The government has approved a draft amendment to the Act on Nature Protection, which will simplify the felling of trees and shrubs even in protected areas. The reason is supposed to be to make the landscape clearer for bears and to simplify the procedures for felling trees, for example for farmers or for flood protection. The amendment together with the proposal for shortened legislative procedure have already been delivered to the parliament.
The proposal of the amendment caused different reactions. Some conservationists express concern about the massive felling of trees, from which wood chippers would profit, others say that it is really necessary to make it easier to clean the land from encroached trees. Farmers welcome the proposal, at the same time they themselves call for regulation so that such stands fulfill their ecological functions.
What will change
The key is the modification of the paragraph that talks about when it is not necessary to request permission from the nature protection authority to cut down trees. A tree or shrub growing outside a forest plot is defined as a tree or shrub by the Nature Protection Act.
Consent for the felling of trees will no longer be required for trees with a trunk girth of up to 80 cm, measured at a height of 130 cm above the ground, and continuous brushwood with an area of up to 100 m2. Up until now, trees with a trunk circumference of up to 40 cm and continuous scrub up to 20 m2 could be felled without permission.
Bushy growths in vineyards and on the terraces of orchards or vineyards will be able to be cut down without restriction.
Another change is that consent for such felling will not be required even in the second and third level of protection, i.e. not even in large-scale protected areas, such as protected landscape areas and national parks, plus territories of European importance and protected areas. However, it concerns non-forest land, not forests.
Ministry
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