He, together with the Chief of Forestry Service, Pavle Međedović from the Forestry Directorate, visited the Zabljak Forestry Administration where he and the responsible employees and concessionaire Ratko Pelengić, owner of the company "Pelengić trade" and Vukoman Marić, owner of the company “Javointernationalal’, visited Saran and Tepačke forests, which are allocated for the usage by these companies.
Analyzing the existing effects on the use of forests and wood processing by these concessionaires, Anđelic pointed out that the dynamics of utilization and quality of works in the forest, as well as the collection of concession fees are satisfactory, but also added that there is room for numerous improvements especially in meeting the standards on cutting the trees and attracting wood sorting because sporadically, there is visible physical damage to certain healthy trees.
He also pointed out that rural households that gravitate to forest complexes by the concessionaire must show greater sensibility, above all with regard to local employment, repair and maintenance of forest infrastructure and the expected significantly higher finalization of products in the sawmill plant in Njegovudja.
Pointing out further that significant concessions by competent authorities and more responsible use of forests by concessionaires must be established in all concession areas.
"The government has given significant attention to the development of forestry and woodcutting in its priorities, and therefore we need to make every effort to use these valuable resources sustainably. The results so far this year are very encouraging. Montenegro's total foreign trade in the forestry and woodworking sector from January-June 2018 amounted to EUR 27.8 million, up by 1.5% (or EUR 0.4 million) over the same period last year," he said. As he pointed out, the share of wood products in total exports is 6.27, and in total imports 1.28 percent.
"Total exports of wood products with a higher level of processing increased by EUR 0.2 million or by 1.9%. The largest growth in exports was recorded in products: plywood, construction joinery, pellets and veneer sheets. At the same time, exports of firewood marked a drop by 94.1 and untreated wood fell by 60.1 percent. There is a noticeable drop in imports of laminated elements, parquet flooring and construction joinery for one million euros," he added.
According to Anđelić, all these are very encouraging results that were achieved thanks to the measures taken by the Government through the ban on the export of Roundwood and the more efficient use of forests on one side as well as the investments that were made by the woodcutting companies.
"All of these results were achieved in the most complex circumstances facing forest users because the weather conditions for working in the woods were very unfavorable due to the high number of rainy days. Poor weather conditions have further affected the damage of forest roads and in that plan, all forest users have been told that roads must be made in accordance with the adopted standards so they must be brought to a significantly higher level than the existing one," Anđelic said.
He is convinced that a period of significant achievements will be reached in the near future in the sector of forestry and wood processing, whereby the normative change of the forest management and the achievement of generally accepted standards will be sustainable and contribute significantly to the national economy.
Text by CdM, on August 8th, 2018, read more at CdM
