The Generalitat has published in the DOGC a new order to regulate the collection of lentisk and heather in Catalonia, an activity that until now lacked a specific framework despite the increase in extraction for commercial purposes. The rule was published this Wednesday and will come into effect on May 19.
The regulation establishes that the collection of these plants for commercial purposes will be subject to a prior notification regime before the forestry administration. An express authorization will not be necessary, but it will be necessary to communicate the activity before starting it and to prove the availability of the land with a permit from the owner.
Prior notice and owner's permission
The order stipulates that only owners of forest land or persons with their authorization may carry out the collection. With this system, the administration intends to regulate a practice linked to a business that has grown in recent years and affects both the lentisk, also known as goat bush, and the heather.
The standard provides that companies themselves develop this activity legally and with traceability. In this way, the Generalitat will be able to know the origin of the collected material and control where the lentisk or heather with which it is worked or exported comes from.
When is it considered commercial collection
The text defines the threshold from which the activity will be considered professional or commercial. It will be so when 50 stems per person per day are exceeded. From that figure, the collection will be subject to prior notification and the rest of the conditions provided for in the order.
The measure comes after episodes of uncontrolled harvesting detected especially in Central Catalonia, where cases of mastic twig extraction have been recorded for hours. In the case of heather, the impact is more concentrated in the Girona regions.
A Response to the Increase in Extraction
The market growth is behind this regulation. Exports of leaves, branches, and other plant parts intended for bouquets or ornamental uses have gone from 1,445 tons in 2016 to more than 9,400 tons in 2024. The Generalitat had already announced at the end of 2021 that it would promote a rule to regulate this activity.
"This regulation is aimed at combating the practice of uncontrolled harvesting and that means in quantity, but also in recurrence" - Jaume Minguell, Director General of Forests of the Generalitat
Minguell has also added that until now the owner affected by this type of extractions did not have tools to act.
"We will be able to regulate and we will be able to control or have sufficient tools to request or report people who misuse or access the farms to extract these plants, whether it is the bruc or the llentiscle" - Jordi Martínez, owner of the cal Llordella farm, in Jorba
With the order coming into effect, the regional administration takes a step to regulate an expanding activity and reinforce control over forest properties, in a context of increased demand and complaints about unauthorized access for the extraction of these species.