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Ministry of the Environment seeks to make forest management more nature-friendly

Keit Pentus, the Minister of the Environment, has established the Forest Council to the Ministry, bringing together experts and representatives of non-government organisations and the Parliament. Today, the Council will convene for the first time to consider draft amendments to the Forest Act proposed by various interest groups and forest scientists.

The Ministry of the Environment aims to bring the Forest Act into compliance with the Forestry Development Plan approved by the Parliament in 2011.

”The development plan in force until 2020 has shown the need to use the forest resource more flexibly and efficiently.  At the same time, it says clearly that we can use our national wealth in the timber industry and power engineering only within the limits of the increment and that at least 10% of the forest should be under strict protection, “said Marku Lamp, head of the Forest Department of the Ministry of the Environment.

 

The draft imposes more stringent requirements on forest regeneration, provides for greater control over state grants and seeks to prevent forest fragmentation and reduce bureaucracy.

 

Forest owners would be obliged to reforest all clear cut areas with an area of more than three hectares. The new act will entitle the Environmental Board to monitor forest regeneration even without the forest owner’s request, which is currently a prerequisite. At the same time, width limitation for clear cut areas that does not currently allow following natural cutting area boundaries and leads to forest fragmentation and inefficient management will be dropped.

One of the aims of the draft act is to reduce the red tape for small forest owners. People owning less than five hectares of forest will not have the investment obligation. At the moment, the statutory limit is two hectares. It will also be possible to cut down 20m³ a year without the need to specify the cutting type, but this activity should be approved by the Environmental Board.

“It is the small forest owners (and there are tens of thousands of them in Estonia) that are of key importance in terms of the forest future. Their awareness should be raised and they definitely need state support in learning to become more environmentally friendly. This counselling, education and support function is performed by the Private Forest Centre: the draft act provides for the targeted direction of forest grants in Estonia,” Marku Lamp explained.