Let's get the trees off the trees!

With effect from 1 January 2015, amendments to Section 3, Paragraph 1, Clause 2 of the Forest Law shall take effect, which stipulate that the object of the forest law is also “land of another category of land use in 0.5 hectare and the largest area on which the forest stands with the average height of trees at least five metres and the cross-area of the forest stands equal to or greater than the minimum cross-area of the forest stand”.
Until the date of entry into force of the Law, the land owners were given three years to take a decision regarding the future purpose of land management and accordingly organise information in the State cadastre information system of the immovable property. In order to promote decision-making more actively, the Rural Support Service shall, each year by 20 November of the current year, carry out surveys and provide information to local governments which calculate an increased real estate tax for land which is recognised as untreated agricultural land if its area exceeds 1 hectare.
The obligation of the land owner, starting from 1 January, is to register the forest in the forest state register with trees raised in the forest, if all three conditions are fulfilled: the area is more than 0.5 ha, the height of the trees is above 5 metres and the number of trees or the cross-area of the forest stand, depending on the tree species and the height of the trees, shall be at least the minimum laid down IN Annexes 1 and 2 of CABINET Regulation No. 935 “Regulations on tree felling in the forest” (table, page 16). This will be done by carrying out forest inventory in land ownership or if the average height of forest stands does not exceed 10 m, submitting a report regarding the cultivation of forest in the State Forest Service. The new forest can also be registered as a plantation forest, if THE procedures for the cultivation and registration of planting forest specified IN CABINET Regulation No. 308 “forest restoration, forest cultivation and plantation forest regulations” are complied with. Forest logging of plantations gives the forest owner a number of advantages in forest management: the minimum number of trees per hectare to be recognised as cultivated is less than in other forest stands, the generation of young generations is not specified as a mandatory criterion, the planting forests are not subject to the legal order of felling and reforestation. The forest owner may felling the plantation forest at its discretion, notifying the State Forest Service before commencing felling. In cases where the plantation at the forest site wants to restore agricultural land, the deforestation procedure is relieved - the refund of deforestation on the conversion of areas back into agricultural land is not due. This will facilitate the further use of land for agricultural production if the land owner has such a wish.
Until the date of entry into force of the amendments, the land owner in land which is not registered as a forest in the State Cadastre Information System may be felled in accordance with Cabinet regulations regarding felling outside the forest. However, as from 1 January, all such areas for tree felling will already have to receive a certification of felling in the nearest National Forest Service office. Prior to this it will be necessary to stem and prepare a sketch, to carry out forest inventory or to write a report on forest cultivation, where one of the columns may be marked if the owner wants to register the cultivated area as a plantation forest. Only then, according to the submission, will be able to obtain a felling certificate for one of the felling, including the felling felling.
If forest cultivation has taken place in melted areas, it should be recalled that forest cultivation should not be in contradiction with the laws and regulations governing the operation and maintenance of the melting system.
If the owner of the land in such areas after 1 January is felling without proof, in accordance with the law of the forest, the owner of the land may be penalised for arbitrary felling of trees, in accordance with Section 67, Paragraph one of the Latvian Administrative Violation Code – by imposing 70-140 euros on natural persons, but for legal persons 140-1400 euros. At the moment, the State Forest Service is not going to follow such areas, but when it comes to the “saws”, the owner of the land must be prepared to come and check whether the activity carried out is lawful and the fertility of the agricultural land is not sawn, which is now the object of the forest law with all the consequences thereof.
From experience, the interest in arranging their land properties from the owners of the land was and is felt. Many landowners wrote submissions because they had made a choice in favour of the forest, but received a refusal to permit the cultivation of agricultural land of the municipality as a forest or plantation forest. Unfortunately, each municipality has its own conditions and various approaches to decision-making on local territorial plans for such overgrown agricultural lands. It must be recognised that such areas will have to be registered as forest in accordance with the forest law, but the local government will be able to make the owner rebuild the previous land use with the administrative instruments at its disposal. Forest Law as a higher level regulatory act obliges all forest owners to comply with the laws and regulations governing forest management and use if the land is legally and actually in conformity with the definition of the forest law object.
Also in cases where the wooded land is located in a specially protected area of nature, where the land use category may not be changed or the permit of the nature protection administration is necessary for such operation, the actual state of the forest state will be fixed in the forest state register and the requirements of the forest law, including the felling and deforestation of trees, will have to be observed in the forest state register.
The information is prepared in cooperation with the State Forest Service and THE ZM Forest Department.
 
 
Mairita Bondare
HEAD of THE MKPC Madona Division