At its today’s meeting the working group for forestry act development decided to form subgroups for analysing different chapters of the current draft version of the law. According to mr. Olav Etverk, Head of the Forestry Department of the Ministry of the Environment, the decision is due to the very high number of amendment proposals received. A total of 350 proposals were submitted by 27 institutions, organizations and private persons. The definition of forest has, according to Mr. Etverk, caused the hottest disputes. "The most different proposals were made concerning the minimum area and height of a forest," said mr. Etverk. Another subject for disputes is forest management statement - it still needs to be discussed whether the relevant regional environmental department needs to approve the statement or not. The third most disputable issue is forest cutting - it also needs to be decided whether cutting/logging restrictions should be established or not and which should be the maximum permissible size of a clear cutting lot. The chapter on general stipulations will be analysed by a sub-working group lead by mr. Kalle Karoles, Director of the Centre of Forest Protection and Silviculture; the chapter on forest management - a subgroup lead by mr. Ivar Etverk, Professor emeritus of the Estonian Agricultural University; the chapter on forest use - by a subgroup lead by mr. Andres Talijärv, Executive Director of the Estonian Forest Industries Association; the chapter on forestry development - by a subgroup lead by mr. Veiko Eltermann, Member of Board of the Forest Survey Centre; and the chapter on management of state-owned forests - by a subgroup lead by mr. Aigar Kallas, Director General of the State Forest Management Centre. By the beginning of January, the subgroups analysing the different chapters of the draft law will send their results to the Forestry Department of the Ministry. The working group for forestry act development will probably have its next meeting in mid-January. The above working group includes representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, the Centre of Forest Protection and Silviculture , the Environmental Inspectorate, the Forest Survey Centre, the Private Forestry Centre, the State Forest Management Centre, and the Estonian Agricultural University. For additional information please contact: |
