Wood Cluster and Herzegbosnian Forests Seeking for European Projects in Austria and Slovenia

European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be easily achievable with the realization of European projects, reports Kupres based public company for forest management of Herzeg-Bosnian County. Following the successful cooperation with the Croatian Wood Cluster, a joint study visit to Austria is undertaken, during which numerous meetings are pointed and quality project ideas exchange is expected, with Department of Forestry of the Styrian Chamber of Agriculture, the Austrian State Forests, Forestry Association, Styrian Holzcluster and one of the largest Austrian forest owners and wood processors, Mayr Melnhof. Also, delegation will visit Austria’s largest hardwood processor, European Hardwood Production, whose products are globally oriented and supplied. All potential partners already have extensive experience of participation in European and international projects and they are also looking for expansion of project partners base in South East Europe. In addition to Austria, important sectoral institutions in Ljubljana will be visited, including the Faculty of Biotechnology, the Chamber of Commerce and the Slovenian Institute of Forestry. “Our interest is to further intensify international cooperation and participation in the new EU projects, and this year we are working intensively on the concretization of new project ideas with several interested international partners from Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Italy,” said Matko Knežević, EU projects coordinator in the Herzgebosnian Forests. There is a raising interest in the areas of forest protection, improvement of nursery production and greater biomass use, as well as in projects that will generate benefits for our wider community. Forestry experts in Kupres find issues on reducing the climate change impact, low-carbon emissions and CO2 quotas trade extremely interesting, since in Southeast European countries this topics are insufficiently discussed and need greater evaluation through professional projects.