The first draft law of a new Forestry Code risks leading to the "liberalisation of logging", and in the years to come it could be possible to legally, but unsustainably, harvest an estimated 100 million cubic metres of timber, in addition to the approximately 19 million cubic metres that are legally harvested from Romania's forests every year, WWF Romania said in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.

According to the cited source, at the debates on the drafting of the new Forestry Code, there were voices from the primary processing industry who openly argued that the architecture of the whole project should start from the need for wood on the market, estimated at about 30 million cubic metres. Although it fails to transpose a number of agreed reforms, the Forestry Code draft law seems to respond to this demand and allows this need to be met.

"Romania cannot afford to support timber industry business models based on massive logging and primary processing. We can get more out of harvested timber through superior local processing that creates jobs, reduces pressure on forests and contributes to the sustainable development of local communities," says the environmental NGO.

"Access to the resource from publicly owned forests should be prioritised to meet local needs of the population, as well as in promoting superior wood processing through vertical value chains," believes WWF Romania.

The organisation also refers to some of the technical proposals that could contribute to the unsustainable increase in the amount of legally harvested timber, accompanied by amendments proposed by WWF Romania.

The first proposal is that wooded pastures, which should have already been included in the national forestry fund to be managed according to the forestry regime, can now be legally cleared. Romania is thus at risk of losing some of its forested area.

At the same time, the principle of continuity of timber harvests - a basic principle defining responsible forest management - is undermined by relativising the annual possibility. In practice, it will be possible to legally cut in advance from the quota for the coming years. This concerns forests in the national forestry fund for which forest management plans have been drawn up with the regulation of the timber production process at the level of the management unit.

The WWF proposal states that the exploitation in advance of the annual possibility should be strictly limited to certain resorts where there are problems with natural regeneration due to the high fruiting periodicity (e.g. Formation Group 6-8 Stejarete) and subject to approval by the authorities confirming optimal regeneration conditions.

For areas of the national forest fund under 100 ha, the owner can choose the target species for production forests and thus the age of exploitability, is another proposal referred to by the organisation.

WWF Romania also points out that, without a clear regulatory framework, the cumulative effect of these measures could lead to a return to the situation of 2001-2014, when the greatest abuses of forests occurred.AGERPRES(RO - author: Oana Tilica, editor: Mariana Nica; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)