A debate about the illegal logging was held with the politicians

Participants:
• Rumen Jelev – member of parliament of PG GERB
• Prof. Ivan Stankov – member of parliament of PG ABV and vice-chairman of the Commission for agriculture and foods in the 43rd NA
• Associate professor Hristo Mihailov – expert and member of EC of PP ABV
• Dimitar Delchev – member of parliament of PG Reformative Block
• Associate professor Georgy Kostov – deputy-minister in the Ministry of agriculture and foods
• Engineer Tony Krastev – Executive director of the Executive Agency for forests
• Petko Cvetkov – co-chairman of the Greens PP

The moderator of the debate was Prolet Velkova – journalist at radio “Darik”. On the side of the organizers of “Green Laws”, the expert Toma Belev presented the theses about the necessary changes in the Law for the forests. He expressed the opinion that the proposed changes by MAF, examined at first reading, are good, but for effective prevention of the illegal logging there is a need for additional measures, developed in the proposals of “For the Nature” and “Green Laws” and presented to all parliament groups. At the moment part of them are presented for examination between first and second reading by PG BSP- Left Bulgaria and by the independent deputy Velizar Enchev.

The vice-minister associate professor Georgy Kostov expressed the opinion that the proposed by the executive authority changes are necessary, appealed to the deputies for their support and expressed gratitude for the organized debate, where the details of the bill (legal project) were explained. The vice minister reminded that the forests, besides natural, are also an economic resource and they must be preserved in balance with their use. The executive director of the Executive agency for the forests, engineer Tony Krastev stated that the problems are a lot, and the bigger issue for solving isn’t the small time cuttings, but the organized crime in the industrial logging and appealed for support by the civilian society and the lawmakers for joint fight with the crimes in the forests. The executive director emphasized that some of the main problems aren’t in the authorities of the forest administration, and many of them occur in the jurisdiction of the municipalities. The expert Toma Belev retorted that at least the violations of the six state logging enterprises must be controlled and punished in the system of EAF. The deputy of GERB and forester Rumen Jelev got into details in the proposed at the moment changes in the Law for the forests: GPS following of the transported wood-fibre, video-observation of the distributing centers for wood-fibre, introduction of administrative responsibility for juridical parties, and not only for the physical executors of the violations, regulation of the use of the self-afforested agricultural lands and others. Representatives of the governing party united around the thesis that the state of the forests at the moment isn’t that bad and the citizens have to help with active and well-grounded signals.

A remark by Petko Cvetkov of PP The Greens presented the thesis that a radical reform is necessary and separation of the control from the use, for there to be a real decrease in the illegal logging.

The representatives of ABV professor Ivan Stankov (vice chairman of the field commission in the 43rd NA) and associate professor Hristo Mihailov stated that their political force supports the changes in the law, but they also see possibilities for addendums in the future, especially from the point of view of the separation of EAF from MAF with respect to real possibilities for disposition with the budget and the personnel intended for the forests’ system. They spoke about the creation of Consultative Council for the forests with the participation of NGOs.

Dimitar Delchev of the Reforming block voiced his support for the implementation of the electronic systems with the proposed changes in the Law for Forests and for searching of legal responsibility of the juridical parties – contracting authorities of the violations, with the possible for Bulgaria statutory mechanisms. He spoke about searching of more and more possibilities for transparency and participation of the citizens and declared willingness to examine the proposed by the NGOs suggestions for addendums in the law.

The vice-minister of MAF associate professor Georgy Kostov and the executive director of EAF engineer Tony Krastev confirmed again their support for future collaboration and conversations with the vast civilian society about joint efforts for preservation of the forests and as an example for the open and transparent management, reminded about the already existing on-line access to the register with allowed cutting through the site of EAF.

The conversation was conducted with an open dialogue with the present citizens and experts, who expressed their support for bigger punishability of the established crimes in the forests, completion of actual inventory of the Bulgarian forests on national level and decisive actions for the problems with the illegal logging, for which only the governing politicians have the necessary instruments.


A complete record of the discussion you may see here: http://www.zelenizakoni.com/debat-za-zakona-za-gorite-s-mzh-iag-gerb-abv-reformatorite-i-zelenite

The discussions about the Green Laws are organized within the project “Citizen monitoring for greener laws and sustainable management of the natural resources”, financed by Program for support of NGOs in Bulgaria with the Finance Mechanism of the European economic tract 2009-2014.