More than 18 Thousand cubic meters of Illegal Logging in Bulgaria was Established in 2022

In 2022, the total amount of wood identified by employees of the "Executive Forestry Agency" (EFA) and its structures, subject to illegal felling or disposal transactions with wood of unknown origin, amounted to more than 18.1 thousand solid cubic meters. This said the acting Minister of Agriculture Yavor Gechev in response to a parliamentary question related to the fight against illegal logging in Bulgaria's forests.

Minister Gechev pointed out that, given the nature of the violations, there is currently no accounting of the area from which the established illegal logging was carried out.

According to him, during daily inspections by forest officials, most often violations are found related to the harvesting of wood from trees that are not marked with a control forest mark, the harvesting of wood from territories for which permits have not been issued for felling, storage of wood not marked with a control forest mark, production mark or municipal mark and/or not accompanied by a transport ticket, transportation of unmarked wood and not accompanied by a transport ticket, etc.

"The sanctions and fines imposed and entered into force in 2021 for established violations of forestry legislation amount to BGN 1,239,851," added Gechev and emphasized that in accordance with the deadlines set for the initiation of administrative-criminal proceedings and the issuance of criminal decrees, according to the Law on Administrative Violations and Penalties, at the present moment the total amount of imposed sanctions, fines and compensations for violations found in 2022 amounts to BGN 818,762.

Only in the period from August 1 to December 31, 2022, the employees of EFA and its regional structures have carried out more than 7,800 checks on...