The law on sustainable exploitation of forest products and recommendations for improvement

Abstract

For sustainable development of forest resources, the 2017 Law on forestry  and its guiding documents have shown a new perspective on exploitation of forest products towards sustainability. However, certain limitations of the current law and its practical implementation that may affect the quantity and quality of forests, especially natural forests still remain. The paper assesses the current law on sustainable exploitation of forest products and its practical implementation through the following groups of legal provisions on 1) complete ban on the exploitation of forest products; 2) exploitation of forest products in special-use forests; 3) exploitation of forest products in protection forests; 4) exploitation of forest products in production forests. On that basis, the paper offers recommendations to improve the law and enhance the efficiency of law enforcement in this area, ensuring  the consistent and effective implementation and enforcement of the law on sustainable exploitation of forest products in practice.