Areas Reserved for Forests
 

* The Minister of Agriculture may declare any non-privately owned land as a "forest-reserve". He may further, by order, declare all or part of
any forest-reserve a "closed forest area" for the purposes of  protecting endangered trees or for any other purpose.

* The Minister of Agriculture may order privately owned land to be under the protection of a Forest Official, appointed by him, when such action
is in the public interest; or when removal of the trees is likely to  threaten the water supply or damage nearby agricultural land. Such
land is treated as a forest-reserve for as long as the order is valid.  The owner of the land is responsible for all expenses related to the
protection of the forest.

* The following activities are forbidden in a forest-reserve without a  permit:

+ to remove forest products (logs, charcoal, sap or resin, gutta  percha, tree oils, weeds, vines, thatch, leaves, fruit, seeds,
roots, bark, fibers, nests or any other material or parts of  trees and plants; turf, soil, or minerals);

+ to uproot or burn a tree; to remove its bark or damage it in  any other way;

+ to burn grass or to start any fire without taking adequate  measures to ensure that it will not spread; the Minister of
Agriculture may forbid the lighting of any fires in certain  areas or during certain seasons. In addition, smoking is
forbidden in a forest-reserve from the fifteenth of March  until the sixteenth of November each year;

+ to graze livestock or to allow them to enter a forest area;

+ to dig up the earth;

+ to build a dam or otherwise stop the flow of any river or  stream;

+ to live in, or to build any building in a forest reserve.

* The gathering of dry firewood by residents of villages surrounding a  forest-reserve is permitted.

* A Forest Official may grant a permit to remove forest products from a  forest-reserve if such activity will not threaten the survival of the
forest. He may also grant a permit to graze livestock in the  forest-reserve.

* Anyone who contravenes this Law or knowingly purchases forest products  from a forest-reserve is liable to a fine or six months imprisonment.
 

Forest Fires

* Inhabitants of any village within five kilometers of a forest fire are  required to assist in extinguishing it. A person who refuses to
participate in fire fighting efforts is liable to a fine or  imprisonment for fourteen days.
 

Protected Trees

* The Minister of Agriculture is authorized to declare certain trees to  be "protected trees". Trees may be protected throughout the whole
country or in a smaller area, and for an amount of time determined by  the Minister.

* A person may not cut down or move protected trees, olive trees or  carob trees without a permit.

* The following are declared protected trees from 1976 until 1996:
 

In the whole country:

Quercus
Pistacia
Pinus
Tamarix
Arbutus
Salvia
Cistus
Cercis siliguastrum
Styrax officinalis
Phillyrea media
Zizyphus
Populus
Salix
Acacia
Eucalyptus
Casuarina
Grevillea robusta
Cupressus
Laurus nobilis
Ficus carica
Phoenix dactylifera
Ficus sycomorus
Schinus molle
Cadrus

In the north:

Prosopis stepaniana
Poterium spinosum
Zizyphus spina christi
Zizyphus lotus
Retama
Myrtus communis