Junta de Castilla y León

“Junta de Castilla y León” is the name of the Regional Government. The name of the Regional Ministry related to forests is “Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Vivienda y Ordenación del Territorio”. Belonging to it, the Directorate General on Natural Heritage and Forest Policy (Dirección General de Patrimonio Natural y Política Forestal, former Dirección General del Medio Natural) is the authority on state (region) forests. State forests (82,675 ha) are declared a “public good”, which has a specific regulation in forest laws. They are imprescriptible and inalienable and as such cannot change from forest use to another one. Its uses and harvesting have to follow specific procedures. The management of all state forests and other public usefulness forests (owned mainly by small local public entities) and other wooded lands (1,957,496 ha), including natural grasslands, corresponds by law to our organisation whatever ownership. Moreover, our Directorate General have also the guardianship over the private forests, in order to prevent over-exploitation and irregular changes of land use.

In addition, over all rural areas we also assume the fight against wildfires, the regulation of forests uses, hunting and fishing and the conservation of biodiversity, including protected areas. So we are a wide organisation and only a part of us (not always differentiated from the whole) deals with state forests management.