BASIC ASPECTS OF ILLEGAL FORESTRY ACTIVITIES IN SERBIA

Blagoje PejićDušan JovićIvana Grujičić

Expert meeting on forest law enforcement and governance

Bucharest 13-15 October 2008

Type of land useArea

ha %

Forests 2,713,200.00 30,7

Other forest land 410,600,00 4,6

Unproductive land 150,500,00 1,7

Agricultural land 3,937,200.00 44,6

Meadows and pastures 1,182,800.00 13,4

Urban land 352,000.00 4,0

Inland water 89,800.00 1,0

Ukupno 8,836,100.00 100.0

STATUS OF SERBIAN FORESTS

7,1%(opt. 14,3%)

37,5%(opt. 49,8%)

42,1%(opt. 52,7%)

30,7%(opt. 41,4%)

FOREST OWNERSHIP

State – 39,8% Other – 8,0%

Private – 52,2%

WOOD ASSORTMENT STRUCTURE

User

Technical wood (m3 net

annually)

Fuel wood(m3 net

annually)Total

Technical : Fuel (%)

I. State forests 926,000 1,120,000 2,046,000 45:55

II. Private forests 306,000 1,224,000 1,530,000 20:80

III. Total (I + II) 1,232,000 2,344,000 3,576,000 35:65 

DEFINITIONS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES (national)

National statistics

Forest Law

“Illicit cutting is every cutting which is carried out in a state forest without licence delivered by authorised bodies. It is shown as the cut of gross-stock of wood”;

“Illicit grazing is livestock grazing on state-owned land without permission of organisations, which manage a given land”.

“…forest devastation is not allowed referring to all illegal acts that debilitate land fertility and endanger forest production or silviculture or survival of forests and their multiple benefit functions …”.

World Bank

DEFINITIONS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES (international)

Illegal logging is defined as logging:

• outside a concession area;• in excess of quota;• in a protected area;• without appropriate permits;• without complying with bidding regulations;• without submission of required management plans;• in prohibited areas such as steep slopes, river Banks, and water catchments;• protected species (as defined by CITES or other international law);• with duplicate felling licenses;• using girdling or ring-barking to kill trees so they can be logged legally;• that contracts with local entrepreneurs to buy logs from protected areas;• removing of under/over sized trees from public forests;• reporting high volumes extracted from forest concessions to mask that part of the volume is from non-authorized areas outside of the concession boundaries;

• using bribes to obtain logging concessions;• using deceptive transfer pricing and other illegal accounting practices to distort prices, volumes, cash flows and debt service levels;

• that engages in the illegal transport and trade of timber or the smuggling of timber;• that is processed with out the required licenses and that is not in compliance with;• environmental, social and labor laws.

Constitution of theConstitution of theRepublic of SerbiaRepublic of Serbia

(2006)(2006)

ILLEGAL ACTIVITIESILLEGAL ACTIVITIESInternational obligationsInternational obligations

((global and regional levelglobal and regional level, , acquis communautaire)acquis communautaire)

LAWSLAWS::1.1. Spatial plan of SerbiaSpatial plan of Serbia (1996, 2005) (1996, 2005)2.2. Forest LawForest Law (1991) (1991)3.3. Law on environmental protectionLaw on environmental protection (2004) (2004)4.4. Law on plant protectionLaw on plant protection (1977) (1977)5.5. Law on waterLaw on water (1991) (1991)6.6. Law on agricultural landLaw on agricultural land (2005) (2005)7.7. Law on National parksLaw on National parks (1993) (1993)8.8. Law on forest reproductive material Law on forest reproductive material (2004)(2004)9.9. Other lawsOther laws

NATIONAL NATIONAL SECTORAL SECTORAL

STRATEGIESSTRATEGIES

REVIEW OF LEGISLATION THAT REGULATE THIS ISSUE

Note: Activities of Forestry Inspection has not include other types of illegal activities

ACTIVITIES OF FORESTRY INSPECTION

RANGE OF ILLEGAL FELLING AND NUMBER OF

SUBMITTED REGISTRATIONS

Year m³ No. of registrations

2002 15,125 1,470

2003 12,010 1,435

2004 10,818 927

2005 8,128 1,161

2006 9,937 1,307

2007 10,671 1,089

In 2007 national Forestry and Hunting inspection has performed:

• 14,356 inspection’s control (115% of planned)• 3,172 claims for starting of court procedure submitted, • 2,961 claims for violation, • 29 claims for economic crimes and • 182 claims for crime cases.

Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection

ILLEGAL LOGGING TREND

Illegal felled wood (in cubic meter)

10.349

9.136

8.2137.362

10.671

0

2.000

4.000

6.000

8.000

10.000

12.000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection

INTENSITY OF ILLEGAL FELLING IN 2007

Illegal felled wood (in cubic meter)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

Source PE „Srbijašume’’ and Inspection

1st STAKEHOLDER WSHOP

■ 30 Participants • 5 working groups (5 Ministries, 2 Forestry Enterprises, 4 National Parks, 1 PFOA, 2

NGO, 2 Agencies)

■ Methods of work• Illegal activities addressed by Action Plan

• Main drivers of illegal activities

• Actions on driving impacts

■ Types of illegal activity • Small-scale

• Large-scale

■ Drivers

■ Response actions• Preventions

• Detections

• Suppressions

STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (TYPES)

■ Small-scale

• crime considered to be driven above all by poverty and lack of alternatives

• inefficient processing of criminal cases

• high taxes and fees on legal timber (important driver stated by State Forest

Enterprises-SFE and Private Forest Owners-PFO)

■ Large-scale

• shortcomings in law enforcement and judicial process are important drivers and

poverty as well

• corruption and lack of transparency in timber sales (not by SFE)

• Lack of stakeholder dialogue identified by Ministries and PFO

STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (ACTIONS I)

■ Prevention

• make penalty code more effective and eliminate conflicting regulations

• expansion of legal supply for subsistence consumption (for 2/5 WGs important)

• the alternative is to reduce subsistence demand (reduce poverty, increase supply of

alternative energy sources) but it is doubtful whether the impact can be felt in the short-

term

• need to reduce vulnerability to corruption among staff in the forestry sector (3/5 WGs, excl.

SFE)

• simplification of administrative procedures (3/5 WGs, surprisingly not by PFO)

• reduction of wood processing capacity considered important by 3/5 WGs (excl. PFO)

• promotion of forest certification

• enhancing dialogue with stakeholders 3/5 WGs, (surprisingly not by PFO)

STAKEHOLDER WSHOPS RESULTS (ACTIONS II)

■ Detection

• consensus on the need to improve detection either through technology improvements or

by developing the collection and processing of statistical data

• training of law enforcement staff

■ Suppression

• improve the effectiveness of the judicial process (representatives from the Ministry of

Justice did not participate in workshop)

• collaboration with the police (representatives of the Ministry of Interior left before

groupwork)

CONCLUSIONS (I)

■ Degree of consensus among WGs was considered as an indication of priority

measures (3 or 4/5 WGs agreed on the importance of proposed action)

■ Reasonably good balance between actions under prevention, detection and

suppression

■ Some actions considered important by only few WGs may still merit further

consideration as to whether to include them among priority actions

■ The list of priority actions will be quite long; further prioritization may be

necessary

■ Poaching and illegal occupation of forest land could be more significant

problems than illegal logging (a separate or parallel process needed)

CONCLUSIONS (II)

■ Great number of illegal activities in forests and forest land

■ Coordinated and permanent cooperation between sectors and pertinent

services and bodies which can have impact on decreasing range of illegal

activities related to forests and forest land

■ New legislation solutions and harmonization of current legislation which involve

illegal activities in forests (forest land)

■ Capacity building of all services that treat this issue

■ Training of employees of other (non-forestry) services (justice, police, custody,

statistics…) in order to recognize illegal activities in forests and forest land

■ Awareness raising on forest importance at all levels

■ Transparency in activities of all institutions which decisions can have impact on

forest and forest land

■ Forest Certification (state forests) – FSC – 60,000 ha in 2007; 140,000 ha in

2008, ~ 200,000 ha in 2009….

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!