Terra BiH 2025: Turning evidence into action for land restoration in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina has spent decades building a detailed, nationally consistent understanding of its land resources. This work has been led by the Federal Agropedological Institute (Zavod), the sole institution responsible for systematic land bonitation and soil mapping across the country. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) partnered with the Federal Agropedological Institute and the Prenj Forestry Institute to organize Terra BiH 2025 on 12 December 2025. 

Terra BiH 2025 marked the first conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina dedicated exclusively to land and soil conservation and protection, with a clear focus on evidence-based restoration. The national forum focused on a central question: how to turn existing scientific evidence into fundable, verifiable land restoration projects that municipalities can implement and resource partners can support with confidence.

Held in Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Terra BiH 2025 brought together foresters, laboratory technicians, municipal officers, university researchers and farmers from across the country. The forum was structured as a working session. Participants arrived with maps, soil profiles, laboratory results and implementation challenges, and were guided through a structured process to translate technical data into donor-ready pilot projects with clearly defined interventions, unit costs and monitoring plans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s land degradation challenges are well documented, as is its restoration potential. National institutions hold extensive datasets identifying erosion hotspots, declining soil organic matter and areas where vegetation cover has been reduced. Rather than producing new policy frameworks, the forum converted existing diagnostics into practical, procurement-ready interventions, creating a clear and transparent link between scientific analysis and field-level action.

“Scientific evidence allows us to prioritize sites, cost interventions and verify results for both donors and communities,” said Vlado Pijunović, FAO National Project Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His guidance shaped the forum’s methodology, requiring every proposed intervention to be justified by mapped risk and measurable laboratory indicators, and expressed in terms that municipal administrations can implement.

Multidisciplinary teams overlaid erosion risk maps with recent laboratory analyses and field observations to identify candidate sites where mapped hazards and soil diagnostics aligned. Based on this analysis, the teams designed intervention packages tailored to local conditions. Each intervention was costed using standard unit rates and aligned with municipal procurement procedures. As a result, the concept notes developed during the forum functioned as practical implementation packages rather than abstract project ideas. Additionally, teams also considered monitoring and verification as integral phases to project design.

A drone demonstration illustrated how remote sensing can strengthen verification and transparency, showing how repeatable remote sensing can complement ground-based measurements, improving accountability for resource partners while remaining feasible for municipal use.

Discussions throughout the forum reflected practical implementation realities. Municipal officers sought clarity on expectations and reporting requirements of resource partners, researchers emphasised methodological rigour, and farmers highlighted the need for indicators that reflect visible change on the ground. The resulting approach balanced scientific robustness with practical feasibility and clear accountability.

Interoperability and harmonization were identified as immediate priorities. Participants agreed in very specific actions that will allow data from different institutions to be combined more effectively, reduce duplication and strengthen evidence-based decision-making. Responsibilities were assigned and deadlines set to ensure follow-up beyond the forum.

Private sector suppliers contributed to discussions on unit costs to ensure budgets reflect market realities, while institutional commitments were secured to support dataset standardization and the publication of shared templates.
Three pilot projects were selected during Terra BiH 2025. Each pilot has a designated municipal lead, a technical partner, and a six-week deadline to deliver a donor-ready concept note. They are intentionally designed to be small, well-costed and replicable, allowing successful approaches to be scaled to other locations.

The forum also built on lessons from projects already implemented, including FAO’s land degradation neutrality project, carried out in close cooperation with the Federal Agropedological Institute. Experiences from this project, particularly on integrating soil data, monitoring protocols and restoration measures, directly informed the methodology applied at Terra BiH 2025.

Reflecting on the forum’s outcomes, Dženan Vukotić, Director of the Federal Agropedological Institute, emphasized the significance of the approach: “The potential is not theoretical—Bosnia and Herzegovina already has the data, institutions and expertise needed to restore degraded land. What we are establishing is a pathway to turn that potential into funded, measurable action.”

By prioritizing implementation, verification and scalability, Terra BiH 2025 demonstrated a clear and replicable pathway from evidence to impact, supporting land restoration and long-term resilience across Bosnia and Herzegovina.