Deputies from the commission increased the limit of firewood for the population from 10 to 18 cubic meters

2023-07-27 10:24:42

On Friday, the bill will be voted on in the second reading

Despite the long delay from the originally announced meeting time of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Forestry, MPs did meet last night to consider the second reading bill to amend and supplement the Act on the forests.

The reason for the late meeting is that in the program of the National Assembly the same bill is included for a second vote in the plenary hall this Friday. This was explained at the beginning of the commission’s work by the chairwoman Desislava Taneva.

The bill belongs to MP Alizan Yahova. It was approved at first reading in plenary last week. The proposed changes concern Art. 111 of the Forestry Act.

In Art. 111, para. 16 in the previous law it is written, that a household is entitled to 10 cubic meters of space firewood.

The committee MPs approved last night the change of the 10 spatial cubic meters to 10 solid cubic meters for a household.

An answer to how many spatial cubic meters of wood households will be able to consume (because sales are most often in spatial cubes) gives an application to ORDER No. 1 of 30.01.2012 on the control and protection of forest territories.

Coefficients for converting the volumes of wood from spatial to dense cubic meters (Title amended – SG No. 66 of 2016)

1. Softwood:

– firewood – 0.60;

– technological wood – 0.65;

– technological shavings, cuttings and shavings – 0.40;

– threshing floor – 0.30.

2. Hardwood:

– firewood – 0.55;

– technological wood – 0.60;

– technological shavings, cuttings and shavings – 0.40;

– threshing floor – 0.30.

3. (new – SG No. 66 of 2016) Technological wood with a length of more than 2 meters:

– coniferous wood – 0.62;

– broad-leaved wood – 0.57.

The calculation shows that if the bill is voted with the 10 solid cubic meters allowed, we have in effect a serious increase in firewood. Namely:

If the trees are conifers, a household will be entitled to 18.18 spatial cubic meters.

If they are deciduous, it will be able to use 16.66 spatial cubic meters.

Deputies did not accept the proposal to drop the certificates for wood extraction by individuals, so they remain.

At the end of the meeting, Blagovest Belev spoke (“We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria”). He stated that inflated quantities of firewood could be problematic. There are 2.8 million households in Bulgaria, and if each asks for 10 solid cubic meters of wood, that makes 28 million cubic meters, “and we harvest 7 million in total together with the industry,” he said.

The chairman of the commission, Desislava Taneva (GERB-SDS), recalled that in the whole procedure there is a reduction factor if the quantities are exceeded.

Rosen Kosturkov (“We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria”) added that no matter how many households ask for wood, it does not change the plans of the forestry companies for felling, so they will have to enter those plans.