Adaptation to EUTR Requirements: Insights from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia

Maja Radosavljević,Todora Rogelja,Branko Glavonjić,Mauro Masiero

doi:10.3390/f12121665

Maja Radosavljević, Todora Rogelja + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121665

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Journal: Forests	Publication Date: Nov 30, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Padua, University of Belgrade

Abstract

Eight years after the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) came into force, its effectiveness is still unsatisfactory due to deficient and uneven implementation among member states. In addition, some Western Balkan countries have poor legality monitoring systems, increasing the risk of trade in illegally harvested timber. Regardless of this, no recent work has analyzed the adaptation of national forest policies to the EUTR obligations. Our study aims to contribute to the understanding of EUTR implementation by analyzing the adaptation of policies of the Western Balkan countries (Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia) to the EUTR. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 policy documents from Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. Documents were coded using coding categories derived from EUTR. Our results point out that none of the analyzed countries have a policy to directly address illegal logging or prevention of illegal activities. As EU members, Slovenia and Croatia has implemented EUTR through laws. The Slovenian Forest Act addresses all EUTR obligations, while Croatian Law on EUTR Implementation does not directly address the obligation of legality. This obligation is addressed by the Law on Forests. As Serbia is not an EU member, it did not implement EUTR. Nevertheless, Serbian Law on Forests addresses all EUTR obligations, but has some discrepancies regarding Traceability obligation. With ongoing discourses on Green Deal policies and the increasing focus on “deforestation-free” commodities, stricter implementation might be expected of EUTR at EU level. Most countries would probably have to build capacities for EUTR implementation and become more transparent and responsible concerning information availability. To successfully implement EUTR, an increased number of checks as well as stricter fines will be needed.

Highlights

Over the last three decades, many efforts have been made to address deforestation and illegal logging
Many reports and studies reveal other gaps in implementation, which need improvements to succeed in a full and effective implementation of the European Union (EU) Timber Regulation (EUTR) [2,4]. They call for the EU to strengthen the EUTR implementation and facilitate the removal of deficiencies, stating that uneven implementation by the member states might indicate that “the fight against illegal logging is not considered a high priority by national governments” ([2], p. 19)
As we were interested in adaptation of policies to EUTR requirements, we identified eight potentially relevant policy documents at the Slovenian national level (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

Many reports and studies reveal other gaps in implementation (i.e., information disclosure, weak sanctions, etc.), which need improvements to succeed in a full and effective implementation of the EUTR [2,4]. They call for the EU to strengthen the EUTR implementation and facilitate the removal of deficiencies, stating that uneven implementation by the member states might indicate that “the fight against illegal logging is not considered a high priority by national governments” They call for the EU to strengthen the EUTR implementation and facilitate the removal of deficiencies, stating that uneven implementation by the member states might indicate that “the fight against illegal logging is not considered a high priority by national governments” ([2], p. 19)

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