WRITTEN QUESTION E-3324/01

by Patricia McKenna (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(29 November 2001)

Subject: Forest reproductive material registration and protection

Will the Commission take steps to protect the Community seed stands registered under Directives 66/404/EEC(1), 71/161/EEC(2) or 1999/105/EC(3) on the Marketing of Forest Reproductive Materials which currently may be felled without any suitable assessment?

In Ireland, the State Forestry Board Coillte Teo has felled over 1 474 hectares of registered seed stands without any form of licensing which would require individual assessment, although the entire register covers only 3 715 hectares and only 20 % of Ireland's seed is from native sources. Further, by delegating the task of drawing up the national register of basic forest reproductive material required under the Directive to Coillte Teo, the country's largest harvester of timber, Ireland's practice is not in accordance with the Directives which specifically exclude any legal person or its members from maintaining the seed stand registers if they could derive financial gain from the measures it takes under the Directives.

Would the Commission, therefore, take steps to ensure that the native seed stands in every Member State that receives EU funding for afforestation, including Ireland, are registered under the Directive only by independent qualified parties and that, once registered, any felling is prohibited without suitable assessment and the attachment of necessary conditions to respect the purpose of the Directive?

(1) OJ B 125, 11.7.1966, p. 2326.

(2) OJ L 87, 17.4.1971, p. 14.

(3) OJ L 11, 15.1.2000, p. 17.

Supplementary answergiven by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(9 April 2002)

Council Directives 66/404/EEC of 14 June 1966 and 1999/105/EC of 22 December 1999 on the marketing of forest reproductive material laid down the requirements which must be met for the approval, by the competent official bodies in the Member States, of basic material such as the registered seed stands referred to by the Honourable Member.

These Directives also stipulate that only approved basic material is used for the production of forest reproductive material qualified for marketing within the Community. The approved basic materials must be included in a national register for the various species.

After approval, the basic material shall be re-inspected at regular intervals, and the approval shall be withdrawn if the Community requirements for approval are no longer met.

However, there are no Community rules aiming at general conservation or maintenance, or at specific exploitation, of approved basic material, nor on the withdrawal of the approval on grounds other than the aforesaid one. Member States may in principle decide, with due respect to property rights, that approved basic material should be removed or destroyed, e.g. on plant health grounds. This applies also to plant genetic resources for which there is an interest of conservation in situ and sustainable use through growing and marketing. In this respect, the Commission may, under the said Directives, facilitate such type of conservation for related basic materials through exemptions from certain requirements for the marketing of reproductive material, but the selection for conservation falls under the responsibility of the Member State concerned.

Therefore, under current Community law, the Commission cannot take steps to protect registered seed stands.