Article 29 6.

the legality of harvesting operations;

forest regeneration of harvested areas;

that areas designated by international or national law or by the relevant competent authority for nature protection purposes, including in wetlands, grassland, heathland and peatlands, are protected with the aim of preserving biodiversity and preventing habitat destruction;

that harvesting is carried out considering maintenance of soil quality and biodiversity in accordance with sustainable forest management principles, with the aim of preventing any adverse impact, in a way that avoids harvesting of stumps and roots, degradation of primary forests, and of old growth forests as defined in the country where the forest is located, or their conversion into plantation forests, and harvesting on vulnerable soils, that harvesting is carried out in compliance with maximum thresholds for large clear-cuts as defined in the country where the forest is located and with locally and ecologically appropriate retention thresholds for deadwood extraction and that harvesting is carried out in compliance with requirements to use logging systems that minimise any adverse impact on soil quality, including soil compaction, and on biodiversity features and habitats;

that harvesting maintains or improves the long-term production capacity of the forest;

that forests in which the forest biomass is harvested do not stem from the lands that have the statuses referred to in paragraph 3, points (a), (b), (d) and (e), paragraph 4, point (a), and paragraph 5, respectively under the same conditions of determination of the status of land specified in those paragraphs; and

that installations producing biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels from forest biomass, issue a statement of assurance, underpinned by company-level internal processes, for the purpose of the audits conducted pursuant to Article 30(3), that the forest biomass is not sourced from the lands referred to in point (vi) of this subparagraph.

the legality of harvesting operations;

forest regeneration of harvested areas;

that areas designated by international or national law or by the relevant competent authority for nature protection purposes, including in wetlands, grassland, heathland and peatlands, are protected with the aim of preserving biodiversity and preventing habitat destruction, unless evidence is provided that the harvesting of that raw material does not interfere with those nature protection purposes;

that harvesting is carried out considering maintenance of soil quality and biodiversity, in accordance with sustainable forest management principles, with the aim of preventing any adverse impact, in a way that avoids harvesting of stumps and roots, degradation of primary forests, and of old growth forests as defined in the country where the forest is located, or their conversion into plantation forests, and harvesting on vulnerable soils, that harvesting is carried out in compliance with maximum thresholds for large clear-cuts as defined in the country where the forest is located, and with locally and ecologically appropriate retention thresholds for deadwood extraction and that harvesting is carried out in compliance with requirements to use logging systems that minimise any adverse impact on soil quality, including soil compaction, and on biodiversity features and habitats; and

that harvesting maintains or improves the long-term production capacity of the forest.