Environmentalists are outraged by the plans of the Ministry of the Environment: “The forest will become wood that needs to be taken”

Plans to transform the State Forestry Agency (VMU) into a joint-stock company were discussed last year – according to the original plan, the agency was to be transformed into a joint-stock company (AB) by the end of 2023. It is true that this plan was withdrawn – now it is being considered to transform VMU into a joint-stock company by 2024. the end

Granting the status of AB would mean that the business could purchase company shares and gain much greater influence in the management of the company.

These plans have outraged environmentalists. Here is environmentalist Monika Jotautaitė, who created 17 thousand petition that has collected signatures “Urgently stop and ban clear-cutting of forests”during the press conference held in January, complained that The government’s plan to turn the State Forestry Office into a joint-stock company would officially legalize the treatment of the office as a profit-seeking company, rather than a natural asset to be protected by the state.

Another environmentalist expressed a similar opinion earlier – Chairman of the movement “For Lithuanian Forests” Gintautas Kniukšta.

“Lithuanian state forests today have become a source of profit for several different interest groups. When making significant decisions about the use of all our assets – forests, the suggestions of scientists, the opinion of the public, its needs and the interests of the state are not taken into account. “No one has the right to create exceptional conditions for a group of interested persons to use forest resources for their own purposes at the expense of society and the state,” said G. Šniukšta.

According to G. Kniukšta, the destruction of the trees was the beginning of major negative changes in Lithuanian forests.

“More than 6 years after the forest management reform, we can responsibly state that the non-transparent and incompetently implemented forest management reform did not achieve the declared goals, and the destruction of forest facilities was not only huge, but also a criminal activity, which was influenced by interested representatives of the large-scale timber industry “, said G. Kniukšta.

The Social Democrats do not support the translation of documents in a joint-stock company

The social democrats also criticize the ruling party. The press conference “What will be left of the forest after S. Gentvil’s reforms?” “Girininkija expansion, UABization and other news”, member of the Seimas Kęstutis Vilkauskas complained that high-value state assets (forests) could end up in the hands of the board of shareholders.

“These important things should not be forgotten – when the utility company is converted into a joint-stock company, additional shareholders will appear, for example, companies related to the timber business. Forests are the biggest asset of the state – they are valued at tens of billions of euros,” said the social democrat.

The Social Democrat also reminded that until now the opportunity for shareholders to purchase shares of a state-owned company has not been implemented very successfully. As an example, he gave the largest electricity and gas supplier in Lithuania – the company “Ignitis”.

Although “Ignitis” belongs to the state, the government of S. Skvernelis decided to include “Ignitis” shares in the stock exchange trading list. Since then, 25.01 percent. the shares of the company are owned by private individuals. Despite the millions in profits, electricity prices for residents are steadily rising.

“Who can deny that as and Ignitis in this case, it may not be a state control package in state forests, but a share in the trading list of the stock exchange, citing the fact that Lithuanian forests will be managed more efficiently this way. Shares will be sold, profit and more capital will be sought, instead of more efficient management and preservation of forests,” K. Vilkauskas complained.

“Stop, take a break, don’t make hasty decisions,” the social democrat appealed to the Ministry of the Environment.

Criticizes other decisions as well

It is true that environmentalists and opposition representatives are not satisfied only with plans to turn the utility into a joint-stock company.

“The cutting rate of state forests has been increased, the number of workers has decreased, and there are no foresters left. In other words, now the forester is being driven out of the forest”, said K. Vilkauskas.

The Social Democrats do not only blame the current rulers for these. According to the chairman of the LSDP Environment Committee, forester Algirdas Pieniutas, the government of Saulius Skvernelis in 2017 was also unsuccessful. forest reform was initiated. At that time, the institute of forest managers (the forest manager) was abolished, and the number of foresters decreased by almost half after the reform – out of 337, 192 remain. This meant that forestry increased significantly, while the number of employees only continued to decrease.

“Today, the number of specialists working in forests has significantly decreased, salaries are uncompetitive – they reach around 1,300 euros per hand. Such salaries are also offered by large shopping centers to hall employees”, said A. Pieniuta.

According to the Social Democrat, fewer and fewer young people choose to study forestry, so in the future there will be an even greater shortage of specialists.

“Back in 2013 there were about 80 students studying forestry in one course. in 2020 reached about 10, balanced on the border where the study program was closed.

The Faculty of Forestry receives the same number of applicants as the seminary for priests. And there are about 300,000 forest owners alone,” said the social democrat.

According to A. Pieniutas, despite the loud slogans, the national forest agreement has not really changed the goals of the forest policy.

“This government started very loudly – with such a grandiose project, I aim to basically agree on the forest policy. And what came of it? And nothing. It was clear that if there is no agreement on the use of forests, there will be no agreement on all other points”, explained A. Peniuta.

In turn, A. Peniuta proposes to create a state fund, the funds of which would be allocated to increase the areas of state forests.

“We should provide a fund that we could use to increase the areas of state forests. Why shouldn’t the state be able to expand the areas of its state forests by investing?”, asked A. Peniuta.

Aidas Piguriūnas, a forester who spoke during the conference, a member of the board of the Lithuanian Foresters’ Union, agrees with this idea.

“I fully agree with the voiced idea – we should think about how the state company will be able to increase the forest areas. And these are things that have nothing to do with AB”, said A. Piguriūnas.

The vision is unclear

Speaking during the press conference, the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Green Party, Remigijus Lapinskas, said that he agrees with many of the previously expressed thoughts – he is also not impressed with the work of the ruling party and does not see a clear future perspective.

“I would like to mention that the national agreement on forests is suspended – no vision of future forests is being created at all. The process has stalled, political parties are not signing a half-finished document. We don’t know where we are going.

The Forest Law proposed by the Ministry of the Environment is far from perfect and has been criticized by various experts and interest groups. The reform of the state forest administration is in principle incomplete – its results are not satisfactory. The personal responsibility of the forester for a specific forest area is gone. The above-mentioned chain of conifers has been completely abolished, forestry has been enlarged,” R. Lapinskas complained.

According to the representative of the Lithuanian Green Party, right now is definitely not the right time to think about opening the forest office to shareholders.

“The development of security territories is also not taking place – we are not fulfilling the EU’s vision, to have a certain number of strictly protected territories, certain territories that would perform a protective, recreational function. We see no change or preparation. The forest will become just standing timber to be taken, to be profited from. We forget all other functions of the forest.

It is dangerous, too dangerous to organize the transition of the State Forestry Agency to AB in that swamp,” warned the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Green Party.

It suggests relying on the experience of other countries

Aidas Pivoriūnas, a forester who spoke at the conference and a member of the board of the Lithuanian Foresters’ Union, also does not support the transformation of the office into an AB. According to him, after opening the plant to shareholders, the company would only care about profit, at the expense of environmental protection.

“One has to observe in the public space that AB is a panacea, a salvation from all troubles. If a joint-stock forest management company were to appear in Lithuania, it is quite obvious that its attention would be directed to the generation of monetary returns. Only the economic factor would be satisfactory”, said A. Pivoriūnas.

“Profit generation and supplementing the budget with money from forests is not a value in itself. The value is to ensure the good condition of future forests, to increase the value of forests,” the forester added.

The forester suggests relying on the experience of other countries as well – according to the specialist, forests in Latvia have been maintained by the state AB for 20 years, and the results are not satisfactory.

“Based on the experiences of other countries, we see that it is extremely difficult to balance proper environmental protection together with financial factors. Latvija AB has over 20 years and is still looking for that balance. If AB emerges, we will sacrifice environmental protection, we will overuse nature”, warned the forester.

“Profit generation and supplementing the budget with money from forests is not a value in itself. The value is to ensure the good condition of future forests, to increase the value of forests,” the forester added.

According to the forester, the experiences of other countries also show that it is not at all necessary to leave forest management to a joint-stock company.

“Forests in Estonia are supervised by a public institution. And in Finland, the constitution stipulates that there is a “state special status forest company” – it is untouchable. And you don’t need to look for ways to reform every five years,” the forester explained.