KS Assembly: New legal solutions for forest protection and management proposed

(Patria) - The KS Assembly today adopted the Draft Law on Amendments and Additions to the Law on Forests of KS, and sent it for public debate for a period of 30 days.

As stated in his presentation, the Minister of Economy of KS, Adnan Delić, proposed new legal solutions in this draft aimed at ensuring easier and more effective management of this natural resource, along with its preservation and improvement. Also, significant fiscal relief for businesses in KS is foreseen.

"The main novelty of the proposed amendments is the complete abolition of the fee for the general public benefit function of forests, which all business entities in KS were obliged to pay until now, according to their annual income, and which, according to all relevant analyses, represent an additional burden on the operations of business entities," stated Minister Delić.

Based on the analysis of income generated in this way, it is proposed that this amount be provided from the KS budget to finance all activities related to the preservation of forest biodiversity and the improvement of forests in KS.

As Minister Delić stated, analyses have shown that the previous way of caring for and protecting forests was not satisfactory and showed a number of shortcomings. The new legal solutions stipulate that the current forest protection, which is now carried out by the Forestry Administration within the relevant ministry, should be taken over by the Cantonal Public Enterprise "Sarajevo-šume".

"We believe that these tasks should be the responsibility of this company, as the user of the forests and someone who manages 64 percent of the forest land in KS. This is supported by experiences from other cantons where forest protection is entrusted to the forest user, who in this way gains both responsibility and a role, not only as a forest user but also as someone who protects and cares for the forests," emphasizes Delić.

The amendments to the Law stipulate that forest rangers will issue on-the-spot penalty orders to perpetrators of violations in the forest, which represents a significant novelty compared to the previous Law, with the aim of adequate and immediate protection of forests from illegal activities and their perpetrators.

What is also an important provision of this law is the fact that penalties are foreseen for forest rangers as legal entities, if they fail in protecting the forests or in timely recording of damages.

"If forest rangers do not carry out activities to protect forests, or timely mark and record damages and take further necessary actions, the Law stipulates the obligation of the forest user to compensate for the damage and pay it into the KS Budget based on the decision of the forestry inspector, and to be criminally liable as a legal entity," explained Minister Delić. He also pointed out that the penal provisions of this law include criminal liability for forest rangers, as responsible persons within a legal entity, which was not possible until now.

"We believe that the forest user, through the organization of the ranger service, will be able to organize it more easily and simply, as well as undertake activities such as rotating forest rangers by patrol areas, possibly sanctioning negligent and irresponsible forest rangers, organizing night shifts and holiday shifts, transporting and depositing confiscated forest products, and the like," said Minister Delić.

He also emphasized that the new legal solutions, in addition to the aforementioned, more clearly define forests with a special purpose, as well as the procedure and competencies for declaring forests with a special purpose, improve the quality of management of state-owned forests, and abolish fees for private forest owners for the costs of expert work performed by the Forestry Administration.