Home » World » Half a step on the way to trust, or what are bird friends protesting against?

Half a step on the way to trust, or what are bird friends protesting against?


Arnis Muižnieks: “Now I feel very good if I can go to my forest in the evening, taking the trimmer with me. I appreciate the physical work as opposed to sitting at a computer, which we have too much of in our lives.”

Photo: Karina Miezāja

Ingrīda Mičāne, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”


In recent weeks, the forestry sector has experienced several innovations, which not only caused a storm in social networks, but which will also have a tangible financial impact on the budgets of the state and forest owners.

Shortly before Christmas, the government ended five years of discussions and unexpectedly quickly agreed to allow the cutting of smaller and younger trees in the forest. From now on, the permitted tree felling diameter is 30 cm for pine, 26 cm for spruce and 25 cm for birch. In the past, felling diameters were determined depending on the fertility of the land, so the size of the reduction can be viewed in two ways. On the one hand, in the most fertile soils, previously the minimum diameter requirements were 39 cm, 31 cm and 31 cm, respectively, but in reality the market usually ended up with cuttings where the soil fertility is mediocre, with a minimum diameter requirement of 32 cm, 28 cm and 26 cm, respectively.

OTHERS ARE CURRENTLY READING

The association of forest owners evaluates this government decision as a “half step towards trust”. This will make it possible to farm more rationally, especially at a time when the demand for wood is growing both in the context of energy challenges and to provide wood as a nature-friendly substitute for fossil raw materials. A large amount of dead wood in protected forests is desirable, but in commercial forests, it is a sign of mismanagement – instead of the wood going to processing companies, it rots in the forests.

“Compared to other countries in the region, Latvia’s regulatory framework has so far been one of the bureaucratic ones that took little into account the risks of climate change, such as storms and the mass multiplication of insects. In Estonia, the amount of felling is very similar to what is currently accepted in our country. In Finland, there is no diameter or age limit at all, but there is a basic condition that the areas must be restored. There is no diameter limit in Sweden either, trees can be cut when they reach 45 years of age. This explains the significant amount of dead wood in the forests – we are among the leaders among the EU countries,” says the head of the association, Arnis Muižnieks.

He also emphasizes that since the innovation is a measure aimed at promoting forest productivity, additional requirements are imposed on the owner. If the owner carries out the main felling according to the diameter, the obligation will be to leave eight ecological trees in the felling instead of the previous five. The forest stand will have to be renewed with high-quality planting material, although the minimum number of trees per hectare will be reduced when restoring the forest – instead of the previous 2,000, spruce and birch should have 1,500, and pine should have 2,000 instead of 3,000, as before. This is without forcing the forest owner to plant exactly that – after evaluating the growth conditions and damage risks, you can plant more.

Arguments – pulled by the hair

Meanwhile, environmental organizations indicate that after the decision is made, the amount of felling will increase, depleting nature’s diversity. Moreover, the decision was made in haste, despite the prime minister’s promise to first reach a compromise between the greens and the forest industry. The Ornithologists’ Society has the sharpest objections, which points out that the argument about the increase in woodchip extraction is being pulled by the hair in order to use the crisis caused by the war started by Russia as a pretext to push through long-planned amendments, which until now were impossible to get through due to public pressure. To the question of “Latvijas Biznesa” whether this is not an unknown victim, so that Latvian residents can pass the winter by burning local wood chips, the head of the association Viesturs Ķerus answers that the validity of such an assumption is questionable: “Back in May, the head of the office of the Minister of Agriculture Jānis Eglīts stated that we produce three times more wood chips than we consume in Latvia. So, if the local market would be a priority for woodchip producers, then even reduced woodchip production volumes should be enough for Latvia. If we assume that the volume of felling will increase as a result of the amendments, there is also no guarantee in the single EU market that the additionally obtained wood chips will be used in Latvia and not sold for export,” said V. Ķerus. According to him, the government wants to solve the short-term crisis with measures that will have a very long-term impact on Latvian forests. Without taking compensatory measures, this impact will be irreversible, as the owners will force deforestation due to various circumstances.

Viesturs Kerus

Photo: Ilze Pētersone

“First of all, even assuming that there will really be a shortage of wood chips and that an increase in felling volumes will be able to eliminate this shortage, there are also opportunities to increase felling volumes temporarily, without long-term effects. In state forests, the maximum permissible amount of felling is set for five years, so it is not prohibited to increase the amount of felling already now at the expense of future years. Secondly, the amount of felling in private forests is regulated by the market situation, not by government orders, so at good wood prices (as at present) the amount of felling in these forests will increase even without amendments to the rules,” says V. Ķerus.

Price cooling

Meanwhile, Artūrs Bukonts, executive director of the Latvian Association of Independent Lumberjacks and the Latvian Association of Wood Processing Entrepreneurs and Exporters, points out that one can use the persuasion of a politician or inaccurate information, but the reality is that Latvia consumed approximately eight million cubic meters of fuel wood chips in recent years, while exports, minus imports, another 600 thousand cubic meters went. “In my opinion, the government made this decision for two reasons – to try to cool down the rapid increase in prices with the potential additional supply, while the most important reason was to prepare for next year’s heating season, when the centralized heat supply, shifting from natural gas to wood fuel, will create an additional demand of around one million cubic meters in scope. Just like the owner of a country house, who splits a piece of wood from the forest in his backyard in September, will not be able to put the wood in the oven already in October, in the same way, preparation time is important in big energy. For example, wood chips need to dry for at least three months (if piled in the spring) and up to nine months if the drying period falls in a wet season. Therefore, energy needs to be looked at in the longer term. Environmental organizations are right to try their best to reduce the use of wood for energy in general. For example, they have just lobbied for a proposal in the Renewable Energy Directive that would essentially prevent wood from the forest from entering boiler houses. You can agree that in an ideal world, the last thing you should do with wood is to burn it, however, I don’t see how Latvia will produce heat in the next decade if, not to mention wood logs, but also pellets and wood chips are not allowed to be used?! I really hope that we will lead the Green Course along a pragmatic rather than a utopian path,” says Bucont.

The support chains made for the forwarders and harvesters at the “Vairogi” farm allow gentle, less soil-damaging cuttings to be made even in wet soils.

Photo: Inta Puriņa

A new burden – an increased fee

While the passion for cutting down younger trees continues, another innovation has appeared on the horizon that will change the rules in the industry on January 1 of next year. Namely, for the third time, the harmonization procedure has been started in the regulations “On the state fee for forestry and hunting activities”, which provides for the imposition of an increased fee on sanitary and maintenance felling.

Taking into account the fact that in the future it will be necessary to receive a separate certificate for each cutting (currently, several cuttings can be included in one certificate), the increase of the fee may be as much as 50 times. For example, currently the state fee for a logging certificate with three logging sites and an area of ​​3.3 ha is 4.27 euros. After the introduction of the innovation with the same amount of economic activity, the state fee will be 210 euros, or a 49-fold increase.

The industry does not understand why the fee should be raised, if from a logical point of view this activity of forest owners should only be further stimulated. The Association of Independent Loggers of Latvia refers to what was mentioned in the annotation, that is, the increase in the fee rate is done only because “it has not been done for a long time and the rates actually do not correspond to the actual costs”. “With the new fee rates, the developer of the draft rules has planned to increase the total revenue from the issuance of felling certificates by 27 times, while our calculations show that in some cases, receiving a felling certificate would cost the forest owner even 50 times more than receiving an identical certificate today,” says Artūrs Bukonts, head of the association. .

RELATED ARTICLES

Forest owners also believe that felling certificates should not be subject to a state tax, as they are actions to improve the growth of stands, which would attract more CO2. Also, sanitary felling is necessary to reduce the multiplication of pests, for example, by cutting wind-blown and broken fir trees in winter, thus reducing the risks of the multiplication of the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle. It should also be taken into account that there are many overgrown stands of white alder in fellings, especially in private forests, which give little profit or even cause losses. If the tax will be raised disproportionately, the owner can simply hand over such areas for cleaning.

“A reasonable state tax rate should not exceed 20 euros, which would be almost a fivefold increase compared to the current situation. It should be taken into account that these are not the only expenses of forest owners, realizing the bureaucratic burden imposed by the state, for receiving an administrative act favorable to the person – a certificate of felling. Large expenses of several hundreds of euros are generated by measuring the felled area, measuring all the trees, determining the wood stock, as well as ensuring the existence of a valid forest inventory,” states the Forest Owners’ Association.

Themes

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.