Skopje, 23 June 2022 (MIA) – The paradigm that our country is abundant with forests, and the often-used maxim that forests are our biggest treasure should be changed immediately, because it’s no longer reality. Our forests are threatened, especially from illegal cutting and selling, Mileva Gjurovska, national coordinator of NCEU-MK and president of the European Movement, told Thursday’s session hosted by the National Convention on the EU in North Macedonia of Working Group 5 – Environment (Chapter 27), titled “Protection of nature through sustainable forest management”. She mentioned the importance of EU’s 995/2010 Directive for the member states that rigorous anti-illegal forest cutting measures are necessary. “We’re still aligning national legislation with the EU acquis. The European Commission’s reports say normative part is satisfactory, but implementation will take more attention, and resources are necessary for all measures and recommendations made on a level of action plans and strategies to be implemented in practice,” Gjurovska said. EU Ambassador David Geer said the key challenges that the EU is facing are the same as those in North Macedonia, stressing the urgent need to change the spirit of the European Green Agreement and the strategies relating to biodiversity and forestry. He focused on the commitment to plant three billion trees by 2030 in rural and urban environments in the Union within the Biodiversity Strategy. It’s a long way there, and so far, he says, about three million trees have been planted. Ambassador Geer also highlighted the EU's latest initiative to restore ecosystems and restore nature across Europe with nature promotion laws. This means restoring forest biodiversity, and its recommendations include reducing pesticide use by 50 percent by 2030 across the EU. Slovak Ambassador Henrik Markus said it is necessary to work more on tourism and to promote the beauties of this country, the beautiful landscapes that are hidden from tourists. On the other hand, work should be done on forest management and especially the collection of waste that is scattered in the forests in the vicinity of urban or rural areas. There must be instruments that would be used locally and the awareness of the local population that they should be the first people to take care of the forests. The debate also included relevant Macedonian and Slovak experts on environment and forestry, university professors, environmentalists, as well as civil society representatives. dk/nn/