/land issues.

Generally speaking, the participatory process

for policy development includes consultative

and inter-ministry meetings, seminars and

conferences which involve various sectors that

are directly or indirectly linked to land resources

(e.g. water, agriculture and forests) and their

institutions and organizations. Although a gender

balance within the National Coordination Body

(NCB) for UNCCD has been reported for Croatia,

Albania and FYR Macedonia, an analysis of

strategic documents shows that gender issues do

not appear to be pertinent to land degradation

and desertification.