Forest Law

Forestry laws govern activities in designated forest lands, most commonly with respect to forest management and timber harvesting. Ancillary laws may regulate forest land acquisition and prescribed burn practices. Forest management laws generally adopt management policies, such as multiple use and sustained yield, by which public forest resources are to be managed. Governmental agencies are generally responsible for planning and implementing forestry laws on public forest lands, and may be involved in forest inventory, planning, and conservation, and oversight of timber sales. Broader initiatives may seek to slow or reverse deforestation.

When laws are successfully enforced, they prevents “forest clearing, logging, hunting, and collecting vegetables” and usually helps the forests resources that are involved stay protected. there are no clear boundaries when it comes to the laws surrounding “allowable cuts, harvesting rotations, and minimum harvesting diameters”. Many legally authorized approaches to making up a forest management plan already assume that ecosystems within a forest are holding a steady state, and not holding together by the forest in which surrounds them. Theoretically, foresters are supposed to make management plans that account for each differentiated forest itself. Many foresters who are in third world countries, unfortunately, do not have the knowledge nor training to follow by all the guidelines when making a management plan.

Appropriate public policies and legislation are essential requirements for sustainable economic and social development in rural and urban areas, for safeguarding the environment in which we live, and for protecting flora, fauna and the cultural heritage. Environmental protection has traditionally been an element of forestry, both in its emphasis on conserving forests and their natural character and in accounting for environmental impacts outside the forest, especially on soil and water. Still, this was normally within the framework of forests as a productive asset managed by production specialists. In recent years a series of influences primarily from outside the forest sector has had a substantial impact on the objectives of forestry and on the contents of forest law. In common with other sectors, forestry has been profoundly affected by the emergence of environmental awareness and by environmental legislation in the last generation. The greening of forest law has brought greater emphasis on non-financial values, including the protection of wilderness and aesthetic values. To the general environmental influences on forest law have been added two very specific influences: biological diversity and climate change. In general terms, biological diversity is appearing in national laws as a value to be protected in forest management. In some cases it is to be taken into account when forest management plans are drawn up. Where criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management exist, biological diversity is represented Climate change is now entering forest vocabulary and legislation, especially with the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. General references place mitigating climate change among the objectives of forest law and policy. This complements broader climate policies and programs. As Rosenbaum and colleagues point out, however, there is little legislation containing specific provisions for mitigating forest-based climate-change.

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