National Policy on Forests 1997.

The National Policy on Forests developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry is a nation-wide sectoral document for designating the complex of actions shaping relations between humankind and forests, with the aim of preserving the conditions for the indefinite maintenance of the multi-functionality of forests, their multi-faceted utility and protection and their role in the shaping of the natural environment, in line with the present and future expectations of society. The overall goal of the Policy shall be achieved by (i) increasing the country' s forest resources; (ii) improving the state of forest resources and providing them with comprehensive protection; (iii) reorienting forest management away from the previous domination of the raw-materials model towards a pro-ecological and economically-balanced model of multi-functional forest management, in particular enhancing their ecological, productive and social functions of both public and private ownership forests.To make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, the Policy actions are addressed to (i) increasing forest cover through the planting of agricultural land that is productively-inefficient or unused; (ii) regulating forms and intensities of use of forest resources, i.e. harvesting of timber and non-timber products, such that these activities are not able to threaten the permanence of forests or to have a negative influence on the state of tree stands; (iii) drawing-up and implementing programs to redevelop the small-scale retention of water with a view to restoring beneficial supplies of water to forests and improving water management in the country, especially in mountain areas; (iv) timber harvesting without exceeding ongoing increments but rather guaranteeing the accumulation of timber increment, thus giving a basis for enhanced reproduction; (v) attaining the spatially-optimal structure of forests in the landscape through the protection and full utilization of the productive possibilities of habitats; (vi) enhancing the genetic and species diversity of forest biocoenosis and the diversity of ecosystems in forest complexes - on the basis of natural models; (vii) working to enhance the health of tree stands and their resistance to harmful abiotic and biotic factors, through the implementation of biological and ecological methods of protection; (viii) limit - to necessary cases only - the use of chemical substances (pesticides, mineral fertilizers, mineral oils, etc.); (ix) planting trees and shrubs on land degraded by industrial, mining, construction and military activities, and on chemically-contaminated soils; (x) improving methods for the active combating of the threat of forest fires and the fires themselves; (xi) training courses for the forest services concerning sustainable and multi-functional forest management, ecological issues and nature conservation; (xii) regulating recreation and tourism in forest areas in a manner harmonizing the social functions of forests with the protective and productive functions; (xiii) using incentives for the wide use of timber - an ecological material - in building work, and for its rational use, protection and preservation; and (xiv) adapting the hunting law to the goals of sustainable, multi-functional forestry management, and especially silvicultural and protective needs.In order to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Ministry seeks for (i) integrating and participating all participants in economic life and society who are interested in sustainable development, and especially the development of forestry, as well as efforts to set up ongoing consultations between them; (ii) integrating the aims of forestry with those of the sustainable development of society on the local, regional and national scales, as well as closer cooperation with local communities in the development of local models for sustainable development that take account of the state of forest resources and their functions; (iii) perfectly integrating forestry with the timber industry, and cooperating with other consumers of wood; (iv) stabilizing the national market for timber and wood; and (v) supporting for compulsory husbandry work in forests on farms that give low incomes on account of their poor state, as well as in forests whose owners have setup forestry associations.To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the forest policy shall emphasize the program for for the protection of ecosystems and safe technologies paying particular attention to the development of the forest cover because of its ecological function that positively affects climate change.