Berovo, Macedonia

When I saw the statistics about how much wood is used in Macedonia annually for heating, I was shocked! In year 2016, a little bit over 2million cubic sq. m. of wood was used. 600K came from government suppliers (eg.state owned forests), 250k from private owned forests and 150k from corporate “Parkovi i Zelenilo”. The question is, were did the remaining 1.1M came from?! The answer is, from wild forest cutting, a black business that is sadly still flourishing in Macedonia. Me and @editcseritapshanov are currently in the Maleshev Mountains near Berovo, Macedonia for hiking and landscape photography. While trekking today we spotted this exhausted horse near two lumber wagons, one already stocked with logs and the other one was being filled up. We heard the forest criminals, working at large with chainsaws in the dense forest not far from the carriage. Sad story to witness.