"Anything taking place in the forest – reforestation, forest management, use of grants – should be public and enable tracking. Data of all planned and performed forestry activities should be easily available in the forest register. We are giving everyone a possibility to check, if and which forestry activities are planned in the forest surrounding their home or summer cottage. Similarly to construction activities, forestry activities also bring along an obligation to display information with data of the persons ordering and performing the cutting, so that everyone walking in the forest can see if the activities are legal," explained the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus. One of the essential aspects is more natural forest management. "Forest owners can plan their activities in the forest in accordance with natural borders, the objective of which is to fit the cutting areas better onto the landscape and to avoid fragmentation of forests," the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus explained. Basing on the proposal of the Estonian Council of Environmental NGOs, a possibility of management as selection forest will be added to the Act, in order to offer forest owners an alternative to management as clear cuttings. Selection forest will help to avoid creation of large empty spaces, improve the growth of young and middle-aged trees, increase seed crop and decrease damaging of forest during collection of timber. Attention is also paid to support and development of private forestry. "Grants should support renovation and maintenance of forests and coordinated operations of forest owners. With the amendment of the Act, we shall specify the former procedure of grants so that they would be used even more purposefully," said Pentus. |
