Título I. Disposiciones generales

By means of this law, reforestation and conservation of forests are declared of national urgency and of social interest, for which forestry development and its sustainable management shall be fostered, through fulfillment of the following objectives:

a)Reduce deforestation of lands of forestry vocation and the advance of the agricultural frontier, through the increased use of land in accordance with its vocation and without omitting the inherent characteristics of soil, topography and climate;

b)Promote reforestation of forest areas currently without forest, to provide the country with the forest products it requires;

c)Increase the productivity of existing forests, submitting them to rational and sustained management according to their biological and economic potential, fostering the use of industrial systems and equipment that achieve the greatest added value for forest products;

d)Support, promote and incentivize public and private investment in forestry activities so that production, commercialization, diversification, industrialization and conservation of forest resources are increased;

e)Conserve the forest ecosystems of the country, through the development of programs and strategies that promote compliance with the respective legislation; and of the forest, in an orderly manner, according to a

f)Foster improvement of the standard of living of the communities by increasing the provision of goods and services from the forest to satisfy the needs for firewood, housing, rural infrastructure and food.

This law is of general observance and its scope of application extends throughout the national territory; it shall include lands covered by forest and lands of forest vocation, whether or not they have forest cover.

Lands covered by forests, whatever their state of growth, development, origin, composition, age and/or function, shall not be considered uncultivated or idle lands, nor shall lands declared as Protected Area by the laws.

The Regulation shall specify the factors and their levels to determine an area with forest vocation.

The sustainable use of forest resources, including timber, seeds, resins, gums and other non-timber products, shall be granted by concession in the case of forests on national, municipal, communal lands or lands of autonomous or decentralized entities; or by licenses, in the case of lands of private property covered with forests.

Concessions and licenses for the use of forest resources, within protected areas, shall be granted exclusively by the National Council of Protected Areas through the corresponding contracts in accordance with the Protected Areas Law and other applicable regulations.

For purposes of this law, the following thirty-two general terms shall mean:

TREE: Woody plant with trunk and defined crown.

PROTECTED AREA: Protected areas are those whose purpose is the conservation, rational management and restoration of wild flora and fauna, related resources and their natural and cultural interactions, which are of high significance for their function or their genetic, historical, scenic, recreational, archaeological and protective values, in such a manner as to preserve the natural state of biotic communities, of unique geomorphological phenomena, of water sources and supplies, of critical river basins, of protective zones for agricultural soils, in order to maintain sustainable development options.

FOREST UTILIZATION: It is the benefit obtained from the use of products or by-products under a technically prepared management plan, which therefore allows the use of the goods of the forest for commercial and non-commercial purposes, under strict silvicultural plans that guarantee its sustainability.

Forest utilizations are classified as:

1.Commercial: Those carried out for the purpose of obtaining lucrative benefits derived from the sale or use of forest products.

2.Non-Commercial: Those that provide non-lucrative benefits; according to their purposes they are classified as:

a)Scientific: Those carried out for purposes of scientific research and technological development.

b)For family consumption: Those carried out for non-lucrative purposes to satisfy domestic needs, such as: fuel, fence posts and construction in which the extractor allocates them exclusively for his own consumption and that of his family. The regulation shall determine the maximum permissible volumes.

FOREST: It is the ecosystem where trees are the dominant and permanent plant species; they are classified as:

1.Natural forests without management: Those originated by natural regeneration without human influence.

2.Natural forests under management: Those originated by natural regeneration and which are subject to the application of silvicultural techniques.

3.Natural forests under agroforestry management: Those forests in which forest management and agriculture are practiced jointly.

FOREST CONCESSION: It is the authorization granted by the State to Guatemalan persons, natural or legal, to carry out at their own account and risk forest utilizations in State-owned forests, with the rights and obligations agreed in its grant, in accordance with the law.

CONSERVATION: It is the management by man of plant and animal communities or organisms of an ecosystem, with the purpose of achieving their productivity and development and even increasing it to optimum permissible levels, according to their capacity and the technology of the moment, with indefinite duration over time.

ECOSYSTEM: It is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities that interact with each other and with the non-living components of their environment as a functional unit in a determined area.

SPECIES: It is a group of individuals with similar characteristics identified by a common scientific name.

FOREST FIRE: A fire that is outside man's control in a forest.

FOREST INCENTIVES: They are all those stimuli granted by the State to promote reforestation and the creation of forests and/or the sustainable management of natural forest.

LICENSE: It is the authorization granted by the State to natural or legal persons, to carry out at their own account and risk sustainable utilizations of forest resources, including timber, seeds, resins, gums and other non-timber products, on lands of private property covered with forests.

PEST: Population of non-microscopic plants or animals which, due to their abundance and relationship, cause economic and biological damage to the forest.

MANAGEMENT PLAN: It is a technically developed program of actions leading to the silvicultural ordering of a forest, with or without market value, ensuring the conservation, improvement and increase of forest resources.

PLANTATION: It is a tree mass; they are forests established by direct or indirect sowing of forest species. These may be voluntary or mandatory:

a.Voluntary: Those established without prior commitment before the competent forestry authority for utilization or for forest incentives for their reforestation.

b.Mandatory: Those established by commitments acquired before the forestry authority. Permanent agricultural plantations of tree species are excepted from this classification and are not considered as forests of any type.

FOREST PRODUCTS: They are the direct goods obtained from the forest. These include the following: round or hewn logs, without any treatment, posts and piles without any treatment; material for pulp, sleepers without any treatment; chips for particleboard, firewood, charcoal, seeds, gums, resins and barks. The regulation may specify other forest products for inclusion in the corresponding lists.

FOREST PROTECTION: Set of measures aimed at the preservation, recovery, conservation and sustainable use of the forest.

FOREST REFORESTATION OR RESTOCKING: It is the set of actions leading to populating a determined area with trees.

ESTABLISHED REFORESTATION: That reforestation in which seedlings or saplings have overcome their stage of establishment in the field and can continue growing, only with protection care.

ARTIFICIAL REGENERATION: It is the reproduction of the forest through processes and care that begin with seed collection until establishment of the plants in the field.

NATURAL REGENERATION: It is the reproduction of the forest through its own natural processes, which may be favored by silvicultural techniques.

REHABILITATION: It is the process of returning a population or ecosystem to a non-degraded condition, which may be different from its natural condition.

FOREST REPRODUCTION: It is the regeneration of the forest either by reforestation or by natural regeneration.

RESTORATION: It is the process of returning a degraded population or ecosystem to a condition similar to the original.

DIRECT SOWING: It is forest reproduction by placing the seed directly in the final field.

INDIRECT SOWING OR PLANTING: Establishment of a forest by means of plants previously tended in a nursery.

SILVICULTURIST: Person engaged in the cultivation and care of natural and artificial forests.

AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS: Agroforestry systems are forms of use and management of natural resources in which woody species (trees or shrubs) are used in deliberate association with agricultural crops or in livestock operations with animals, on the same land, simultaneously or in a temporal sequence.

FELLING: To cut a tree from its base.

CLEAR-CUTTING: The silvicultural method consisting of completely felling the forest cover of an area.

LAND OF FOREST VOCATION: Zone or regions of the country which, due to their geomorphological and climatic characteristics, may have sustainable use in the forestry field.

SUSTAINABLE USE: It is the use of species, ecosystems or other natural resource, at a rate that is maintained in the territorial surface that protects its adequate functioning.

Public Finance;

HYDRIC RECHARGE ZONE: They are surface areas, associated with a determined basin, that collect and allow infiltration of water toward phreatic levels and/or aquifers. The strategic value thereof is identified by the saturation water that is eventually extracted by man for his different productive activities.