State stumps, millions to private individuals, and destroyed roads to locals, dried up springs, erosion and floods... - this is the epilogue of decades of destruction of Montenegrin forests, above all in the north.
Estimates of the damage range from one billion to even 20 billion euros, but the lost money is the least of the problems, because hundreds of hectares of the highest quality forest were irretrievably lost, which was not restored and which was diseased in several locations, and merciless logging is one of the reasons that encouraged people to they leave rural areas.
That, as announced by the Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, a country determined to declare war on the "forestry mafia", the interlocutors of "Vijesti" welcome, but believe that the problem will not be fundamentally solved as long as the current system of forest management and granting concessions, which was abandoned long ago by the countries in Europe, and the concessionaires are forced to respect the contracted obligations.
The forestry mafia, in the sense in which it is spoken about today, was created in the nineties of the last century by the separation of forestry from wood processing, and individuals from politics, the police, customs and forest administrations in the cities were involved in it even then, to experience the greatest momentum in the last 15 years.
A theft system developed over the years
The first to use the term "forestry mafia" was the president of the Ecological Society "Breznica" Milorad Mitrovic. He says that every government has been repeating the platitude for years that Montenegro is the most wooded European country, but that "is not something to be happy about".
"What can statistically be called forest land, is actually a large percentage of devastated space. This is significantly more today than 20 years ago. "Where the wood industry was destroyed by plan, those who bought the failed companies received concessions and exported roundwood, and the state was left with nothing but trivial compensations," he said.
And director of the NGO "Green Home" Azra Vuković she said that regardless of the fact that the practice of granting concessions for the use of forests has been discontinued, today we have the granting of forests for use on the basis of one-year contracts, which are essentially the same as concessions, only with shorter durations, which can always be extended.
"Such use of forests has proven to be fertile ground for irregularities and abuses. As a rule, private companies that get to use the forest cut down more than planned, they choose trees of better quality, they choose trees that are easier to extract from the forest, they do not establish forest order, young trees are destroyed by transport, they are destroyed local village roads and bridges are destroyed and the quality of life of the population in the wider area of exploitation is reduced".
According to the interlocutor of "Vijesti", the elaborate system for the concessionaire's enormous earnings is multifaceted.
"Ten meters of firewood is sold for 700 euros, and pellets for 260 euros per ton (last year it was 350 to 400 euros), while lumber is sold for 220 to 250 euros. It costs the concessionaires a maximum of 40 to 45 euros per stump of spruce, technical wood for the production of carpentry boards, etc., and deciduous wood is even cheaper, the waste is about 20 percent and nothing is paid for, it is sold to pelleters," said one of the people. involved in "working" with wood.
Although the export of wood is prohibited, he explains, the export of pellets is allowed and about 50 percent of the production goes across the border, mostly to Albania and Italy.
"The problem is that the best quality wood ends up in pellet mills, which should be used for technical construction, carpentry and the like. It is terrible that roundwood is used for the production of pellets, instead of that from sanitary felling, from diseased trees".
He states that the forestry mafia would not exist if it were not for forestry technicians, lumberjacks and others in the process, who, he claims, "have apartments in Budva, Podgorica and elsewhere, which investigators can easily check in property records and the cadastre."
"If a local has a few hundred euros in earnings, and owns a bar and a four-story house, it's clear what it's about and how deep this story is," specified the environmental activist. Aleksandar Dragićević.
Clarifying how illegal enrichment works, the former lugar states that it is, first of all, an excess of cubic capacity that no one controlled, although there are mobile scales purchased that have not yet been installed, which would measure the weight of trucks and raw materials.
"Exceeding occurs on the roads, because every truck reloads in villages or suburban settlements, and it turns out that every third truck comes to the concessionaire for nothing. Not to mention the destroyed roads due to overloading. In essence, what matters is the start itself and how concessions are obtained. Concessionaires, among other things, insure a lot of workers, because those who have more employees have priority, they keep them fictitiously on insurance while the tender lasts, and when they get the concession, they take them off the insurance".
With remittance hammers and remittances, several interlocutors confirmed, everything is subject to corruption, because in many cases it happened that the same tiles were transferred from one territory to another. Also, the trees must be "marked on the stump", i.e. at the place where they were cut, and without adequate notification, any such tree is treated as illegal felling.
Set it on fire, then cover your tracks
However, the biggest malpractice of the past decades, according to the interlocutor of "Vijesti", in Montenegrin forestry is the fictitious conversion of extra class conifers into trees designated for sanitary felling (diseased trees). Ten years ago, in that case, the concessionaire paid six to eight euros per cubic meter to the Forestry Administration, and he could sell such top-quality chamois roundwood in Kosovo for 130 to 140 euros.
Trees disappear also because the concessionaires, even though they are obliged to, avoid sanitary felling and do not reforest the cut and burned areas, for the simple reason that it does not bring profit.
And that's not all.
"When it comes to forest fires, 2012 was a tragic year when everything that could catch fire in Montenegro was set on fire, and no one can convince me that the fires started accidentally from lightning or from the bottom of a glass bottle . Those forest fires were set on purpose, just to cut timber and export high-quality round timber from those farms," Mitrović said.
He explained that it is not possible to determine when a tree was cut down in the burned area and that it happened that the area where it was cut burned down.
"The arson was done solely to cover up the traces of illegal logging and to set some trees on fire so that they would be paid less during the felling," says Mitrović.
The extent of malfeasance in that sector is shown by the data, which was previously confirmed by the former acting director of the Forestry Administration Mirsad Nurković, that during 2013, 2014, 2015, no one charged concessionaires a fee for the remittance and stamping of trees, which should amount to 10 percent of the concession contract. Nurković said that it is estimated that about 50 percent of the harvested wood mass does not enter the formal economic flows, but is in the zone of the gray economy, and that, also, a large part of those employed in wood processing is in the zone of the gray labor market.
NA Protest luxury jeeps
The problem was finally recognized by the state. During a tour of the devastated forest area on Mount Jelovica near Beran, in the presence of members of the National Council for the Fight against Corruption, Abazović said that any illegal activities related to forest cutting will not be tolerated in the future.
"Numerous criminal charges have been filed, certain sawmills have been closed, misdemeanor charges have been filed, machinery has been seized, numerous cases have been filed in the state prosecutor's office on these issues, and we are continuing the action. The National Security Agency prepared a report in which it listed persons and companies that can be reasonably suspected of engaging in illegal logging in Montenegro. It is about the destruction of the natural assets of all citizens, which in the previous three decades probably exceeded the amount of one billion euros," said Abazović.
He believes that the current concept of shim management is not good, but it must be respected until a new one is adopted.
Minister of Interior Affairs Filip Adzic announced at the time that 93 sawmills were controlled, eight of which were closed, and eight criminal charges and dozens of misdemeanor charges were filed, that hundreds of trucks were inspected, some of them were excluded from traffic, and some were sent for technical inspection. He said that the police have names that deal with the exploitation of the forest by decree and announced their arrest and prosecution.
Special prosecutor Vukas Radonjic he said that there are criminal cases in the prosecutor's office against certain persons who previously worked in the Forestry Administration and that he hopes that those cases will be given priority in the coming period.
At the beginning of September, the Directorate for Forest and Hunting Management also announced that during the year it initiated this kind of fight on several occasions, asking for help and support in the fight against forest thieves that it cannot fight alone.
Due to the frequent calls of the Forestry Administration as a key link that failed, the leader resigned at the end of August Armin Mujevic. He said that he did it because that body could not deal with the problem alone, without systemic support, which was missing.
His predecessor Srdjan Pejović he tried to change the scoring system for allocating forests to concessions, but was met with protests from the concessionaires. It was recorded that in front of the offices of the Administration, the concessionaires came in cars and jeeps, some of which are worth almost one hundred thousand euros.
Only in the area of Jelovice, according to the data available to the Directorate for Forest and Hunting Management and the Forestry Inspectorate, between 3.000 and 5.000 cubic meters are illegally cut annually, and this phenomenon has been particularly pronounced in that region in the past two years.
Replace the tiles with a barcode
The constant change of foresters, as well as inadequate control measures, led to lawlessness being carried out for an extended period of time, causing great damage to the forests. Numerous reports and statements of the situation in the earlier period ended in criminal reports against unknown perpetrators, but without effect.
Illegal cutting of forests at the national level is sanctioned by a series of misdemeanor and criminal provisions, and the fines range from 300 to 15.000 euros, depending on whether it is a natural or legal person, or a responsible person in a company, while in a situation where it is a criminal offense (illegal logging on a larger scale) in addition to a fine, he can receive three years in prison.
The Association of wood processors in Plava suggested that in forests instead of a classic plate with a remittance number, a bar code should be urgently introduced as on any other product, which would greatly contribute to the introduction of order in felling and control from where the forest timber was cut. According to the barcode on each tree, as they claim, any control, in any place, would show where the tree was cut, from which municipality, from which mountain and from which department, how much cubic mass is in it, and the like.
In that association, they also believe that it is necessary to work urgently to establish one or possibly two companies in each city, depending on the amount of forest, which would only do felling, hauling and storage by categories and types of wood.
"Only registered wood processors could buy wood at that place, at the prices dictated by the state and the market, from the highest quality pulp to branches for pellet production," they announced.
They calculated that through concessional forest management in the last twenty years, when the wood would have been converted into a final product, the state of Montenegro lost up to twenty billion euros.
"On the other hand, this means that the concessionaires made so much profit in the past twenty years, and that money mostly came out of Montenegro. We only had semi-final production, while the countries in our environment, from our forests, developed final production and achieved the highest profit".
They emphasize that this is only a calculation of the minimum amount of wood cut on an annual level, of 500 thousand cubic meters of wood, and in some years the etat (annual cutting) was around 900 thousand, and even a million cubic meters. If, as they say, the year 2022 was taken as an example, in which 632.534 cubic meters of forest were cut, the final profit, in the final product, would amount to 1,5 billion euros.
"If 632.534 cubic meters were sold as firewood, it would amount to around 37.952.000 euros. If this amount of wood were processed, or semi-processed into building material, where the average value of a cubic meter of board is about 250 euros, the value of that wood material would be about 158.133.000 euros. With final production, let's say furniture production, the value of one cubic meter would be between 1.500 and 2.500 euros, which for the amount of 632.534 cubic meters of wood raw material amounts to 948.801.000 to 1.581.335.000 euros".
A special problem is that the concessionaires do not fulfill their obligations under the contract, so they neither reforest nor maintain the roads they destroy with overloaded trucks, which has led to several protests by villagers in the north. There is no knowledge that the competent services prosecuted any of the transporters who destroy rural roads.
Even after almost four years since the catastrophic fires that hit the territory of the municipality of Rožaje, it is not known whether and how much of the forest was used, and the perpetrators of the fire remain unknown to this day. At that time, 160 hectares of forest, worth several million euros, burned. The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in that city only announced that a case had been opened that year. At the time when the fires happened, the director of the Forestry Administration was Nusret Kalac. Kalač then announced that the total damage from the fire was 1.262.050 euros, but several experts claimed that it was much higher than the official figure.
A large part of the region does not have a lugar, introduce a moratorium
According to official data, Montenegro currently has 150 and needs 250 foresters, and a number of foresters are currently working on the basis of work contracts, which expired on August 1, and a good part of the forest areas is not covered by manpower.
Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Milan Gazdić he repeatedly warned that the problem is the result of a system that has been built for decades and cannot be solved in a short period of time and that a moratorium on felling in the high forests must be introduced, because "at the moment we don't know what is happening there and we have to review the basics".
He indicated that all strategies and analyzes show that forestry, after tourism, can be the second largest economic branch in Montenegro with 13-14 percent, and that we are now at 0,5 percent and that final production is almost non-existent. As a first measure, he proposed the introduction of a district system in the Forestry Administration. This means that for each territory of individual regional units, one forestry engineer will be in charge, who will have several foresters, Gazdić said.
A moratorium on forest cutting until the situation is resolved and forestry is reorganized is a logical solution, along with permitted retail sales for the population that heats with wood at favorable prices, which were paid by privileged concessionaires until recently, the former director of the Administration for forests Srdjan Pejović.
From the Forestry Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, they assessed that the situation in Montenegrin forestry can be seen through good and bad things.
"The good things are a high degree of forest cover, natural forests - high biodiversity potential, as well as the existence of planning documents. Criticisms would be related mainly to the concessional way of using forests and the sale of wood in poor condition, bad business from an economic point of view because 70 percent of the income from the concession fee goes to local governments, problems related to illegal activities and the mismatch of recorded felling and consumption data. As well as the lack of staff".
They state that the biggest threats to Montenegrin forests are fires, which in 90 percent of cases are caused by human activity, illegal cutting of timber and inadequate collection of secondary forest products. They state that the wood stocks in our forests represent a realistic basis for the intensive development of the processing sector and announce the drafting of a new law on forests and a new Forestry Development Strategy 2023-2028. year, as a prerequisite for the establishment of a state-owned enterprise.
A state-owned enterprise is the best solution
"The previous way of managing forests - concessions and sale of wood in the deepest state did not give good results, and should have been a flywheel for the wood industry. That is why it is necessary to move to the establishment of a new organizational model that will enable state forests to be managed in a more ecologically sustainable, socially responsible and economically efficient manner as an asset of public interest. In addition to changing the concept of the use of state forests, it will also be necessary to change the concept of forest management, the related provision of works of public interest, as well as budget financing. Namely, the Directorate for the Management of Forests and Hunting Grounds now, in its capacity as an administrative body, performs administrative tasks, including tasks of public interest in all forests, as well as tasks related to the use of state forests, which are of an economic nature. All these jobs are financed from the budget. In the future, works on the use of forests should not be financed from the budget, but directly from the income from the sale of wood, i.e. wood assortments. The state enterprise for forest management is the practice of all developed countries in Europe, as well as all countries of the former Yugoslavia", according to the Directorate.
The concept of concessions in forestry applied in Montenegro, as they state, was similar to the concept developed by Slovenia in 2005, but that concept was abandoned in 2016, as unsuccessful, after which the Government of Slovenia established a state enterprise for forest management. The sale of wood from state-owned forests in the deepest state is also not a practice of any EU country.
"In the case of Montenegro, based on all the analyzes done, it can be stated that the valorization of forest resources is low. According to the concession model, forestry is financed from the state budget, and at no time during the duration of the concession model were the funds allocated for forestry sufficient to fulfill the provisions of planning documents in forestry, which led to unsustainable forest management. It is important to point out that the revenue from the concession fee is divided so that 30 percent of the value goes to the state budget, while 70 percent is the revenue of local administrations that did not have a legal obligation to direct the received money to the protection, restoration or preservation of forests in their territories. On the other hand, analyzes indicate that the minimum investment in the protection, cultivation and management of forests amounts to 8,5 million euros. The reorganization itself would lead to new employment in the economic sector, better valorization of forest resources, as well as the growth of the wood industry and improved business environment".
They claim that they are not aware of the fact that technical wood is used for firewood and pellet production.
When asked whether they believe that the "war on the forestry mafia" will yield results, they stated that the joint action of all institutions is already yielding certain results.
"In the first place, we need to control the terrain, traffic control and control of places for processing and sawmills. However, in our opinion, long-term measures are the most important, and this implies the reorganization of the forestry sector. The forestry sector is burdened by a lack of personnel, both with higher and secondary education. The age structure in the Forest Management Administration is over 60 years old, the Lugar regions are covered by people who have been working for several years under a work contract, so it often happens that some Lugar regions are not covered due to non-renewal of the contract".
Weak penalties stimulate forest thieves
According to the Directorate, according to the reports of inspection services and the information they receive from the Directorate for Forest and Hunting Management, by far the largest number of illegal activities takes place in privately owned forests.
"About 50 percent of all forests are privately owned. Owners of private forests, in order to gain quick income, often cut down their forests by excessive felling, for which they can only be punished as a misdemeanor for violating the Law on Forests in the part of mandatory remittance of trees for felling and preparation of planning documents. Given that the forest is their property, they cannot be held criminally responsible because these acts cannot be qualified as theft. On the other hand, the Criminal Code leaves the possibility that devastation of forests can be punished with a fine, and not just a criminal one, so according to our information, these penalties are generally imposed. We believe that illegal logging is stimulated in this way and we call on the judicial authorities to impose stricter sanctions on such occurrences, because these are acts that threaten our natural beauty, as well as the cultural identity of Montenegro".
Remitters do not return to the forest they remitted to
A study conducted by the Slovenian expert Franz Ferlin for the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017 showed that planning the use of forest wealth is ecologically and economically unsustainable, which is why concession contracts need to be terminated urgently in cases where the conditions have been met and that the system should be returned to of state forest management. That study ended up in the drawers of the then ministry, because there was neither interest nor interest in carrying it out.
Ferlin also determined that the average engineer - remittance maker has about 13.000 hectares of state forests, or 21.000 cubic meters of possible felling. In addition, the regional units do not have a forestry engineer - remittance clerk. There is no personal responsibility of the remitter for the quality of the remittance, because there is no "repatriation" system, that is, the remitter does not return to the forest where he remitted.
"The state of forestry personnel at the concessionaires is unknown and the Forestry Administration does not monitor the fulfillment of the personnel requirements of the concessionaires. In addition, most of the concessions are implemented through subcontractors and subcontractors, which is in direct contradiction to the intention of the concessions, so the responsibility for fulfilling the conditions is lost in that chain," wrote Ferlin.
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