Environmentalists Stopped Illegal Felling
with the Help of the APIA

A private forester from the town of Elena is being sought after
an inspection triggered by the Association “Veliko Tarnovo for the Forest”

Zdravka Maslyankova

The Regional Directorate on Forests in Veliko Tarnovo, the police and the prosecution are after a private forester from the city of Elena, who has issued permits for felling without being asked to. The issue became public after an inspection triggered by the Association “Veliko Tarnovo for the Forest” and their request under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA).

On January 3, 2013, the private forester engineer Ivan Ivanov issued four felling permits to his colleagues Georgi Ivanov valid for a territory of a private forest over the residential “Kartala” in the city of Veliko Tarnovo. On January 9, an inspection of the felling areas performed by the deputy director of the Regional Directorate on Forests engineer Zorka Ivanova and the above mentioned Georgi Ivanov. The latter firmly stated in his written testimony to the foresters that he has never requested any permits and was not aware of any being issued to him.

“Under the Law on Forests I am responsible and exercise control on the felling till the final inspection of the clearing but I did not know that any permits have been issued to me,” Georgi Ivanov wrote to the Director of the Regional Directorate on Forests.

As a result of the inspection on the issued felling permits by Ivan Ivanov, the Director of the directorate engineer Nikolay Nikolov issued four orders to repeal the.

“The fast involvement of the foresters after we have filed a request under the APIA stopped the illegal felling,” Pencho Panayotov from “Veliko Tarnovo for the Forest” said.

“We learnt by accident that a new felling was to be held in the private pine forests in the mountain above the city of Veliko Tarnovo. We have been fighting for their preservation as protected areas and part of the National Dendrarium “Second Bulgarian State,” including in the court,” Mariyana Ivanova from the association explained giving the background of the APIA triggered inspection.

The Director of the Regional Directorate on Forests Nikolay Nikolov said that the private forested Ivanov is from the town of Elena, but no one can find him.

“We sent by courier my orders repealing his permits, but the documents were turned back because there was no one to receive them. I have filed a request to the police for his search. There are assigned inspections against him for different violations made in Elena. Ivanov is sought by the prosecution as well in relation to the litigation on the forests from the National Dendrarium “Second Bulgarian State,” engineer Nikolay Nikolov explained.

The Association “Veliko Tarnovo for the Forest” said that they are presenting the felling permits issued by Ivan Ivanov to the prosecution.

March 2013

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.