Ping-pong with domestic forests continues: New amendments to the Forest Law, the company "Crna Gora Šume" still on paper

The responsibilities over part of the forestry sector will certainly be in the hands of the Directorate for Forest and Hunting Management again, because the new company "Crna Gora Šume" is not operational and the umbrella Law on Forests is not applicable, so its amendments are again in the parliamentary procedure. A similar thing happened at the beginning of last year, when the jobs were assigned to a state-owned company through this Law - which did not exist at that time, after which they were returned to the Directorate again last summer.

It was planned that the forestry sector would be transferred to the newly established company "Crna Gora Šume" on the first day of this year, but this did not happen because the company was not registered, did not have the workforce or the necessary mechanization.

The Forest Law must be changed because businessmen in this and the wood processing sector are currently unable to use forests under contracts they have already signed, while last year, due to the blockade of tree allocation, wood was cut and sold in private forests. This is why there were several protests last year.

With the establishment of "Montenegro Forests" in October last year, the company was planned to take over the management of state-owned forests, abandoning the concession model, while dealing with forestry, logging, production and sale of wood and non-wood forest products, and construction and maintenance of infrastructure.

The Administration would thus carry out inspection supervision, control of construction projects and work in departments, while most of its employees would be transferred to the new company. The Administration's employees have repeatedly stated that they will not agree to transfer to “Crna Gora Šume”.

That's why the Europe Now Movement MP Milan Zecevic proposed new amendments to the Forest Law, which would return these tasks to the Administration by the beginning of 2027. He submitted the amendments to the parliamentary procedure in early April.

He proposed that the Administration take over the tasks of afforestation and fire protection, marking trees for felling, preparing construction projects, marking wood assortments, collecting and trading non-timber products and tree reproductive material, building, maintaining and repairing forest roads...

"Taking into account the chronology of the formation of the company "Crna Gora Šume" and the problems that have arisen in establishing its full functionality on the one hand, and the serious challenges that have arisen in the forestry sector in forest management and the implementation of signed contracts with forest users, it is necessary to urgently make changes to the transfer of the company's responsibilities to the Forest Management and Hunting Areas Administration. The performance of administrative and related professional tasks in forestry referred to in Article 73a, paragraph 2, items 1 to 10 of this Law will be carried out by the administrative body until December 31, 2026," the amendments and their justification state.

At the end of February, the government appointed the Board of Directors of "Montenegro Forests", which included Igor Vojinović, Saša Bjeković, Slavisa Lucic, Ilija Krejovic i Petar KnezevicThe explanation of the amendments to the Law states that their mandates have not been verified, nor has a constituent session been convened on that occasion, at which the further organization of this company would have continued.

It is also emphasized that the Law on Business Companies, which came into force at the beginning of this year, and whose implementation is planned for the end of March, is also a significant challenge, while the non-functionality of the information system for company registration (CRPS-IRMS) is also causing problems - which is why "Crna Gore Šume" has not yet been registered.

The Parliament adopted the Forest Law at the end of July 2024, while its full implementation was supposed to begin on January 1 last year. This has not happened even a year later.

That the forests are currently blocked was pointed out at a session at the Chamber of Commerce in early April by businessmen from this and the wood processing sector, when they requested that the problems be urgently resolved because, due to the non-implementation of the Law, they cannot use the forests according to the contracts they have already signed. The Ministry of Agriculture announced at the time that they were preparing an initiative that they would send to parliament.

Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Jokovic told "Vijesti" in March last year that the Forest Law was difficult to implement at that time, that changing the forest management model in Croatia and Slovenia was done gradually and took seven years, that none of the employees from the Forest Management Administration wanted to move to the new company, and that there was no money for equipment, machinery and other resources.

Joković's department said at the end of last year that it would receive 1,1 million euros for the establishment of "Crna Gora Šume", with a potential loan of 10.000.000 euros guaranteed by the state. When this company begins operating, the concession model would be abandoned, while the new company, headquartered in Pljevlja, would carry out the activities of forest cultivation, logging, production and sale of wood and non-wood forest products, construction and maintenance of infrastructure...

In mid-March, the World Bank (WB) approved a loan of up to 18 million euros to the Government to finance the project "Montenegro's Forests for Shared Prosperity", which envisages the modernization of the forest management system, strengthening fire protection, and improving the wood industry in the period from now to 2032.

The project envisages strengthening institutional capacities and improving regulations in the forestry sector, modernizing the measurement and traceability of forest resources, supporting the work of the new state-owned enterprise "Crna Gora Šume", investing in the prevention, monitoring and repair of damage from forest fires, as well as programs to improve certification, standardization and competitiveness of the domestic wood industry.

The World Bank said at the time that the project would support the government's efforts to modernize the forestry information system, increase added value in the wood processing industry, and introduce modern technologies to combat illegal logging and better track the origin of forest products, while preventing forest fires and reducing their impact...

The first version of the text stated that the amendments to the Forest Law were submitted by PES MP Dane Marković.