On 15 September 2021, CNVP Macedonia organized a National Workshop in Skopje, in the frame of the project: “Regional action for combating forest crime and corruption”, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of foreign affairs. 

Participants in the workshop were relevant stakeholders in the field of forestry and environment (Ministry of agriculture, forestry and water management, Faculty of Forestry, Public enterprise National Forests, Ministry of Environment, State Inspectorate for Forestry, State Inspectorate for Nature Protection, Forest Police, Private Forest Owner Association and representatives of Environmental NGO’s). 

The aim of the workshop was to present the expert Report on identifying the gaps, overlapping, and missing points of the policies related to forest crime and corruption in North Macedonia and draft National Action plan for the fight against crime and corruption.

The stakeholders present in the meeting discussed and addressed several issues related to crime and corruption in forestry, as well as the presented Action plan, like the following:

• Illegal activities in forestry are not a sectoral problem only but are affecting society in general 
• Cooperation with other institutions and organizations is essential to fight against crime and corruption in the forestry 
• Protection of forests is an expensive and demanding job, the state needs to increase substantially the investments/funding in the sector if results are expected 
• Expertise in forestry is missing, political influence is experienced on every level in the sector; results are missing and progress is very slow 
• The action plan needs to be realistic and present key issues and actions for improvement and to be developed in close cooperation with relevant institutions