How much does Bulgaria lose annually from inefficient use of forest resources... What does sustainable management of the sector mean and reaching good European practices? At the same time, two large fires broke out in the Koprivshtitsa area. The majority of the affected areas are in the state forest fund, there are municipal and private forests. The total area exceeds 500 acres. What challenges are there for the Bulgarian forest... Neli Doncheva from WWF-Bulgaria spoke to FACTS.
- Ms. Doncheva, something has changed in recent years when we talk about forest management. Forest, felling, wood, illegal mining... That's all we're talking about...
- I don't think there are any particular changes. The role of forests, as the main factor in mitigating the effects of climate change, is neglected - there is no effective mechanism for valuing the ecosystem benefits and services from forests, there is increasing pressure from business to increase the use of wood from Bulgarian forests, forest employees are undervalued and cannot safely exercise their profession due to various forms of pressure, the area of FSC-certified forest territories is decreasing as a result of short-sighted management decisions, the level of illegal logging is high.
- Sustainable management of forests means harvesting up to 100% of their growth. How are we to understand this?
- The claims of some consulting companies that harvesting 100% of forest growth is a sustainable solution is definitely not forestry, nor scientifically proven. You can get 100% from a block with alfalfa or corn, but not from the Bulgarian forest, and without damaging it. If in the last 60 years the foresters had acted like this, now the reserves of the Bulgarian forests would not be 750 million. cubic meters, and 250 million - as much as they were in 1960. I personally associate such a statement with exploitation, but not with good management. According to our national forest legislation, forest territories in Bulgaria perform the following main functions: protection of soils, water resources and air purity; maintaining the biological diversity of forest ecosystems, providing social, educational, scientific, landscape and recreational benefits to society, protecting the natural and cultural heritage, regulating the climate and assimilating carbon and producing wood and non-wood forest products. Sustainable forest management means management in which all these functions are ensured.
According to the data of the Forest Executive Agency, more than 2/3 of the forests in Bulgaria are categorized as protective and special, i.e. their main functions are the ones cited above. And only less than 1/3 have economic functions. But even in them 100% logging is impossible and inadmissible.
There are still inaccessible forests, and in practice, often when it is impossible to carry out logging in an inaccessible forest, the planned use is carried out in the accessible forests, which leads to excessive use. There are many inaccuracies in determining the stock and hence the growth of the forest. A number of studies have shown that as a result of climate change and mainly drought during the growing season, the growth rate decreases significantly. And we use growth factors based on calculations from the 1950s-60s in a quite different climate.
It is important for businesses and decision makers in the forestry sector to understand that humanity's best ally in mitigating the negative effects of climate change is precisely forests. The quantity and quality of water, as well as the risk of floods, depends on the condition of the forests in the watersheds. Unfortunately, some representatives of the timber business continue to see forests only as a source of timber and a means of increasing profits. The benefits of forest ecosystems and the services that forests provide to society as a whole, and not just to one part of it in the form of companies that use wood for their business, are easily ignored.
- Every year between 50 and 100,000 decares are burned by fires here. The reason is the accumulation of wood mass in the forests. Why do we allow it?
- In fact, on average per year for the last decades, the size of the burned areas is about 50 thousand decares, with the year 2012 having the greatest impact on this number. when about 130 thousand acres were burned. The statement how unlogged forests burn is often false. If it were so, the reserves in our country, where no logging has been done for nearly 100 years, such as Parangalitsa, Ropotamo, Silkosia, Boatin, Bayuvi dupki, etc., should have burned down a long time ago.
The risk of fire will always be there, and with climate change, the number, intensity and extent of wildfires are predicted to increase. Over 95% of forest fires in our country are caused by human activity - carelessness, faulty equipment, stubble burning, deliberately caused fires, etc., as well as the effects of climate change, expressed in prolonged periods of drought with very high temperatures and no precipitation. If we want to limit the possibilities of forest fires, the key word is prevention. There is also much to be done to increase control as well as increase penalties for causing wildfires.
- According to the Association of Bulgarian wood users, we lose up to BGN 1 billion due to inefficient use of the forest resource. Is that correct?
- I am not familiar with this report, I do not even know if it is publicly available, I cannot comment on it. However, I can say that according to the latest WWF analysis of the level of illegal logging in the country, unregulated logging generates hidden revenues of about 150 million BGN per year. In addition to these financial losses, forests cannot effectively perform their production, water protection and environmental protection functions, which continue to be undervalued at present. This damages both the state budget and all of us as taxpayers.
Naturally, the vision of wood-consuming companies is simple - we increase logging by 50%, and with it, jobs and income increase by 50%. Neither the forest nor the economy work on such accounts. Currently, as much is produced as there is demand. After 2022, when there was a big panic demand for wood, mainly for firewood, last year the warehouses were full and anyone who wanted could buy, but there were no buyers. Forestry officials have said that harvested wood is there, lying around and rotting, but no one buys it. It is advantageous for wood processors to have a large production, which will make it cheaper for them to supply wood, because they will be the only buyers. We should note that from a discussion in the National Assembly's agriculture commission, it was established that wood is sold by state-owned enterprises for an average of BGN 50. impersonal cubic meter, but at processors it reaches a price of 150 to 180 BGN. The push for more logging is linked to the idea of reducing the price of wood to the buyer. The truth is that in our country there is no one to extract an additional 3 million cubic meters, nor anyone to buy them, even if it is ecologically permissible. Raw wood and wood for pulp or particle board is locally marketable. Similar wood from Bulgaria can be bought mainly from neighboring countries. Separately, we should point out that the labor productivity in our timber industry is one of the last in Europe and there is a huge shortage of qualified personnel.
- As a good practice in Europe, the ratio of 80% wood yield to forest growth is confirmed. However, only 50-55% are mined in Bulgaria... Why?
- Such a statement is not true. The latest estimate of use at the EU level is 65% of the annual increase, with countries with a warmer and drier climate - I mean countries like Greece, Italy, Cyprus - consuming much less. Forestry is a regional science - and this is taught in the first lecture at the university. The same measures cannot be used in humid alpine and boreal forests and also work in dry sub-Mediterranean and Mediterranean oak forests. Separately, it is debatable whether 50-55% of the increase or 75% is extracted in Bulgaria. Officially published data is questioned even by colleagues who work in the forest system. Until a national forest inventory is conducted at least twice across the country, all numbers related to growth and use should be viewed with some skepticism. Bulgaria remained the last country in Europe without a national inventory, which shows that someone purposefully wishes not to know the real stock and the real amount of wood use. A possible increase in the use of the Bulgarian forests would be beneficial only for certain business companies, which will increase their profits, but not for the forest system and society as a whole.
- The Association of Wood Users claims that for the first time the growth in the forests is beginning to decrease and this is dangerous for Bulgaria...
- This is also not true, because the increase has started to decrease since 2000 and this is normal - finally our forests become middle-aged over 50 years. Growth is greatest in young forests. If we cut down a forest now, it will have peak growth in 20 years, but is that what we want - young forests that do not fulfill any of the basic ecological and economic functions? For more than a century, foresters have been trying to increase the average age of the forests in Bulgaria, so that our society can enjoy all the benefits of the old forests. It is very strange how now suddenly someone decides that we need to rejuvenate our forests by logging and explains how for a century all the foresters were wrong?
- Should the wood be used for electricity production, as the ABPD consultants recommend?
- The idea that using wood for electricity production is carbon neutral and good for the climate - is not true. For today, whether the carbon dioxide emitted by the thermal power plant comes from coal or wood does not matter at all - it accelerates climate change. If you burn a 100-year-old forest today, the carbon dioxide from the burning will be absorbed, and again in 100 years, that's when the neutrality of the wood as an energy source will emerge. From the point of view of the climate, it is more profitable for the wood to remain in the forest or to be used for products lasting more than 10 years, such as furniture or in construction.
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Neli Doncheva - head of the "Forests" program, WWF-Bulgaria. He has also been working at WWF since 2008, and since 2012 he has been the head of the forestry program. She graduated from SMG in 1992, Forestry University - specialty "Forestry" in 2007. She worked at the Vitosha DPP, international projects of the UNDP and the World Bank. He has experience in the field of sustainable forest management, international FSC certification, protected areas and biodiversity.