Legal axe on chainsaw registration
President's tree-saving directive draws mixed reactions; questions over legality
President Maithripala Sirisena’s move to register chainsaw owners to prevent illicit tree felling has set off a chain reaction. Legal experts said yesterday that there were no provisions in the law to force owners to register their chainsaws with police stations. Even those who have not challenged it but have taken their chainsaws to police stations are mainly legitimate users such as building contractors and furniture manufacturers.
Jagath Gunawardena, a lawyer specialising in environment laws, said the Forestry Conservation Ordinance had no provision to require registration of chainsaws. If, indeed, a provision was necessary, there was the need to introduce regulations for this purpose, he told the Sunday Times.
A senior police officer said that, like in the case of those possessing illegal firearms, those using chainsaws for illegal purposes would not register them. “It would only infuse fear in them that they would be liable for arrest if illicit felling is discovered,” the official said.
Police stations countrywide have begun to register chainsaw owners, though the response, according to the senior officer, was not “very encouraging.”
“This shows that those putting these saws to illegal use may not want to do so,” he said.
The registration period was due to end on Thursday, but has been extended until March 15 after it was revealed that more chainsaw owners were yet to register.
Several District Secretaries said they were not in a position to assess the progress as they were not involved in the registration. Some said it was too early to comment as the programme was launched only a week ago.
Hambantota's Additional District Secretary C. A. Suneth Lochana said, since the Police were involved in registering chainsaws, it was only they who could comment on its progress.
He said he believed the move would reduce illegal felling, but it would have been more practical if divisional secretaries had been entrusted with the task of registering chainsaws, since they were used in carpentry, in rescue operations during natural disasters and in removing fallen trees blocking roads and pathways.
Ratnapura’s Div i s i o n a l Secretary Pradeepika Illukumbura said she would obtain a report from police stations at the end of the month to carry out a review, though the divisional secretaries had not been given any mandate under any circular or a relevant regulation.
Puttalam’s Assistant Divisional Secretary S. P. Weerasekara and Ampara’s Divisional Secretary D.M.L. Bandaranayake hailed the presidential directive as a move in the right direction, but they said that to stop illicit felling completely, a comprehensive national plan was needed.
Environmental Lawyer Mr. Gunawardena said that, to regulate chainsaws, regulations needed to be introduced under a relevant provision of the Forestry Conservation Ordinance.
“When there are easier means of regulating chainsaws, why should we complicate the process? We don’t need to spend more time on bringing new laws,” he said.
Mr Gunawardena, however, said the registration could help in the prosecution of illegal loggers as there would be records on chainsaws and their locations.
“It will help to track down illegal loggers. Besides, it will also deter owners from lending their machines for illegal activities,” he said.
A senior Defence Ministry official who did not want to be named acknowledged that there were no legal provisions with regard to chainsaw registrations. He admitted that the programme was launched in a hurry and brought under the Defence Ministry following instructions from the President.
Recalling that it was during a public meeting on February 12 that the President called for a registration of chainsaws as a measure to curb illicit felling, he said the Defence Ministry scurried to come up with a registration process to be undertaken by the police.
To give a legal effect to the registration process, moves were underway to draft laws under the supervision of the Defence Ministry Secretary, the official said.
Until such time, they expected chainsaw owners to comply with the presidential directive which was published as a newspaper advertisement.
In terms of the directive, the owner needs to fill a form giving personal details such as the National Identity Card number. He will be then given a sticker with a serial number to be pasted on the machine.
The official said the programme was being implemented with the support of 14 stakeholders including the Forest Conservation Department, the Wi l d l i f e Department, the Timber Corporation, the Information Department and the Finance and Mass Media Ministry.
Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry Director Lasitha P Liyanage, who is in charge of forest resources, said the chainsaw registration programme was one of several initiatives the President had launched to protect the environment.
She said the President had issued a gazette notification, making it compulsory to get his approval if more than 300 trees were to be removed from any state land.
Ms Liyanage said chainsaws should be regulated because they were capable of felling a large number of trees – and that, too, much faster.
She said the President’s directive was based on the premise that registration would make it easy to arrest the suspects involved in illicit felling.
“This process will help us to keep a record of chainsaws and identify ownership. It will help the flying squad to identify the owner of the chainsaw if loggers are to leave the machine and flee during a raid,” she said.
Also, when timber was being transported, police and Forest Department officials could check the permits and launch a probe on whether the stock had been cut with a registered chainsaw. Officials could also raid timber mills and stores to ascertain whether a registered chainsaw had been used, the director said.
However the Sunday Times learned that the process had a few flaws. For instance, the suspect could be tracked down only if he leaves behind the chainsaw when forest of ficials or police approach. There are also cases, where some owners rent out their chainsaws. If a borrowed chainsaw is seized by officials, the owner will be in trouble, though he had no prior knowledge that the machine would be used for illicit felling.
Welcoming the presidential move as a positive step forward in the larger picture of illicit felling, environment activist Supun Lahiru Prakash of the BioDiversity Research Circle compared the chainsaw registration requirement to that of a firearm licence. While it is a requirement to possess a licence to carry a firearm in Sri Lanka, criminals still do carry unlicenced firearms.
While the chainsaw registration requirement would deter a few users from using their machines in illegal activities, overall it would not bring about a significant reduction in illicit felling, he said.
Mr. Prakash said that, instead of chainsaws, the laws with relation to tree felling should be the focus of the authorities.
He called for tough new laws and their strict enforcement to curb illicit felling, saying such a process would be far more effective and efficient than the registration process in dealing with the problem.
“Is there no other method than chainsaws to fell trees? Questions such as these could be asked in support of tougher anti- felling laws, which will comprehensively solve most of the downsides of the chainsaw registration requirement,” he said.
Mr. Prakash said licensing of chainsaws would be effective only if the responsibility was bestowed upon an authority who could be questioned if the licensing was not carried out diligently. This would ensure an effort being put into ensuring that this initiative was properly implemented.
Environmentalist Dulan Widanapathirana noted that the use of heavy machinery had made the task of felling trees much easier and, as a result, deforestation was taking place at a faster rate now.
He said that earlier when axes were being used, it would take days or weeks to fell a huge tree, but today with the use of machinery, it would only take a few hours to do the job.
Within a month, as many as 40 trees could be felled with the use of chainsaws in any given area, whereas during earlier times, the loggers would be able to cut only two trees during the same time period.
Mr. Widanapathirana said the problem of deforestation was so rife that at one point as many as 20 chainsaws were being used in the Deraniyagala rain forest. Therefore, serious measures were required to check on illicit felling.
However, he said that instead of laws which scare and force the people into respecting forest life, a love for the forests should be instilled in the people, especially in the village folk who interact with the forests the most.
In Ampara, Chief Inspector D. T. Lasantha said that 50 chainsaws had been brought to the police stations for registration during the first few days and later the numbers fell to five or six chainsaws a day.
Saying that he believed the new measure would reduce illicit felling, the officer expressed the hope that the Police could keep a close tab on chainsaw statistics and take whatever action was necessary.
While it is expected that the presidential move could, to some extent, deal with the overall problem of illicit tree felling, some say chainsaw owners comply with the directive not because they love the environment, but because they do not want to fall into any trouble with the law enforcement authorities.
With there being no specific law to regulate chainsaws, a question arises as to those who do not comply with the presidential directive.
A Badulla police officer said they were merely following Defence Ministry instructions. “With regard to those who do not register chainsaws, the action to be taken will be decided later,” he said.