As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian State Inspectorate has stated that with the appearance of the first wild spring flowers, and unfortunately owing to their soft and beautiful appearance, people have begun picking them and removing them from their natural, wild environments, which directly affects their sustainability. Therefore, the State Inspectorate would like to remind people that it is forbidden to pick and sell strictly protected species of Croatian wild flowers which begin appearing during spring.
These are snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis L.), sweet or English violet (Viola odorata L.), dogtooth violet (Erythronium dens-canis L.) or snowflakes, which look like larger snowdrops (Leucojum spp.) It is necessary to obtain the permission of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development before any of these can be touched, the State Inspectorate stated.
They added that, in accordance with Art. 64 of the Law on Nature Protection, the decision of the competent ministry must be obtained for the collection/removal from nature of Croatian flowers which are native and wild for the purpose of their processing and subsequent sale.
It isn’t necessary to obtain the permission of the competent ministry for the collection of native wild Croatian flowers for yourself, whereby the collection of these plants for ”personal needs” is considered the collection of up to five individual pieces of underground parts of the plants (bulbs, tubers, roots or rhizomes), or up to two kilograms of stems with leaves and flowers, five stalks (of thumb and forefinger circumference) of stems with leaves and/or flowers, one kilogram of leaves, one kilogram of flowers, or 0.5 kilograms of seeds per day.
A fine in the amount of 25,000 kuna to 200,000 kuna for a legal entity, 7,000 kuna to 30,000 kuna for a natural person and a responsible person from within a legal entity for the taking of native wild Croatian flower species for processing/sale without the explicit permission of the competent ministry shall be imposed.
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