Law on forests.

This Law regulates and governs the public relations related to the preservation, management and use of all forest and forest land, both private and state owned, present on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, in order to guarantee the effective multifunctional and sustainable management of forest ecosystems.
The text is divided into 18 Chapters and 277 articles. The titles of Chapters are: General provisions (1); Management of forest territories (2); Ownership (3); State of forest territories (4); Use of wood and non-timber forest products (5); Protection of forest territories (6); Forest access (7); Constructing on forest territories without change of destination (8); Structure of the forest executive agency (9); State owned enterprises (10); Management of forest territories-property of municipalities (11); Forestry management-ownership of physical and legal persons and their associations (12); Conservation of forest territories (13); Branch organizations (14); Professional training, qualification and re-qualification (15); Registration for the performance of activities in forest territories (16); Public ecosystem benefits of forest areas (17); Administrative and penalty provisions (18).
The main objectives of the Law are: conservation and increase of the forest area; maintaining and improving of forests conditions; ensuring and maintaining ecosystem, social and economic functions of forest areas; ensuring and increasing the production of wood and non-wood forest products through the environmentally sustainable management of forest areas; maintaining the biological and landscape diversity and improvement of the state of populations of species of wild flora and fauna; providing recreational opportunities for the population and improving of conditions for recreation; balancing the interests of society and forest owners as regards the common territories; assisting and encouraging the owners of properties in forest areas; implementation of international and European commitments for forest habitat conservation. Activities in forest areas shall be carried out in a manner which does not lead to damage to plant and animal species and their habitats, or damage to the soils, water bodies and elements of technical or infrastructural importance.
In terms of rules provided by this Law, the relevant acts of the European legislation are as follows: Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the; Council Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 of 20 December 2005 on the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community.