Open letter to the Prime Minister and the leaders of all parliamentary groups in the parliament with proposals for amendments to the Forestry Act

Moreover, examples of large-scale illegal logging in state hunting grounds "Vitoshko-Studena" in the Nature Park "Vitosha" and "Chepino" in the Rhodopes show that the state is unable to apply Regulation 995/2010 of the European Union, which prohibits Bulgarian and European market to offer and trade of illegally logged timber from state forests.

Currently, the protection from violations of the territory of the Vitosha Nature Park is under the control of the Executive Forest Agency, Southeast State Enterprise, State Forestry Properties Sofia, Vitosha State Hunting Directorate of Vitosha Nature Park and two Regional Forest Directorates - the ones of Sofia and of Kyustendil. With SEVEN structures of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, detection by environmental organizations of violations committed over large areas for weeks on end is an example of serious and systemic problems in the conservation of protected areas and forests.

Only a month after the destruction of young forest plantations near rest house “Aleko” and the illegal construction there, we see that the situation in the park has not changed - breaches of regulations continue with even greater vigor, pointing to, on one hand, the lack of will to change the situation, but on the other - flaccid capacity of the authorities responsible for the management of the forests and nature park. The responsible persons committed offenses continue to hold their positions.
Six months ago, the coalition "For the Nature in Bulgaria" made own proposals for amendments to the Forest Act that would limit the possibility of such inaction and establish responsibility for the conservation of the greatest wealth of the Bulgarian state - state forests. Among them were proposals related to increasing discipline in terms of exploitation, creating a liability in logging companies and limit the trade with illegally harvested timber, such as:

- Limiting the duration of validity of permits for logging in the relation to the volume;
- At least 50% of the timber harvested from state forests to be traded by central warehouses;
- Logging companies responsible for the infringements committed by their employees and for all offenses committed in the period from issuance of the permit for logging to the time of certification of the clearings;
- Confiscation of the means used for infringement, regardless of their ownership;
- Improving the effectiveness of control activities in the forests, through reorganization of the Executive Forest Agency MAF into an independent state agency or a department directly subordinate to the Council of Ministers to improve the capacity of its staff and increase the pay of forest inspectors;
Unfortunately, our proposals did not find support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and hence of the Deputies.
In connection with recent cases of established large-scale violations in Vitosha and the Rhodopes, we expect that the officials who are responsible for the mismanagement and apparently tried to conceal offenders to be held accountable for their activities.

The coalition "For the Nature in Bulgaria" insists to the swift amendments of the Law for the Forests, aimed at effectively improving the security and protection of forests, creation of legal norms of responsibility for logging companies and public companies managing forests, professionalisation of the management of the state forests and its detachment from political influences. We express our readiness to discuss specific legislative proposals to limit the cases of illegal infringements on our forests and protected territories.
With respect,
eng. Thoma Belev,
Chairman of APB,
member of the Coalition "For the Nature in Bulgaria"

Other members of the coalition "For the Nature in Bulgaria" are the Association of Parks in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism, Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds, Bulgarian Phytological Society - 2001, Bulgarian Federation of climbing and mountaineering, Bulgarian Federation of Speleology, Bulgarian "Biodiversity" Foundation, Ecological association "for the Earth", Information and Education Centre of ecology, National Cultural center "Future Now", association "Agrolink", association "Baykariya", association "White Coast", Wildlife Society - BALKANS, association "Borrowed Nature", NGO "Green Balkans", Association "Wilderness Fund", club UNECO to the Student Council of Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski ", Sofia Civil Association "Shtastliveca", civil group "Let's Save Irakli ", "Citizens for Rila" and WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme in Bulgaria. The coalition is supported by more than 50 organizations, groups and initiatives. http://forthenature.org