Last week, at the request of Law and Justice MPs, an extraordinary meeting of the Environmental Protection Committee was convened, dedicated to the unlawful decision of the Minister of Climate and Environment, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, to ban the felling of trees for the following week. six months in 30 forest districts from all over Poland.
It turned out that the Minister, by sending a written order banning logging to the Director of Forestry, violated the law because she referred to the wrong article of the Forest Act, and furthermore, if she wanted to introduce such a ban in accordance with its provisions of this law, she should have issued a regulation about this. Based on this illegal decision, the Minister of Climate and Environment issued a ban on previously planned and ongoing logging in 30 forest districts across Poland, interrupting the work of several dozen Forest Service Plants (ZUL), employing hundreds of workers .
No one was consulted about Hennig-Kloska’s decision
As can be seen from the explanation presented by the Deputy Minister of this Ministry, Mikołaj Dorozała, at the committee meeting, the decision to ban logging was taken without any consultation with the Forestry Commission, which had previously signed contracts with the ZULs for the implementation of these activities. . This decision has not been consulted with the local authorities where the above-mentioned forest complexes are located, nor with the local communities where ZUL employees most often come from, nor with the timber industry, which is currently experiencing a shortage of raw materials, including due to the lack of imports from Belarus and Russia. It turned out that the decision to ban logging was made under pressure from numerous ecological organizations, and moreover, they were the ones who designated the forest areas in the area where the ban would be introduced. Obviously, in this situation, there is no question of the ministry passing on the costs of implementing the logging ban, and it is also unclear whether the aforementioned ZULs whose work was interrupted will receive compensation or whether they will have to seek justice in the courts.
Far-reaching consequences
That is why in several places in Poland, where the logging ban threatens the survival of hundreds of jobs that have existed for years, there have been very spontaneous protests, especially from workers whose jobs are directly threatened. There was also concern among wood processing companies, especially in the furniture industry, which has become an important part of our economy over the past twelve years, accounting for 2.5 percent. our GDP, employs almost 200,000 people and is the 4th largest industry in our country in this respect. Poland is already the second largest furniture exporter in the world (after China) and the first in Europe, with 90 percent of our exports going to Western European countries, increasingly under Polish brands, which means that we capture virtually the entire added value of these take over production. The key to the further development of this important part of the Polish economy is access to timber and the state forests, which hold electronic public tenders for its sale, have so far met most of the demand for this commodity.
Access to wood can be more difficult
Unfortunately, this surprising and without consultation decision to ban logging shows that access to timber may be more difficult for this sector and, furthermore, that if the supply of timber is limited, its prices will increase, which will worsen logging means. in the competitiveness of this sector. Furthermore, this unexpected ban is currently estimated to affect 1.2 percent. forest area, while ecological organizations, whose voices are apparently listened to without paying attention to the effects by the current management of the ministry, wish that this ban would eventually apply to 20 percent. area of Polish forests. And all this is happening in a situation where the area of Polish forests is growing every year, currently 30% of the area of our country is covered with forests (just after the war only 20%), and in addition we are dealing with an annual increasing the timber mass of our forests, and The State Forests are planting approximately 500 million (yes, half a billion) new trees. Unfortunately, this decision shows how incompetent the new government is and how, under the influence of various types of pseudo-experts, in this case of rational forest management, it is willing to make decisions that will damage the Polish economy and cause permanent job losses.
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Source: wPolityce