Ordinance on protected forests

The treatment and use of protective forests is regulated in this ordinance. Comprising of three articles, the ordinance stipulate stricter requirements to forest regulations than would normally apply to Austrian forests. This includes for instance authorization limits for timber logging. Included are also special regulations on the competences of the authorities prescribed, such as the competence to introduce special prescriptions, which could include special measures on the treatment of trees. The legal basis for the ordinance is § 22 Par. 4 of the 1975 Federal Forestry Law, BGBl. No. 440. Article 1 (§ 1) sets the area of a protected forest to 0,20 hectare in accordance with § 85 Par. 1 lit. a and b as well as § 86 Par. 2 of the Federal forestry law. If the structure or conditions of the forest require the logging of trees, then the relevant forest authorities must sign a notification of approval.