DUSHANBE, March 9, Asia-Plus – Draft of new Tajikistan’s Forest Code and a bill requiring amendments to the country’s law on preservation of natural territories and objects in Tajikistan were presented in Dushanbe last Wednesday, March 7.
The event was staged by CARE International, Global Ecology Fund and UNDP CO in Tajikistan as part of the Especially Preserved Natural Territories and Management of Biodiversity of Hissor Range Project. The meeting participants included representatives from Tajik government bodies, international organizations and media.
Alikhon Latifi, the head of Tajik branch of the Regional Ecological Center, telling the meeting noted that that every year, up to 60 cubic meters of trees are cut down in the country in autumn-winter period that cause serious damage to nature.
According to him, both the code and the bill do not meet requirements of Tajikistan’s features and realities. “Laws should be made proceeding from local features of Tajikistan,” stressed Latifi, “Authors of a new edition of the country’s forestry code have just copied it from Russia’s forest code, which does not meet our realities and conditions,” Latifi said.
Participants at the meeting recommended that both the draft forest code and the bill requiring amendments to the country’s law on preservation of natural territories and objects in Tajikistan should be reviewed.
The current Tajikistan’s forest code came into effect on July 1, 1993 and some changes and addenda were made to it in 1997.
