The purpose of the cross-border project, financed by the European Union with close to EUR 560,000, is to protect the existing chestnut forests as well as explore possibilities for chestnut tree planting and growing.
The conference, at which experts from the Croatian Forest Research Institute spoke about their experience in protecting woods against parasitic infestations and diseases and in the planting and growing of chestnut trees, is expected to help in making a decision on whether to go ahead with projects to plant chestnut trees in Velika Kladusa and Buzim in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Vojnic, Croatia.
The cross-border project for the protection and promotion of chestnut forests has been under way since July 2017 and will last until the end of 2019. It is being carried out by the Agricultural Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina's northwestern Una-Sana Canton and its municipalities of Velika Kladusa and Buzim, and the Croatian towns of Vojnic and Karlovac, as well as the Plum and Chestnut Centre from Petrinja.
A disease transmitted by the chestnut gall wasp has appeared relatively recently in Croatia, and in the last two to three years it has spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The cross-border project is designed to share with chestnut growers in Bosnia and Herzegovina the experience in fighting the disease by introducing a parasitoid that feeds exclusively on the chestnut gall wasp.