Once again about the felling of New Year's fir trees and pines
The Miory District Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection reminds that in accordance with Article 77 of the Forest Code of the Republic of Belarus, legal entities (including legal entities engaged in forestry) and individual entrepreneurs may harvest coniferous New Year trees only on the basis of a forest ticket within the forest fund plots allocated to them. It should be noted that in accordance with Article 80 of the Forest Code of the Republic of Belarus, the harvesting of coniferous trees, including New Year trees, is carried out on specially created forest plantations for growing coniferous New Year trees, as well as during all types of logging from among trees that are not subject to preservation after logging in accordance with permits and the Rules for Logging in the Republic of Belarus.
Also, according to Part 6 of Article 45 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Plant World", the harvesting of wild plants and their parts, including New Year's fir trees, pines, and their branches, is prohibited within settlements.
Citizens can purchase a forest beauty at a Christmas tree market or at the nearest forestry.
It should be remembered that in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses, for illegal logging, or damage to the point of cessation of growth, or destruction of woody and shrub vegetation in protected, recreational and health-improving, and protective forests, citizens may be fined from 5 to 30 basic units, individual entrepreneurs – from 20 to 200, and legal entities – from 50 to 300. In operational forests of the forest fund, for similar offenses, fines of up to 20 basic units are provided for citizens, for individual entrepreneurs from 10 to 150, legal entities – from 20 to 200, and for illegal removal, seizure of woody and shrub vegetation growing outside settlements, not part of the forest fund, citizens may be fined up to 20 basic units, individual entrepreneurs from 5 to 50, and legal entities – up to 100. For illegal removal of woody and shrub vegetation within settlements, or damage to such vegetation or its destruction, administrative responsibility is provided in the form of a fine for citizens in the amount of up to thirty basic units.
In addition, for each illegally cut New Year tree with a stump diameter of up to 12 cm, the perpetrators will be obliged to compensate for the environmental damage caused in the amount of 0.2 basic units, depending on the place of the offense, as well as the cost of the tree itself if it cannot be seized – 1 basic unit. A person who has committed the illegal removal of a plant specimen within a settlement will have to compensate for the environmental damage caused in the amount of 2 basic units or more for each coniferous sapling (depending on the trunk diameter of the felled sapling).
Territorial bodies of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, forestry workers, together with law enforcement officers, will organize monitoring activities in the pre-New Year period to inspect forest fund areas and coniferous plantations in order to prevent and suppress possible cases of illegal logging.