Firewood, 3 loads for each person, supposed to be taken from the dead or otherwise useless trees, and small dimension material is free to all. For the right to cut workwood, the government charges a tax of 25 to 30 per cent. of the value of the material, the price for this being annually determined. On the material cut in private forests, the government also levies a tax of from 12 to 18 per cent. of its value. This pernicious system of promiscuous cutting leads to the most wasteful use imaginable, not only high stumps, but large amounts of good material are left in the woods so that it is estimated that hardly 50 per cent. of what is cut is really utilized. The cut, as far as the tax gives a clue to it, amounts to around 2.7 million cubic feet workwood, but with the firewood included it was estimated that near 90 million cubic feet are cut annually. Importation to the amount of 1.5 million dollars, mostly from Austria and Roumania, makes up the deficit in work material, especially for the box factories which manufacture the packages for the large export of currants, some 2 million boxes. The tax during the decade from 1862 to 1871 produced an annual income of $600,000, a little less in 1895.
The forest has been from olden times, and is now almost entirely, State property (some 80 or 90 per cent.) and in nearly all the remaining, private, communal and cloister property the State has a partial ownership or supervision. The waste land of probably 3 million acres extent also belongs to the State, the whole State property covering over 30 per cent. of the land area.
2. Development of Forest Policies.
A first definite attempt to regulate matters was made by Otho, who being a German, took a personal interest in this forest property, and instituted for each province forest inspectors (dasarchys) under one chief inspector, with forest guards, to prevent devastation by fire and theft. The mistake was made of employing in these positions superannuated Bavarian army officers, who were merely a burden on the treasury. No management or even regular fellings were attempted. The population could, as before, supply its needs upon permits, always granted, from the governor of the province, one of the forest guards being supposed to vise these, and to see that the wood was properly employed, not, however, to supervise the cutting.
In 1877, further legislation was had, instituting in the Ministry of Finance, a forest inspector, technically trained, with two assistant inspectors, also technically trained, to superintend the outside work. A forest survey was begun in 1879, but interrupted in 1880 for lack of funds and personnel. The same law placed the duty of guarding the State property in the hands of the general police or gendarmerie, 50 officers and some 340 guards, and during the fire danger (June to October) 110 more, being detailed for this service under direction of the Minister of War. The pernicious permit system, however, was continued.
Dr. Chloros, who obtained his education in Germany, became finally Forest Director and was responsible for securing further legislation in 1888, the object of which was, as a first step towards improvement, to survey and delimit and round off the State property. It provided that enclaves, and all absolute forest soil was to be expropriated. If no amicable agreement with the owner could be reached, the price was to be determined by the net yield which had been obtained from the property during the last five years, capitalized at 5 per cent. No attempts, however, at an efficient organization or change of the destructive permit system were made.
By general law, the State has the right to surveillance of private property, although the extent of this right is not fully defined. The government may take for its own use, by paying for it, upwards of one-sixth of the annual cut; it collects a tax of 12 to 18 per cent. for all woodwork cut; it forbids the pasturing of woods that have been burned within 10 years, and obliges all owners of over 1200 acres to employ forest guards. This and other interference with property rights naturally acts as deterrent to private forest management. A notable exception is the small private royal forest property near Athens, which, since 1872 under a Danish forester, appears to have been managed under forestry principles.
A thorough re-organization of the forest service was effected in 1893, when 20 district foresters were employed, the number of forest inspectors was increased to four, and a regular Division of Forestry was instituted in the Finance Department. The general police or gendarmerie was continued as forest guards. Until a native personnel could be educated by sending young men to Germany, foreigners were to be employed for the making of working plans.
Yet in 1896, the then Director of the Forest Department, a lawyer, still complains of the absence of a proper organization and of any personnel with forestry knowledge. Apparently no progress had been made. In that year, however, the gendarmerie was to be replaced by forest guards (52 superior and 298 subaltern) who were to be appointed from graduates of a special secondary school, which had been instituted at Vytina some two years before. This replacement could, of course, not be effected at once, since hardly more than 25 men could be graduated annually; hence even this improvement in the lower class police would not be completed for six or eight years. No steps had been taken to educate officers for the higher grades, and in this direction, propositions merely were discussed.