The AFG urges the Government to provide more resources to Cultural Heritage to reduce obstacles in forest management.
The Galician Forestry Association (AFG) has just held a new meeting with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, at which it was noted that delays of up to four months continue to occur in authorisations for forestry works affecting heritage assets. In light of this situation, the AFG urges the Xunta to provide additional staff and resources to Cultural Heritage to reduce obstacles in forest management.
Delays by the Cultural Heritage department mean that community woodlands and private landowners have to postpone work such as planting, clearing or pruning for months, which, for optimal execution, must be carried out at specific times of the year, making no sense, for example, for clearances to be authorised after the high fire-risk period has passed.
The Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage reported that all authorisations relating to the Camino de Santiago's area of impact had been processed in under 20 days, but problems persist with other cultural assets, particularly in the province of Pontevedra, where delays reach up to four months.
Aid for forest management in heritage areas The Forestry Association of Galicia emphasised to the Heritage Authority that forest owners are the first and foremost stakeholders in the conservation of heritage assets, but without this entailing an additional burden. For this reason, the AFG has also asked the Heritage Authority to assume the archaeological controls to which private owners and community woodlands are sometimes obliged.
Given the lack of Cultural Heritage personnel to carry out these inspections, another option proposed by the Galician Forestry Association is the opening of a grant scheme to co-finance forestry works in heritage areas, an initiative that was left on the table and which the Directorate General has pledged to consider.
Viewer
Another relevant issue addressed at the meeting is the update to the online viewer, which provides information on the impacts of each forest plot. Patrimonio expects that from the first quarter of 2019 all information on the heritage impacts of each forest plot will be available online.
Currently, the companies contracted to carry out the fieldwork assessing the impacts are defining the comprehensive protection areas and the precautionary areas that correspond to each listed asset.
The AFG has requested that Cultural Heritage avoid and correct errors in the delimitation of properties and their buffer zones, so that the protection assigned to each listed property is appropriate to its actual condition and specific needs.
For example, the Association explains that you cannot assign a generic 200-metre precautionary zone to a property that has roads or dwellings within that perimeter, or where a Municipal General Plan already specifies lower levels of protection.
Informative instructions
Finally, the Forestry Association of Galicia stressed the importance of Cultural Heritage drawing up guidance for private landowners and community woodlands so that they know the conditions that apply to their forest management according to the type of property and the relevant protection or precautionary areas.
The Directorate General has committed to its preparation and subsequent dissemination to the sector. There was also agreement on the interest in producing an information leaflet about the enhancement of cultural heritage and its compatibility, or lack thereof, with forest management.
The meeting with the Directorate General was attended by the Deputy Director-General for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Beatriz González Loroño; the Head of the Heritage Service; and technicians from the AFG and Cultural Heritage.
