Logging

Bosnia says it will tighten controls over illegal logging ahead of the Christmas holiday, when the hunt for free yule logs and Christmas trees poses a threat to the country's woodlands.

Romania's Ministry of Environment has vowed to investigate illegal logging in one of the country's protected national parks after environmentalists reported that 50 hectares of forest had vanished.

Activists climbed trees and blocked felling machines in Poland’s primeval Bialowieza Forest on Tuesday in a bid to stop what they say is an illegal logging operation authorised by the government.

The campaigners accuse Warsaw of ignoring EU orders to protect one of Europe’s last ancient woodlands – part of a wider clash between the bloc and its biggest eastern member.

A 46-year-old logger died Monday morning after he was crushed by a falling branch while felling trees in the Skouries forest in Halkidiki, northern Greece. His colleagues rushed him to a health center in the nearby town of Paleochori, where he was pronounced dead.

Poland said on Monday it would press on with logging the country's primeval Bialowieza forest in defiance of a ruling by the European Union's top court, saying it needed to cut down trees to defeat insect pests, according to Straitstimes.com

Romania is more affected by illegal logging than any other country in Europe | Photo: BIRN

Romania has toughened its legislation in order to protect its natural resources by defining illegal logging - but also any action "which endangers the country's water, forests and land" as a threat to national security. 

Albania will impose a 10-year moratorium from January 2016 that will ban logging in all forests and the export of timber.

The draft law prepared by the environmental ministry is likely to be approved by parliament in December and will allow only municipality representatives to cut down trees to meet the needs of people who burn wood for winter fuel.

The existing moratorium on timber exports remains in place until the adoption of a set of amendments to the Forest Act, according to Bulgaria's Deputy Agriculture Minister Georgi Kostov.

The 3-month moratorium, which was introduced by Bulgaria's government so as to pave the way for the adoption of legal amendments targeting illegal logging, expired on Tuesday.

The 3-month moratorium on timber exports, which was imposed by the Bulgarian government in order to secure a timeframe to prepare legal amendments aimed at stemming illegal logging, expires on Tuesday.

Industry representatives staged vocal protests against the ban, saying that it cost them BGN 40 M, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.

Thousands of Romanians protested in cities across the country on Saturday, calling on the government and parliament to find ways to better protect the country's forests against illegal loggers.

Over 3,000 people gathered in Bucharest, while thousands also demonstrated in the Transylvanian cities of Cluj and Brasov, and in Timisoara, Iasi and Galati.