Most social conflicts around forests could be avoided, argued Mikołaj Dorożała, deputy minister responsible for forests and nature conservation. At a press conference, he presented the assumptions of the act, which is to improve the dialogue between foresters and society, which is key to avoiding these disputes, and to give communities a greater influence on what happens in the forests.
Changes to the Forest Act will primarily concern the creation and implementation of forest management plans (PUL). This is a document prepared for each of the 430 forest districts in Poland for 10 years. It plans the entire forest management: what trees, where and when will be cut, how the cutting will be carried out, what will be replaced.
The change to the act is intended to ensure that the public and nature conservation experts will have a greater say in creating these plans. Social organisations have long criticised the State Forests for the fact that their voices are ignored in consultations, and when the PUL is in force, it is difficult or impossible to stop logging in a forest that is valuable for its nature or important to the local community.
Tribunal ruling not fulfilled by PiS
Dorożała said that “there is no longer room for non-compliance with the judgments of European courts”. One of the main elements of the act is to adapt Polish law in accordance with the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union from early 2023.
The case began with a complaint filed by Polish environmental organizations: Workshop for All Beings, WWF Poland and the Frank Bold Foundation. After more than two years the tribunal agreed with them and foundthat the lack of possibility for citizens to appeal against forest management plans violates EU nature conservation regulations. Therefore, the act must be amended so that PULs can be appealed if there are doubts about their impact on the environment.
The rulers at that time PIS However, he did not start filling it out judgment CJEU. The then management of the State Forests and the Ministry of Climate (including politicians from Sovereign Poland) they saidthat the possibility of appealing against the plans would lead to the “paralysis” of forest management and announced that they would not agree to this. He called for the execution of the verdict Ombudsman.
Dorożała assures that after changes in the law and fulfillment of the CJEU decision there will be no paralysis. At the conference he said that the project assumes “safeguards”. Firstly, the implementation of the plan will not be suspended after the appeal itself, but before the court's decision. – We cannot allow a situation where pending cases suspend works of a given forest district – he said. The pool of entities that can file a complaint will also be limited. The Ministry also hopes that greater possibilities for consultation of PULs will limit the number of conflicts around forests and not everyone will end up in court.
Read our interview with the Deputy Minister Santa Claus Grown up:
The main assumptions of the act
What else – apart from the possibility of challenging forest management plans – will change if the law is adopted?
- Opportunity for the public to comment on the forest management plan before and after its preparation.
- Public consultations are to last at least 30 days, be transparent and conducted “in multiple formats”.
- Involvement of municipal councils in the forest management process and debate with PUL
- The forester will have the opportunity to present annually at the municipal council meeting the progress in implementing the plan and the scope of work for the following year.
- The relevant Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection will be involved in the plan approval process.
The Ministry of Climate and Environment announced that the draft prepared there is going to public consultations and after them its final shape will be developed. Dorożała emphasized that he himself is now visiting forest districts to talk about changes in forest management and encouraged participation in consultations on the draft act.
Conflicts over forests could have been avoided
The project's assumptions respond to the demands of non-governmental and ecological organizations. Marek Józefiak, spokesman for Greenpeace Polska, considers the introduction of mechanisms of “real social control” to be a “key” part of the reform of the State Forests.
– The lack of such mechanisms is one of the main reasons why we talk about Forests as a state within a state. If there was real social control over the forestry concern, it would probably be possible to avoid many social conflicts around forests, violations of law and cases of ordinary destruction of our natural heritage.
– he says. According to Józefiak, so far, consultations on forest management plans have been a facade, because “foresters have massively rejected comments submitted by expert naturalists and social activists”. – As a result, we have had such scandalous cases as felling 30 meters from bear dens in the Bieszczady Mountains – he adds.
Greenpeace is waiting for the text of the act to appear on the government website to be able to talk about detailed solutions. However, it considers the direction of the changes to be right. – The possibility of appealing forest management plans to court is a necessary change, which we, together with other organizations, have been demanding for years – says the organization's spokesman.