Restitution of forest property in post‐communist Bulgaria

Caedmon Staddon

Natural Resources Forum, 2000, vol. 24, issue 3, 237-246

Abstract: After ten years of post‐communist transformation, the current Bulgarian Government has only recently initiated the task of wholesale reform of the communist‐era structures extant within the forestry sector. This is an unavoidably complex process, involving the reorganisation of tenure over forest resources (restitution to pre‐communist era owners), the privatisation and decentralisation of commercial and related activities in the woods, the redefinition of the role of the State in oversight, management and planning, and the development of a supportive institutional context for the growth of small and medium private enterprise throughout the forestry production process. This paper discusses the legal, institutional, economic and environmental implications of forest restitution. The author argues that the particular Bulgarian solution to the reform of forestry tenure structures, based on a mix of private and public ownership, arises out of the crucible of Bulgarian historical geography and the requirements of contemporary neoliberal models of transition. On the basis of the analysis, a number of important implications for Bulgarian, and indeed all post‐communist forestry sectors, are raised for major related processes, such as the development of a robust private forestry sector, the limitation of the role of the State to conservation, management and oversight, and the reconfiguration of timber as a resource for local economic development.

Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2000.tb00947.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:natres:v:24:y:2000:i:3:p:237-246

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Natural Resources Forum from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().