Forest Code (No. 887-III).

The scope of forest legislation shall be to regulate sustainable forestry by means of rational management, reforestation, conservation and protection of forests, keeping and conservation of biodiversity, and provision of the population with forest resources of the population. The Act consists of 18 Chapters divided into 94 Articles: (1) general provisions; (2) competence of the Parliament, Government and local self-government in the sphere of forest relations; (3) forestry in hunting reserves; (4) forestry and use of forest land; (5) the rights and the duties of forest officers and forest managers; (6) forest products; (7) forest fees; (8) financing of the forest management and hunting reserves; (9) reforestation; (10) afforestation and planting of shelterbelts; (11) protection of forest estate and hunting estate; (12) conservation of forests; (13) forest management, registration and monitoring; (14) integrity and development of the forest estate; (15) dispute settlement; (16) liability; (17) international agreements; and (18) final and transitional provisions. Forest estate shall include all the forests irrespectively of the type of property and forest management. Forests shall be exclusive public ownership and can be allotted for forestry and forest management. Private ownership of forests shall be shall be authorized in case of forest planting on private land. Management of forest and hunting reserves shall be the state prerogative. Forests shall be classified as: (a) water protection forest; (b) soil protection forest; (c) forests for the protection against unfavourable climatic events; (d) recreational forest; and (e) gene pool and scientific value forest. In case of expropriation of forest land for public needs the government concurrently shall make decision regarding conservation of forests or timber extraction. The Act sets forth the following criteria for sustainable forest management: (a) keeping, conservation and improvement of biodiversity; (b) conservation of the sanitary state of forests; (c) conservation and strengthening of protective functions; and (d) conservation and development of the productive functions of forests (timber and non-timber products). Timber extraction shall be carried out in mature forest and it shall be prohibited in protected areas, national parks, fruit-tree forests, urban forests, green belts and shelterbelts, sanitary protection and gorge forests. Harvest and collection of protected plants shall be prohibited. Forest uses shall be charged.Article 19 shall be amended to add the following wording: “Article 19. Environmental assessment of the planned activities in the field of forest resources (1) A planned activity that, alone or in combination with others activities can have a significant impact on the forest fund, carried out in compliance with the provisions of the Law on Impact Environmental Impact Assessment No. 86/2014. (2) Forest management, which can significantly affect the forest fund, Emerald sites are subject to a preliminary biodiversity assessment procedure, carried out as part of a strategic environmental assessment, in accordance with the Law on strategic environmental assessment No. 11/2017”.