ZAGREB, October 4, 2019 - A protest for the protection of forests will be held on Saturday, October 5, when an alert will be simultaneously sounded at noon on Zagreb's Mt. Medvednica, Mt. Fruška Gora in Serbia, and Mt. Durmitor in Montenegro, the Zeleni Odred (Green Squad) Croatian nongovernmental organisation said.

Three nongovernmental organisations, Zeleni Odred from Croatia, Čuvari/ke Fruške Gore (Guardians of Fruška Gora) from Serbia and the Coalition for the Sustainable Development of Montenegro, signed an international agreement on cooperation in the protection of forests in Ruma, Serbia, on September 14.

The protest on Mt Medvednica will be held at the Risnjak climbers' lodging.

"Serious disruptions of the forest structure and stability are dangerous. Forest protection is usually needed when forest management is jeopardised, when the use of valuable forest products in under threat," says Zeleni Odred, which claims that not enough is being done to protect forests in Croatia.

Such trends have been present for years and the situation is the same in neighbouring countries, the activists claim.

They recall that they have been working for the last year and a half on collecting evidence on who is responsible for the poor state of Croatian forests and that a lawsuit will soon be completed.

"The names of the politicians, corrupt employees of the Hrvatske Šume forest management company, the owners of sawmills and corrupt police officials in some communities are on a list that has been submitted to judicial institutions," the activists say, noting that in a discussion on an EU forest strategy at the start of this year, Croatia was mentioned, along with Romania, in the negative context of illegal logging.

More news about environmental protection can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, August 24, 2019 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday visited the Vrbovsko-based Cedar timber factory and said that it was important for the region of Gorski Kotar to have such businesses that can create jobs and generate economic growth.

"I am confident that the activity of Cedar, fully export-oriented company, will contribute to Vrbovsko, Gorski Kotar and parts of Lika," Plenković said after he toured the company's compounds, which include the state-of-the-art hardwood processing plant under construction, and other units as well as the biomass co-generation plant.

We have seen the modern factory which does business according to the best technological standards, Plenković said.

He added that he expected good cooperation between this company in the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar and the state-run national forest management company "Hrvatske Šume".

The premier recalled that the government had made great headway with the legislation on the mountainous and hilly regions and on the regions entitled to special state aid.

The Cedar director Darko Prodan said that with the completion of the hardwood processing plant, this factory would be one of the top companies in that segment in Europe. Currently, some 350 people are on Cedar's payroll.

Cedar has to date invested more than 70 million euro in its capacities, and the total value of the whole investment stands at 100 million euro.

Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said that the ministry would work on making sure that as much raw material as possible be directed to timber factories with higher levels of finished products.

More business news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, March 30, 2019 - About 200 citizens, organised by the Green Squad, the environmental forum of the war veterans' organisation Vidra, rallied in St Mark's Square in Zagreb on Friday to draw attention to excessive deforestation in Croatia, accusing several ministries, private and public companies and leading politicians in the last 20 years of ecocide.

Protesters said that in the last nine months they had gathered sufficient evidence of "the appalling devastation of forests", which they included in a 400-page complaint addressed to the State Attorney's Office, the Office for Prevention of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK), the Human Rights Ombudsman and EU institutions.

"Forests are literally disappearing before our very eyes," Green Squad leader Vesna Grgić said, adding that "the scandalous Forests Act even encourages forest cutting, and all this in the race for profit because wood is scandalously cheap."

Grgić said that one cubic metre of wood cost 300 kuna (40 euro) in Croatia and 120 euro abroad. She said that the damage done to Croatia was estimated at two billion euro and that those responsible should be brought to account.

"This is ecocide, and ecocide is a crime. That's why we have every right to call it a joint criminal enterprise and we have evidence to prove it," Grgić said.

More news about environmental protection in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, March 1, 2018 - The Croatian government on Thursday sent to the parliament a new draft act on forests whereby the duration of time for conversion of the forest land that was consumed by fire into construction zone will be extended from the current five years to ten years.

As the International Day of Forests will be marked on March 21, 2016, Sustainable Island officially closes its Dalmatian Pine replanting project on Hvar.