The Deputies Chamber on Tuesday adopted the draft law on the Forestry Code, by a majority vote, which regulates the forestry regime, the governance of the forestry sector, the control of the application and compliance with the forestry regime, as well as its sanctioning regime.

It also establishes the legal framework for the digitalised fight against illegal logging.

Forest roads will be video-surveilled, with technical monitoring/recording systems, which will help to discover thefts and illegal logging.

The draft law also regulates the system of criminal sanctions and the regime of precautionary measures and the confiscation of wood materials, means of transport, suspension of access to the integrated information system for forests, withdrawal and, as the case may be, immediate recall from the market of products obtained from raw wood, resulting from the commission of acts that are classified as crimes.

New forestry crimes are introduced: falsification of forestry computer data and falsification of computer declarations will be punished with 1 to 5 years in prison.

The new Forestry Code also provides for the establishment of the National Forestry Registry (NFR) for the record of forestry exploitations, which will include all forest owners in Romania, to facilitate through computer means the approvals and reports between different public entities and the monitoring of the implementation of forestry services, as well as the National Forestry Council, which will have the role of monitoring the exercise of professional ethics and compliance with professional standards by forestry personnel.

It also aims to promote and protect the health-promoting, educational, touristic and recreational role of the forest, including by including forests in green belts around cities, as well as increasing the area of land occupied by forests.

The minister of the environment, Mircea Fechet, told the plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies that Romania is in one of those moments when the Parliament gives it, after 15 years, a law that marks a new beginning in the management of forests in our country.

According to him, the new Forestry Code responds to the three defining perspectives, namely the conservation of Romanian forests, the economy and life.

The draft law was adopted by the Senate, with the Chamber of Deputies as the decision-making body.

AGERPRES