The Parliament renounced obliging private owners to maintain the forests

Barcelona"Cutting down trees is not a crime", said Salvador Illa this Monday in an interview with RAC1. The President of the Generalitat called for a "change of mentality" in forest management and argued that "the forest must be managed". A few months ago, Parliament modified part of a Government decree on measures related to the agricultural and forestry sector. What exactly changed?

The turning point lies in the metamorphosis of article 39 bis.5. The original text of Government decree-law 21/2025 stipulated that forest owners "have the duty to maintain the land in adequate prevention conditions", and allowed for subsidiary execution in an onerous or free manner if not complied with. When the text entered Parliament for validation, the majority of groups agreed to process it as a bill, which opened the door to introducing changes. During the processing, therefore, article 39 bis.5 was reversed so that owners would henceforth have only the "duty to collaborate with the administration to maintain the land in adequate prevention conditions", always counting "on the technical and economic aid established by the administration". All groups except Comuns agreed to the text.

The "express report"

Jessica Albiach's group presented an amendment to roll back this modification that all groups had agreed upon. The text, however, was not approved in plenary because it only received the support of her group and the CUP. Núria Lozano, a deputy for Comuns, explains why they presented the amendment: "We saw that we were going from the obligation of the decree, in a way, to a public handout to large farms." A view that Dani Cornellà, a deputy for the CUP, complements by warning that "what was done was to remove all obligations from the owner and transfer them to the administration." The CUP members rectified their initial position and in plenary supported the Comuns' amendment.

For Lozano, it is a matter of "social justice," as she concludes that "private sector expenses are socialized, but, on the other hand, the profits that originate remain in the owners' assets." Cornellà reinforces this idea about profit and remarks: "We can understand that what is a problem for the owners they cede to the public administration. But if they remain in private hands, they must also have responsibility."

The origin of this change is explained, according to the two deputies, by the influence of private interests. Cornellà recounts that "at first it was sold as if everyone agreed on the modification," but "then we saw that it was a consensus of a specific sector, which is the forestry sector." Lozano corroborates this and details: "The first information we received was that the forestry sector had complained a lot." She adds, in this regard, that the amendment "was proposed by the forestry sector, and the rest of the groups made it their own." Both point to "political pressure on parties" as "the only explanation."

Regarding the process, Cornellà censures an "express committee" where "only the appearance of the forestry sector was approved." Lozano laments the same dynamic: "A kind of wall, where there was a wall that rejected what we proposed," since, as Cornellà adds, automatically "it was said that no more modifications could be made," and any other avenue, according to the Comuns deputy, "was rejected."

The commitment to collaboration 

On the other hand, the Government, the PSC and the employers' sector defend the measure as a "technical improvement" and "necessary". Manel Ezquerra, socialist deputy and rapporteur of the bill, assures that it was only a "legal technical clarification" of a text that had already "been agreed upon", but which, when drafted, left owners "a little helpless". According to him, the initial wording made people fear that "some type of responsibility could fall" on the owner, such as, for example, "an external fire".

Sources from the Department of Agriculture downplay it as a "drafting issue". They emphasize that the Generalitat is committed to a "client policy" in which "the administration must adapt". In this way, private forests will be channeled through a reinforced Forest Property Center, carrying out "administrative simplification", while the general directorate is in charge of public forests. "We accepted this small modification that meant a lot to them", they resolve.

Finally, Joan Rovira, general secretary of the Forest Consortium, celebrates the agreement promoted by various entities. "We agree with both the Department of Agriculture and the different parliamentary groups on the modification of the law". Rovira denounces that "the entire cost of prevention cannot be attributed" to the private sector when it "assumes the cost of management while the benefit is for society". The secretary claims that they agreed to the change to guarantee "public-private collaboration" and boasts: "We are satisfied; it is a precedent that will change the dynamic even at the state level".