Prepare Restoration Opportunities Assessment Report

ROADMAP PROGRESS

The 2025 GARI reports that during 2025 a coherent programme of activities aimed at establishing a systematic approach to forest landscape restoration and strengthening climate resilience was implemented across the WB6, primarily through the IUCN-led ADAPT 2.0 project (Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the Western Balkans, funded by Sweden through Sida). Working in close coordination with domestic-level authorities and regional partners, the IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) advanced both the analytical and the institutional foundations required to support the development of the WB6 Forest Landscape Restoration Plan. The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Report (ROAR), currently under preparation, will deliver a comprehensive analysis of the state of forest landscapes across the region, covering biodiversity aspects, changes in forest cover and disaster-prone areas, with spatial maps identifying priority landscapes for restoration.

Complementing this analytical work, the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group in South East Europe (SWG RRD) produced a regional report in 2025 entitled ‘Sustainable Forest Management in the Western Balkan Region: Assessment of Climate Change Adaptation Policies and Mitigation Measures’, synthesising submissions from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (both the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska), Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. In December 2025, the tenth interim meeting of the SWG RRD Regional Expert Advisory Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management agreed priorities and frameworks for regional cooperation for 2026, emphasising the harmonisation of data reporting, policy structures and legislation at regional and international levels. The ROAR and the wider ADAPT 2.0 analytical programme will additionally identify priority restoration areas and measures, support financing through technical justification aligned with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the EU Forest Strategy, and guide Nature-based Solutions interventions while supporting the establishment of a regional restoration fund.

Note: Action 53a of the first Green Agenda Action Plan (2021–2030), relating to the development of a Western Balkans Forest Landscape Restoration Plan, is integrated into Action 39 of the Revised Action Plan (2025–2030)

Source: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (forthcoming) Regional Biodiversity Strategic Plan for the Western Balkans. Sarajevo: RCC.   
Note: Indicators and sources of verification to be agreed upon based on the forthcoming Regional Biodiversity Strategic Plan.