The forestry heritage of the Calabria Region is among the richest and most diversified in Italy and plays a crucial ecological role, covering an area of over 650,000 hectares. In this context, the Province of Cosenza plays an important role with over 44% of the entire regional territory hosting over 50% of the mountain municipalities of the Region.
The extraordinary operation of the Forestry Carabinieri
By virtue of this, in recent days an extraordinary service has been arranged by all the Carabinieri Forestry Units present in the area aimed at controlling furtive and abusive cuts and carrying out checks on existing forestry construction sites with particular attention to areas of particular value and to cutting and logging operations authorized by the Calabria Region.
Timber trade supervision and EUTR regulation
Furthermore, a detailed control was carried out to verify and comply with the legislation on timber trade in relation to the EUTR regulation (European Union Timber Regulation) which affects all operators and traders who deal with wood and products derived from it, both from EU and non-EU countries.
Results of control activities and sanctions
Of the 28 checks carried out, 26 were found to be irregular and resulted in administrative sanctions amounting to over 16 thousand euros. The most frequent were sanctions relating to damage, cutting of trees carried out incorrectly, and lack of traceability of the wood.