Uzbekistan’s Legislative Chamber has passed at third reading a bill designed to strengthen protection of state forest-fund land.
The bill would classify forest-fund land as specially protected. Reclassifying a plot for construction, agriculture, industry or another use would require a presidential decision; the process was previously regulated by a Cabinet of Ministers resolution.
Before the final vote, the measure was combined with a bill covering land leases for non-residents and longer land-use terms. The merged bill received 102 votes in favour; one lawmaker abstained and six did not vote.
A separate law increasing penalties for damage to the forest fund has been in force since June 28. The following fines apply to the unlawful allocation and development of forest land:
- for individuals, 50 to 100 base calculation units: 20.6–41.2 million Uzbek soum, rising to 22–44 million soum from September 1;
- for officials, 100 to 200 base calculation units: 41.2–82.4 million soum, rising to 44–88 million soum from September 1;
- for breaches of forest fire-safety requirements, up to 25 units for individuals and 75 units for officials: up to 11 million and 33 million soum respectively from September 1.
Those fines relate to rules already in force. The new bill addresses the legal status of forest land and the procedure for moving it into other categories.
