BASIC ASPECTS OF ILLEGAL FORESTRY ACTIVITIES IN SERBIA
Blagoje PejićDušan JovićIvana Grujičić
Expert meeting on forest law enforcement and governance
Bucharest 13-15 October 2008
Type of land useArea
ha %
Forests 2,713,200.00 30,7
Other forest land 410,600,00 4,6
Unproductive land 150,500,00 1,7
Agricultural land 3,937,200.00 44,6
Meadows and pastures 1,182,800.00 13,4
Urban land 352,000.00 4,0
Inland water 89,800.00 1,0
Ukupno 8,836,100.00 100.0
STATUS OF SERBIAN FORESTS
7,1%(opt. 14,3%)
37,5%(opt. 49,8%)
42,1%(opt. 52,7%)
30,7%(opt. 41,4%)
FOREST OWNERSHIP
State – 39,8% Other – 8,0%
Private – 52,2%
WOOD ASSORTMENT STRUCTURE
User
Technical wood (m3 net
annually)
Fuel wood(m3 net
annually)Total
Technical : Fuel (%)
I. State forests 926,000 1,120,000 2,046,000 45:55
II. Private forests 306,000 1,224,000 1,530,000 20:80
III. Total (I + II) 1,232,000 2,344,000 3,576,000 35:65
DEFINITIONS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES (national)
National statistics
Forest Law
“Illicit cutting is every cutting which is carried out in a state forest without licence delivered by authorised bodies. It is shown as the cut of gross-stock of wood”;
“Illicit grazing is livestock grazing on state-owned land without permission of organisations, which manage a given land”.
“…forest devastation is not allowed referring to all illegal acts that debilitate land fertility and endanger forest production or silviculture or survival of forests and their multiple benefit functions …”.
World Bank
DEFINITIONS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES (international)
Illegal logging is defined as logging:
• outside a concession area;• in excess of quota;• in a protected area;• without appropriate permits;• without complying with bidding regulations;• without submission of required management plans;• in prohibited areas such as steep slopes, river Banks, and water catchments;• protected species (as defined by CITES or other international law);• with duplicate felling licenses;• using girdling or ring-barking to kill trees so they can be logged legally;• that contracts with local entrepreneurs to buy logs from protected areas;• removing of under/over sized trees from public forests;• reporting high volumes extracted from forest concessions to mask that part of the volume is from non-authorized areas outside of the concession boundaries;
• using bribes to obtain logging concessions;• using deceptive transfer pricing and other illegal accounting practices to distort prices, volumes, cash flows and debt service levels;
• that engages in the illegal transport and trade of timber or the smuggling of timber;• that is processed with out the required licenses and that is not in compliance with;• environmental, social and labor laws.
Constitution of theConstitution of theRepublic of SerbiaRepublic of Serbia
(2006)(2006)
ILLEGAL ACTIVITIESILLEGAL ACTIVITIESInternational obligationsInternational obligations
((global and regional levelglobal and regional level, , acquis communautaire)acquis communautaire)
LAWSLAWS::1.1. Spatial plan of SerbiaSpatial plan of Serbia (1996, 2005) (1996, 2005)2.2. Forest LawForest Law (1991) (1991)3.3. Law on environmental protectionLaw on environmental protection (2004) (2004)4.4. Law on plant protectionLaw on plant protection (1977) (1977)5.5. Law on waterLaw on water (1991) (1991)6.6. Law on agricultural landLaw on agricultural land (2005) (2005)7.7. Law on National parksLaw on National parks (1993) (1993)8.8. Law on forest reproductive material Law on forest reproductive material (2004)(2004)9.9. Other lawsOther laws
NATIONAL NATIONAL SECTORAL SECTORAL
STRATEGIESSTRATEGIES
REVIEW OF LEGISLATION THAT REGULATE THIS ISSUE
Note: Activities of Forestry Inspection has not include other types of illegal activities
ACTIVITIES OF FORESTRY INSPECTION
RANGE OF ILLEGAL FELLING AND NUMBER OF
SUBMITTED REGISTRATIONS
Year m³ No. of registrations
2002 15,125 1,470
2003 12,010 1,435
2004 10,818 927
2005 8,128 1,161
2006 9,937 1,307
2007 10,671 1,089
In 2007 national Forestry and Hunting inspection has performed:
• 14,356 inspection’s control (115% of planned)• 3,172 claims for starting of court procedure submitted, • 2,961 claims for violation, • 29 claims for economic crimes and • 182 claims for crime cases.
Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection
ILLEGAL LOGGING TREND
Illegal felled wood (in cubic meter)
10.349
9.136
8.2137.362
10.671
0
2.000
4.000
6.000
8.000
10.000
12.000
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection
INTENSITY OF ILLEGAL FELLING IN 2007
Illegal felled wood (in cubic meter)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection
1st STAKEHOLDER WSHOP
■ 30 Participants • 5 working groups (5 Ministries, 2 Forestry Enterprises, 4 National Parks, 1 PFOA, 2
NGO, 2 Agencies)
■ Methods of work• Illegal activities addressed by Action Plan
• Main drivers of illegal activities
• Actions on driving impacts
■ Types of illegal activity • Small-scale
• Large-scale
■ Drivers
■ Response actions• Preventions
• Detections
• Suppressions
STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (TYPES)
■ Small-scale
• crime considered to be driven above all by poverty and lack of alternatives
• inefficient processing of criminal cases
• high taxes and fees on legal timber (important driver stated by State Forest
Enterprises-SFE and Private Forest Owners-PFO)
■ Large-scale
• shortcomings in law enforcement and judicial process are important drivers and
poverty as well
• corruption and lack of transparency in timber sales (not by SFE)
• Lack of stakeholder dialogue identified by Ministries and PFO
STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (ACTIONS I)
■ Prevention
• make penalty code more effective and eliminate conflicting regulations
• expansion of legal supply for subsistence consumption (for 2/5 WGs important)
• the alternative is to reduce subsistence demand (reduce poverty, increase supply of
alternative energy sources) but it is doubtful whether the impact can be felt in the short-
term
• need to reduce vulnerability to corruption among staff in the forestry sector (3/5 WGs, excl.
SFE)
• simplification of administrative procedures (3/5 WGs, surprisingly not by PFO)
• reduction of wood processing capacity considered important by 3/5 WGs (excl. PFO)
• promotion of forest certification
• enhancing dialogue with stakeholders 3/5 WGs, (surprisingly not by PFO)
STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (ACTIONS II)
■ Detection
• consensus on the need to improve detection either through technology improvements or
by developing the collection and processing of statistical data
• training of law enforcement staff
■ Suppression
• improve the effectiveness of the judicial process (representatives from the Ministry of
Justice did not participate in workshop)
• collaboration with the police (representatives of the Ministry of Interior left before
groupwork)
CONCLUSIONS (I)
■ Degree of consensus among WGs was considered as an indication of priority
measures (3 or 4/5 WGs agreed on the importance of proposed action)
■ Reasonably good balance between actions under prevention, detection and
suppression
■ Some actions considered important by only few WGs may still merit further
consideration as to whether to include them among priority actions
■ The list of priority actions will be quite long; further prioritization may be
necessary
■ Poaching and illegal occupation of forest land could be more significant
problems than illegal logging (a separate or parallel process needed)
CONCLUSIONS (II)
■ Great number of illegal activities in forests and forest land
■ Coordinated and permanent cooperation between sectors and pertinent
services and bodies which can have impact on decreasing range of illegal
activities related to forests and forest land
■ New legislation solutions and harmonization of current legislation which involve
illegal activities in forests (forest land)
■ Capacity building of all services that treat this issue
■ Training of employees of other (non-forestry) services (justice, police, custody,
statistics…) in order to recognize illegal activities in forests and forest land
■ Awareness raising on forest importance at all levels
■ Transparency in activities of all institutions which decisions can have impact on
forest and forest land
■ Forest Certification (state forests) – FSC – 60,000 ha in 2007; 140,000 ha in
2008, ~ 200,000 ha in 2009….
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
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