Forestry

Albania will impose a 10-year moratorium from January 2016 that will ban logging in all forests and the export of timber.

The draft law prepared by the environmental ministry is likely to be approved by parliament in December and will allow only municipality representatives to cut down trees to meet the needs of people who burn wood for winter fuel.

The destruction of Brazil's Amazon forest, the world's largest intact rainforest, increased by 16 percent in 2015 from a year ago, as the world readies to hold a climate conference in Paris. 

Satellite data for the 12 months through the end of July released on Nov. 26 showed that 5,831 square km of forests were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon, an area half the size of Puerto Rico. 

Pope Francis criticised the destruction of forests in order to plant soy in an interview with an Argentine radio station on August 8, reinforcing his message that the environment should take precedence over financial gain. 

A group of locals and environmentalist activists blocked the road to an untouched forested area in the Black Sea province of Artvin to prevent the activities of a mining firm.

Activists and locals guard the mountainous forests of Artvin in separate locations to prevent Forestry Ministry officials from entering the area.

The existing moratorium on timber exports remains in place until the adoption of a set of amendments to the Forest Act, according to Bulgaria's Deputy Agriculture Minister Georgi Kostov.

The 3-month moratorium, which was introduced by Bulgaria's government so as to pave the way for the adoption of legal amendments targeting illegal logging, expired on Tuesday.

Approximately 700,000 hectares of forest in Romania are currently concerned by Article 20 of the draft Forestry Act, which requires forest management as a condition to harvest more than three cubic meters of wood per hectare and per year; approximately 420,000 hectares of such areas are owned by small proprietors and thus most exposed to illegal clearing, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and

Thousands of Romanians protested in cities across the country on Saturday, calling on the government and parliament to find ways to better protect the country's forests against illegal loggers.

Over 3,000 people gathered in Bucharest, while thousands also demonstrated in the Transylvanian cities of Cluj and Brasov, and in Timisoara, Iasi and Galati.

After over two years of discussions, Romania is to finally adopt changes to the Forest Law to better protect the country's forests against the actions of illegal loggers.

BELGRADE - The total material damage caused by extreme climate and weather conditions in Serbia since 2000 is estimated at over EUR 5 billion, Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic said on Monday.

For the third time in less than a month, Bulgarian timber companies will stage a protest against the 3-month moratorium on exports.

Industry representatives insist that despite the promise of MPs to revoke the ban, the authorities are refusing to engage in dialogue with them, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.