Guidance document for buffer zone management

26th Marc 2021

During the BEECH POWER workshop that took place on 24th-25th of March, Caroline Celis from the World Heritage Coordination Office, provided an introduction on the importance of the Guidance document for buffer zone management of UNESCO World Heritage Beech Forests.

This guidance document is especially relevant due to the complexity of the World Heritage Site “Ancient and Primeval Beech Forest of the Carpathian and Other Regions of Europe”, comprising 78 component parts in over 40 protected areas in 12 countries. In other words, the property is shared between countries with very diverse land ownership, spatial design, legal protection status, and management regulation of the buffer zones.

For this reason, they developed this guidance document to ensure the functionality of the buffer zone for each component part of the property and to harmonise the management approach. Moreover, this document gives regulation guidelines for the property and the buffer sub-zones regarding agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, hunting and fishing, invasive species and scientific research.

Finally, to solve differences in the use and definitions of forest and forest-related terms, the document includes a glossary of Forest management terms. This is, a list of definitions in order to create a common language and joint understanding for the management of the property and the buffer zone.

To watch the full presentation, click on the video below.