A new Forestry Code under debate
The new Forestry Code in Romania, against which an infringement procedure was launched for failure to implement several environmental directives, is now under public consultation.
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Corina Cristea, 02.08.2023, 14:00
A new Forestry Code has been launched for public consultation in Romania, and the Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Mircea Fechet, has voiced hope that, once submitted to the Romanian Parliament, this autumn, the bill will generate a very good quality normative act , which will not only save Romania from infringements related to forests, but also combat other things, such as the theft of wood.
Together with this bill, the Criminal Code will also be amended, stipulating punishments of up to five years in prison for false declarations regarding the transport of wood material. Among the most important provisions of the new Forestry Code is the fact that clear cutting will be prohibited in almost half of the country’s forest area, after, until now, they were prohibited only in National Parks.
The ban will also be extended in Natural Parks, but also in all Natura 2000 sites.
Mircea Fechet: Today, clear cutting is prohibited in approximately 5% of Romania’s forested area, and under the new Forestry Code bill that we are discussing now, this prohibition will apply to an area that will be close to 50% of the entire forested area in Romania. A second novelty that I would like to present to you refers to the fact that the new Forestry Code will allow the State to take over the afforestation of lands that were, in the past, deforested and later abandoned by the owners.
The new Forestry Code also establishes the legal framework for the digital fight against illegal forest cutting and the perpetrators behind it. At the same time, the forest owner is granted the right to alternative security solutions, given that forest security is mandatory by law. Also, the communities critically dependent on the forest will be established and prioritised in access to forest resources, and between 5 and 20% of the revenues of the state-owned and private forestry companies from the sale of wood will end up in the form of investments in the construction of forest roads and wood stores.The National Forestry Council will be established, with the role of an ethical and technical filter in the forestry field, all forest owners in Romania will be included in the National Forestry Register, and a National Catalog of Ecosystems with high conservation value will be drawn up.
Also, a new concept will be implemented, that of aging islands. These are mechanism by means of which forest areas of at least 0.1 ha, with a great role in maintaining biodiversity, will be protected from cutting. Despite all these advantages, there are, however, voices that claim that the bill risks leading to the liberalisation of cuttings, a fact that would legalise, in the coming years, the exploitation of a volume of wood of over 100 million cubic meters. (MI)
