Do the amendments to the Forest Act from June 2015 put an end to illegal logging?

adopted in June 2015 for improving the sustainable management of forests and the improving of the control and the initial results of their application – including the electronic tracking of licenses for logging and of transportation tickets for transport of wood.

Eng. Alexander Dunchev put forward current identified problems and challenges with regards to management and control in forests and specific cases of systemic problems, which would require specific measures. Through concrete examples, the need for change of philosophy in the management of State forest enterprises was demonstrated, which have more commercial than economic and socially responsible functions. As a prerequisite for ongoing illegal practices in forests also the unclear responsibility of the different stakeholders in the management and control of forests was put forward, as well as the low level of qualification of forest staff. Despite the undertaken control measures, the issue with the falsification of forest control measures stays undecided, on account of which most of the illegal loggings in the forests are left unpunished.
At the meeting were outlined measures, which should tackle the current problems and develop the system of control in the forest. The State institutions set as a priority the development of legislative measures for increasing the efficacy of sanctions on violations in the forests, increasing of qualification of forest staff, and application of new methods for marking and control of logging in the forests. For the forest areas of high public interest as nature parks, the possibility of priority execution of logging in forestry enterprises was discussed. On behalf of the participants in the meeting was put forward the necessity of raising the transparency in appointing management cadres in forests and in managing public resources in state enterprises, as well as in defining the responsibility of participants in management and control of forests.
In view of achieving maximum transparency and efficiency of the process of improving the management of forests of public interest, the participants in the meeting planned the next meeting in six months, during which period work for addressing identified current challenges will be done.


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