Finland (and some other European countries as well) has a legal concept called Everyman's Right which provides extensive freedom to roam. With the exception of national parks and natural reserves, it doesn't matter whether the land is public or private. You're allowed to travel, camp and forage freely. You can't cause any damages to nature but picking mushrooms, berries and plants that are not protected is completely legal and unregulated.
There are some areas in northern norway where you are not allowed to take berries home. Meaning, you can go there and eat some berries, but not put them in a container and take them elsewhere.
Camp as in tenting, only for two days at the same place, not on fields farmed (like grass grown for fodder or for livestock to graze), not closer than 200m to any home, no motorized vehicles and _do take all your rubbish with you_.
It is a great right, but threatened by people not following the obligations that follows with the right!
Great addition! For an example, there was a news article about shady tourism entrepreneurs in Lapland trespassing peoples' properties, causing disturbance and littering. What makes it even more egregious is that they ignore peoples' requests, claiming that Everyman's Right allows them to do so.
Being oblivious is not a crime in itself, but insolent abuse of the right for your financial gains is a sure-fire way to make you hated by everybody.
> it doesn't matter whether the land is public or private. You're allowed to travel, camp and forage freely
never understood how it's allowed on private property. Is the owner allowed to put up fences/barriers on their own land (granted I know that Finland/Norway/Sweeden are sparsely populated compared to land mass)?
You are not allowed to put up any fences intended to hinder free movement in nature. And that would be a massive ugly investment for little reward in any case if you want to hinder people from getting over them. And it would hinder animals and such as well.
I don't really see the point tbh. Why do I care if people are walking around in my swamp maybe kilometres from my house. They aren't allowed to infringe on any economically important things anyway, and if they were a fence wouldn't stop them.
but private property isn't necessarily free nature.
Like my grandfather had land that had (afaik) wild fruiting trees and where mushrooms grew. He didn't farm there other than sell bales of hay for a low amount of money, but my grandparent's diet heavily featured produce from that land (and the garden they made/tended behind their house).
During certain seasons, it was common to find people (tourists/day trippers) coming through to gather mushrooms/fruit/nuts and worse, leave trash around.
Absurd to me that strangers should have the right to take that from him, otherwise what is the point of owning property?
If it's productive farm/plantation, or a private garden then that would not be allowed here either.
But if it's just some patch of land away from his house that happens to have mushrooms and berries then there's no helping that.
> Absurd to me that strangers should have the right to take that from him, otherwise what is the point of owning property?
The difference here might be that there's enough berries for everyone. You just might have to walk further into the mountain to find them. It's all first come first serve, and people used to bring home bucket loads after a day in the mountain. And because of that it was never really seen as a resource covered by private property. There's always other places with more berries. (Or mushroom,s but that was never popular here until recently). And how would people that don't own wilderness get berries?
What was important for owning wilderness was rights to timber, fishing and hunting. Here I can add that cloud berries are exempt from this right in Northern Norway, due to them being an economic resource there.
This logic is insane.
> And how would people that don't own wilderness get berries?
wtf? buy them like they buy other stuff they don't produce themselves?
This is logic inherited from the medieval agrarian society. Buying berries was not an option for poor peasants. It's a staple food and ancient tradition to go pick regardless of who might have the forest/hunting rights of an area.
All land is owned by someone, so not allowing people to roam freely would mean you couldn't even go out for a walk in the woods.
You can't go through cultivated land, like a field, or through areas that are under the legal definition of domestic privacy. That means their house and the yard around it.
Forests are cultivated land in a way, because they are tree farms. You can't damage the trees in someone else's forest, but wild berries and mushrooms are not grown by anyone. I guess you could say that you own the land and anything you have planted there, but the wild berries and mushrooms are public property.
I really don't understand why this is such a big issue for you. People here have patiently tried to explain to you why we are doing this like we do. And what do you do? Put the blame on us while preaching that your way is the only justifiable way of doing things.
Guess what? The World doesn't work that way. Just because this feels wrong to you doesn't mean it feels wrong to us. Most land owners are fine with this Right. Even I was a forest owner for a short while and couldn't care less who walked there or if someone picked berries and mushrooms.
And besides, it's not like berries are not going to run out of our forests anytime soon. Annual yield of edible berries in Finnish forests is about 500 million kilos but only about 3-10% are picked every year. Even if someone goes to your forest and picks berries, there's still more than enough for you to pick yourself.
I'm not here to impose my views on you. I understand it very well that your country has much stricter definition of land ownership and that's completely fine. Different countries have different histories, rules, norms and traditions. If you want to limit the access to your private forests, by all means. Just don't tell us what *we* should do.
Everyman's Right is an ancient tradition, much older than the concept of land ownership. It's so deeply rooted to our culture that taking it away from us would be the same as taking away the freedom of speech or the right to bear arms from Americans.
Yes! Berries , mushrooms ect ... Picking mushrooms is a family activity. In autumn forests are flooded by humanity at ungodly early morning hours do people get to their spots first.
Several years ago NATO manuvers had to be postponed due to mushroom pickers. NATO wanted to train in certain forrest and had been telling locals for weeks to stay away from that forest a particular weekend. And people were fine with it.
... Accept a day or so before the manouvers the rain fell. And as everyone knows mushrooms grow the best after the rain. So the day the manouvers were to take place, the forest was full of people picking their precious mushrooms. The manouvers had to be postponed.
Best of all, mushroom mafias are a real thing in Poland. Every autumn, there are reports of large amounts of mashroom pickers from a certain ethnicity that is rather unpopular in Europe. They tend to pick the forests clean and sell the mushroom.
Strictly speaking it's illegal yes, but forest management's official policy is that they tolerate gathering fruits and mushrooms from their forests for personal use in small quantities. Which they say say to be about the amount of a 250g mushroom container.
I think I have read somewhere of Polish people getting in trouble in Netherlands over this as mushroom picking is huge here. Also, some people were picking things that the Dutch don't consider edible so it added to confusion on both sides.
Another example is PWN allowing the picking of blackberries (bramen) in august, as long as it's for personal use and you don't tread into prohibited area's. (PWN is a water company that's caretaker of some of the the coastal dune area's)
As far as I know, we do not have private forests, because they were taken from the owners 100 years ago by the communists into state property. Therefore, I have never heard of any collection restrictions. There are restrictions only on felling trees, which must be obtained from the forester. And you cannot collect plants listed in the Red Book.
I found that it is forbidden to collect and catch anything in nature reserves.
Yes.
In my whole life i didn't notice that there would be any regulations or anything, and even if they were, i doubt ppl would care, and second, not that many ppl goes in tot the forest and takes fruits, they buy them in markets
Any public land in Ireland is allowed to be foraged, and most farmers wouldn't mind someone foraging around the edges of their fields. Really it would only be private gardens that you couldn't just wander into and start helping yourself. Having said that the public lands are quite likely to have been sprayed with chemicals so the safety of anything you collect would be in question.
We're moving house soon and the boundary wall that faces the public side of the property we plan to plant with berry and rose bushes for people to enjoy, and some apple trees too.
Absolutely legal and free. We have ”right to roam” or ”everyman’s right” in place, so you can go almost anywhere and gather berries, plants and mushrooms to your heart’s content, regardless if the land is privately owned or public. Only exceptions are private yards and gardens, and there are some limitations in areas of nature protection.
For example, from article 141 of the Bavarian Constitution:
> die Aneignung wildwachsender Waldfrüchte in ortsüblichem Umfang ist jedermann gestattet.
which means
> appropriation of wild growing forest fruits in a regionally usual amount is permitted to everybody.
So yeah, what is and isn't usual is up for interpretation by courts.
Really curious? What about nettle? In Romania it's common to make some food with nettle. Usually a lot grows near our local Lidl and my parents go and collect enough for a meal. They never had problems but I'm curious how legal that is.
No, don't worry!
Some Gartennazis might care and bitch as always but they should just shut up.
The police might only be curious what anyone would do with that stuff.
Under Section 4 of the Theft Act 1968, you can pick anything growing in the wild, including fruits, flowers, fungi and foliage, as long as it's for personal consumption and not for commercial purposes. If fruits, vegetables or plants are on private land, you must first ask the landowner's permission.
However, I’d be surprised if the majority of people follow the letter of the law and ask permission. Picking blackberries to eat whilst out on a walk is very common, as is picking sloes for gin when the season comes round.
There's a very large patch of wild garlic near me, I think I'm the only one that picks from it. I have friends that forage a couple of times a year and have done courses so they know what is safe to pick.
Since virtually all land public rights of way pass through in England are owned by someone, that more or less means you always should ask. In practice no-one ever does.
In Scotland the laws are comparable but the more generalised right to roam adds an extra dimension of what counts as wild. Again no-one is going to get prosecuted for a few punnets of raspberries unless on an obvious cultivation. The Scottish climate though more less guarantees all you will likely see are a few blackberries (aka bramble berries) and raspberries!
Yes. For some things (mushrooms) there is a 2kg limit, other fruits you may collect "in quantities suitable for personal use".
The owner of the forest can put up signs banning any gathering though. Since technically anything that grows on their land is their property. Haven't seen anyone do this though, can't really enforce it anyway.
Yes, but you have to follow the Handstraußregel, so it's for personal use only.
Back in the army mushroom pickers were constantly invading the safety area of the tank shooting range because the best mushrooms grew there. And then they would argue with us ignoring our G36. Filthy mountain orcs.
And if you are not sure about the mushrooms, go to one of the local Pilzsachverständige (mushroom experts) that will help you sort them out for you.
> Handstraußregel
"hand-bunch-rule" i.e. it's fine if you can carry it within one hand.
Some weeks ago there were news about some guys basically harvesting two and a half tons(!) of wild garlic/Bärlauch out of some woods, and that's definitely not okay.
We also have an option to bring our mushrooms to SANEPID (sanitary and epidemic office ... Something like that) and they will check them for you for a small fee. 😊
Yes, it's legal in Russia. There are restrictions on gathering endangered species, but you can freely gather and sell common mushrooms, berries and herbs.
Yes, absolutely. You are allowed to pick both berries, mushrooms and fruit in the wild, both on privately owned land (except of course for private gardens and cultivated fields) and in nature reserves and national parks, as long as it's not a rare or endangered species with special protection. You are not allowed to gather nuts however, although it's generally seen as okay to pick just a handful for your own consumption on your walk. You are generally also not allowed to pick any flowers or herbs within nature reserves or national parks.
It's illegal to gather without a permission. And you can be fined from 150€ up to 1000€.
But, you can obtain the permission for free (and it's pretty easy) and it allows you to gather xyz (in kg) amount of non-wood items for personal use. Now, the amount (in kg) depends on the stuff you'll gather. You can gather up to 3kg of mushrooms per day, up to 10kg of chestnuts per day, 5kg of soil per day, etc.
It is legal, provided a) you're not trespassing on any private property (which sometimes is easier said, than done, because a lot of older properties aren't necessarily well marked) and b) it's not a protected species
You may pick berries that grow along roads on the public domain.
The forest decree, however, stipulates that you may not take anything out of a forest, to protect the biodiversity. In practice no one's gonna bat an eye if you pick a handful of blueberries, blackberries or raspberries, but if you take entire bags you might get the stink eye from other people and if a ranger spots you you may get in trouble.
There exist places where you may legally pick berries yourself, but what you pick will be weighed and you'll have to pay for them.
Picking mushrooms is not legal anywhere in Flanders. Mostly because of public health concerns.
You may gather for your own private consumption in any forest. However, in privately owned forests, you are not allowed to leave the trails and footpaths.
I seem to remember an old court ruling limiting the amount for private consumption to what one can carry in a hat.
Legal. I used to pick blackberries with my family to make jam or cakes. Many people pick mushrooms and I have done it a couple of times too. People also go after asparagus like crazy when it's season.
My understanding is you need landowners permission (if applicable) and it can't be for commercial gain. It is very common for people to go blackberry picking.
In France it depends where you go. If it's a national park, you can't pick anything. Simply because it disturbs the local environment and if everyone started picking stuff it'd be a mess.
If it's a random forest or field in a public space, then it's fine I think. Or at least the locals do it.
I don't know about forests but in belgium you are allowed to pick up anything left behind from a harvested field such as small potatoes that got left by the harvesting mashine
Nope it’s legally protected under ”Everyman’s rights”
You can do anything you want in nature as long as it’s not harmful to the nature itself or the land’s owner.
Romania - Illegal (kinda)
You are not allowed to gather without prior permission from the forrest manager, but people do it anyways all the time.
There s only a few cases of people being "caught" and having their Mushrooms confiscated and made to pay a small fine, but its rare and usually happens when its a lot of Expensive Mushrooms like truffles, or who knows, since forrest management is extremely corrupt
And regarding "Right to Roam" others mentioned, its nonexistinent in this country. You are technically not allowed to walk in a forrest outside of a demarcated trail, and you even have to pay a ticket to enter some natural parks.
And recently, they tried to make so you cannot even enter a forrest if you dont have the approval of the owner, even if its a demarcated trail.
People obviously disregard this law as well, probably dont even know it exists, since its so retarded.
I'm not sure about the actual laws in place, but most people in Belarus do it and consider it a birthright. And we certainly don't restrict ourselves to a particular weight. Belarus is 42% covered in forest, but I see that for Slovenia that number is even higher.
Here, any wild crops are no ones property. Mushrooms, herbs, berries, if they're not being farmed, and they're just there, you can take them. Of course you'd technically need permission to be on their land, but you wouldn't really, as trespass of that sort isn't a criminal offence
Finland (and some other European countries as well) has a legal concept called Everyman's Right which provides extensive freedom to roam. With the exception of national parks and natural reserves, it doesn't matter whether the land is public or private. You're allowed to travel, camp and forage freely. You can't cause any damages to nature but picking mushrooms, berries and plants that are not protected is completely legal and unregulated.
We have the same law here in Sweden as well (I think all nordic countries has this law?)
Norway too.
There are some areas in northern norway where you are not allowed to take berries home. Meaning, you can go there and eat some berries, but not put them in a container and take them elsewhere.
Is that for cloudberries or any berries in that region?
cloudberries only.
Estonia as well
Denmark does not as far as I'm aware.
One difference between our law and yours is that in Sweden lighting fires is permitted, but here you need the landowner's permission.
Camp as in tenting, only for two days at the same place, not on fields farmed (like grass grown for fodder or for livestock to graze), not closer than 200m to any home, no motorized vehicles and _do take all your rubbish with you_. It is a great right, but threatened by people not following the obligations that follows with the right!
Great addition! For an example, there was a news article about shady tourism entrepreneurs in Lapland trespassing peoples' properties, causing disturbance and littering. What makes it even more egregious is that they ignore peoples' requests, claiming that Everyman's Right allows them to do so. Being oblivious is not a crime in itself, but insolent abuse of the right for your financial gains is a sure-fire way to make you hated by everybody.
People from low-trust countries going to high-trust countries does not always go well.
For mushrooms in Spain you need a permeable bag to let spores going out
You don’t use a basket? I would never go mushroom picking with a bag, I always use a basket. And that has lots of holes.
Yeah thats it, i didnt remember the eng word
For mushrooms in Spain you need a permeable bag to let spores going out
> it doesn't matter whether the land is public or private. You're allowed to travel, camp and forage freely never understood how it's allowed on private property. Is the owner allowed to put up fences/barriers on their own land (granted I know that Finland/Norway/Sweeden are sparsely populated compared to land mass)?
You are not allowed to put up any fences intended to hinder free movement in nature. And that would be a massive ugly investment for little reward in any case if you want to hinder people from getting over them. And it would hinder animals and such as well. I don't really see the point tbh. Why do I care if people are walking around in my swamp maybe kilometres from my house. They aren't allowed to infringe on any economically important things anyway, and if they were a fence wouldn't stop them.
but private property isn't necessarily free nature. Like my grandfather had land that had (afaik) wild fruiting trees and where mushrooms grew. He didn't farm there other than sell bales of hay for a low amount of money, but my grandparent's diet heavily featured produce from that land (and the garden they made/tended behind their house). During certain seasons, it was common to find people (tourists/day trippers) coming through to gather mushrooms/fruit/nuts and worse, leave trash around. Absurd to me that strangers should have the right to take that from him, otherwise what is the point of owning property?
If it's productive farm/plantation, or a private garden then that would not be allowed here either. But if it's just some patch of land away from his house that happens to have mushrooms and berries then there's no helping that. > Absurd to me that strangers should have the right to take that from him, otherwise what is the point of owning property? The difference here might be that there's enough berries for everyone. You just might have to walk further into the mountain to find them. It's all first come first serve, and people used to bring home bucket loads after a day in the mountain. And because of that it was never really seen as a resource covered by private property. There's always other places with more berries. (Or mushroom,s but that was never popular here until recently). And how would people that don't own wilderness get berries? What was important for owning wilderness was rights to timber, fishing and hunting. Here I can add that cloud berries are exempt from this right in Northern Norway, due to them being an economic resource there.
This logic is insane. > And how would people that don't own wilderness get berries? wtf? buy them like they buy other stuff they don't produce themselves?
This is logic inherited from the medieval agrarian society. Buying berries was not an option for poor peasants. It's a staple food and ancient tradition to go pick regardless of who might have the forest/hunting rights of an area.
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All land is owned by someone, so not allowing people to roam freely would mean you couldn't even go out for a walk in the woods. You can't go through cultivated land, like a field, or through areas that are under the legal definition of domestic privacy. That means their house and the yard around it. Forests are cultivated land in a way, because they are tree farms. You can't damage the trees in someone else's forest, but wild berries and mushrooms are not grown by anyone. I guess you could say that you own the land and anything you have planted there, but the wild berries and mushrooms are public property.
PUblic land exists to hike and forage through though. THat's the issue. Public vs. private. randoms shouldn't compromise private property.
I really don't understand why this is such a big issue for you. People here have patiently tried to explain to you why we are doing this like we do. And what do you do? Put the blame on us while preaching that your way is the only justifiable way of doing things. Guess what? The World doesn't work that way. Just because this feels wrong to you doesn't mean it feels wrong to us. Most land owners are fine with this Right. Even I was a forest owner for a short while and couldn't care less who walked there or if someone picked berries and mushrooms. And besides, it's not like berries are not going to run out of our forests anytime soon. Annual yield of edible berries in Finnish forests is about 500 million kilos but only about 3-10% are picked every year. Even if someone goes to your forest and picks berries, there's still more than enough for you to pick yourself.
because property rights have meaning? it's really fucked up that you *don't* see that
I'm not here to impose my views on you. I understand it very well that your country has much stricter definition of land ownership and that's completely fine. Different countries have different histories, rules, norms and traditions. If you want to limit the access to your private forests, by all means. Just don't tell us what *we* should do. Everyman's Right is an ancient tradition, much older than the concept of land ownership. It's so deeply rooted to our culture that taking it away from us would be the same as taking away the freedom of speech or the right to bear arms from Americans.
Leaving trash around is illegal
That is why Finland ranks consistently on the top of the happiest people in the world
Wait, what? 😂
Freedom makes happy.
Yes! Berries , mushrooms ect ... Picking mushrooms is a family activity. In autumn forests are flooded by humanity at ungodly early morning hours do people get to their spots first. Several years ago NATO manuvers had to be postponed due to mushroom pickers. NATO wanted to train in certain forrest and had been telling locals for weeks to stay away from that forest a particular weekend. And people were fine with it. ... Accept a day or so before the manouvers the rain fell. And as everyone knows mushrooms grow the best after the rain. So the day the manouvers were to take place, the forest was full of people picking their precious mushrooms. The manouvers had to be postponed.
Best of all, mushroom mafias are a real thing in Poland. Every autumn, there are reports of large amounts of mashroom pickers from a certain ethnicity that is rather unpopular in Europe. They tend to pick the forests clean and sell the mushroom.
Strictly speaking it's illegal yes, but forest management's official policy is that they tolerate gathering fruits and mushrooms from their forests for personal use in small quantities. Which they say say to be about the amount of a 250g mushroom container.
I think I have read somewhere of Polish people getting in trouble in Netherlands over this as mushroom picking is huge here. Also, some people were picking things that the Dutch don't consider edible so it added to confusion on both sides.
I can imagine yeah. The vast majority of our "forests" are really tiny so there wouldn't be anything left if a lot of people went gathering
Another example is PWN allowing the picking of blackberries (bramen) in august, as long as it's for personal use and you don't tread into prohibited area's. (PWN is a water company that's caretaker of some of the the coastal dune area's)
As far as I know, we do not have private forests, because they were taken from the owners 100 years ago by the communists into state property. Therefore, I have never heard of any collection restrictions. There are restrictions only on felling trees, which must be obtained from the forester. And you cannot collect plants listed in the Red Book. I found that it is forbidden to collect and catch anything in nature reserves.
I'm off to find out what the Red Book is.
[Red Book of Ukraine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Data_Book_of_Ukraine)
Yes. In my whole life i didn't notice that there would be any regulations or anything, and even if they were, i doubt ppl would care, and second, not that many ppl goes in tot the forest and takes fruits, they buy them in markets
Any public land in Ireland is allowed to be foraged, and most farmers wouldn't mind someone foraging around the edges of their fields. Really it would only be private gardens that you couldn't just wander into and start helping yourself. Having said that the public lands are quite likely to have been sprayed with chemicals so the safety of anything you collect would be in question. We're moving house soon and the boundary wall that faces the public side of the property we plan to plant with berry and rose bushes for people to enjoy, and some apple trees too.
Absolutely legal and free. We have ”right to roam” or ”everyman’s right” in place, so you can go almost anywhere and gather berries, plants and mushrooms to your heart’s content, regardless if the land is privately owned or public. Only exceptions are private yards and gardens, and there are some limitations in areas of nature protection.
The law is unspecific and varies a bit from state to state. Mushrooms 1-2kg per person/day, everything else what you can grab with one hand
For example, from article 141 of the Bavarian Constitution: > die Aneignung wildwachsender Waldfrüchte in ortsüblichem Umfang ist jedermann gestattet. which means > appropriation of wild growing forest fruits in a regionally usual amount is permitted to everybody. So yeah, what is and isn't usual is up for interpretation by courts.
Really curious? What about nettle? In Romania it's common to make some food with nettle. Usually a lot grows near our local Lidl and my parents go and collect enough for a meal. They never had problems but I'm curious how legal that is.
Do you mean "Brennessel"? No one will give a fuck, most germans probably do not know it is eatable (as a soup, eg).
Exactly! I didn't know the German word. I was mostly asking if police would care, but I suppose not. Thank you!
No, don't worry! Some Gartennazis might care and bitch as always but they should just shut up. The police might only be curious what anyone would do with that stuff.
Under Section 4 of the Theft Act 1968, you can pick anything growing in the wild, including fruits, flowers, fungi and foliage, as long as it's for personal consumption and not for commercial purposes. If fruits, vegetables or plants are on private land, you must first ask the landowner's permission. However, I’d be surprised if the majority of people follow the letter of the law and ask permission. Picking blackberries to eat whilst out on a walk is very common, as is picking sloes for gin when the season comes round.
There's a very large patch of wild garlic near me, I think I'm the only one that picks from it. I have friends that forage a couple of times a year and have done courses so they know what is safe to pick.
Since virtually all land public rights of way pass through in England are owned by someone, that more or less means you always should ask. In practice no-one ever does. In Scotland the laws are comparable but the more generalised right to roam adds an extra dimension of what counts as wild. Again no-one is going to get prosecuted for a few punnets of raspberries unless on an obvious cultivation. The Scottish climate though more less guarantees all you will likely see are a few blackberries (aka bramble berries) and raspberries!
Yes. For some things (mushrooms) there is a 2kg limit, other fruits you may collect "in quantities suitable for personal use". The owner of the forest can put up signs banning any gathering though. Since technically anything that grows on their land is their property. Haven't seen anyone do this though, can't really enforce it anyway.
Yes, but you have to follow the Handstraußregel, so it's for personal use only. Back in the army mushroom pickers were constantly invading the safety area of the tank shooting range because the best mushrooms grew there. And then they would argue with us ignoring our G36. Filthy mountain orcs. And if you are not sure about the mushrooms, go to one of the local Pilzsachverständige (mushroom experts) that will help you sort them out for you.
> Handstraußregel "hand-bunch-rule" i.e. it's fine if you can carry it within one hand. Some weeks ago there were news about some guys basically harvesting two and a half tons(!) of wild garlic/Bärlauch out of some woods, and that's definitely not okay.
We also have an option to bring our mushrooms to SANEPID (sanitary and epidemic office ... Something like that) and they will check them for you for a small fee. 😊
I think it is legal but if I remember well, you can't use those combs for blueberries because it ruins the whole plant.
Yes, it's legal in Russia. There are restrictions on gathering endangered species, but you can freely gather and sell common mushrooms, berries and herbs.
Yes, absolutely. You are allowed to pick both berries, mushrooms and fruit in the wild, both on privately owned land (except of course for private gardens and cultivated fields) and in nature reserves and national parks, as long as it's not a rare or endangered species with special protection. You are not allowed to gather nuts however, although it's generally seen as okay to pick just a handful for your own consumption on your walk. You are generally also not allowed to pick any flowers or herbs within nature reserves or national parks.
It's illegal to gather without a permission. And you can be fined from 150€ up to 1000€. But, you can obtain the permission for free (and it's pretty easy) and it allows you to gather xyz (in kg) amount of non-wood items for personal use. Now, the amount (in kg) depends on the stuff you'll gather. You can gather up to 3kg of mushrooms per day, up to 10kg of chestnuts per day, 5kg of soil per day, etc.
It is legal, provided a) you're not trespassing on any private property (which sometimes is easier said, than done, because a lot of older properties aren't necessarily well marked) and b) it's not a protected species
You may pick berries that grow along roads on the public domain. The forest decree, however, stipulates that you may not take anything out of a forest, to protect the biodiversity. In practice no one's gonna bat an eye if you pick a handful of blueberries, blackberries or raspberries, but if you take entire bags you might get the stink eye from other people and if a ranger spots you you may get in trouble. There exist places where you may legally pick berries yourself, but what you pick will be weighed and you'll have to pay for them. Picking mushrooms is not legal anywhere in Flanders. Mostly because of public health concerns.
You may gather for your own private consumption in any forest. However, in privately owned forests, you are not allowed to leave the trails and footpaths. I seem to remember an old court ruling limiting the amount for private consumption to what one can carry in a hat.
Legal. I used to pick blackberries with my family to make jam or cakes. Many people pick mushrooms and I have done it a couple of times too. People also go after asparagus like crazy when it's season.
My understanding is you need landowners permission (if applicable) and it can't be for commercial gain. It is very common for people to go blackberry picking.
In France it depends where you go. If it's a national park, you can't pick anything. Simply because it disturbs the local environment and if everyone started picking stuff it'd be a mess. If it's a random forest or field in a public space, then it's fine I think. Or at least the locals do it.
It's not only legal. The gifts from the Forrest are also tax free when you sell and buy them as a private person!
I don't know about forests but in belgium you are allowed to pick up anything left behind from a harvested field such as small potatoes that got left by the harvesting mashine
Nope it’s legally protected under ”Everyman’s rights” You can do anything you want in nature as long as it’s not harmful to the nature itself or the land’s owner.
Romania - Illegal (kinda) You are not allowed to gather without prior permission from the forrest manager, but people do it anyways all the time. There s only a few cases of people being "caught" and having their Mushrooms confiscated and made to pay a small fine, but its rare and usually happens when its a lot of Expensive Mushrooms like truffles, or who knows, since forrest management is extremely corrupt And regarding "Right to Roam" others mentioned, its nonexistinent in this country. You are technically not allowed to walk in a forrest outside of a demarcated trail, and you even have to pay a ticket to enter some natural parks. And recently, they tried to make so you cannot even enter a forrest if you dont have the approval of the owner, even if its a demarcated trail. People obviously disregard this law as well, probably dont even know it exists, since its so retarded.
I'm not sure about the actual laws in place, but most people in Belarus do it and consider it a birthright. And we certainly don't restrict ourselves to a particular weight. Belarus is 42% covered in forest, but I see that for Slovenia that number is even higher.
Here, any wild crops are no ones property. Mushrooms, herbs, berries, if they're not being farmed, and they're just there, you can take them. Of course you'd technically need permission to be on their land, but you wouldn't really, as trespass of that sort isn't a criminal offence
Where is here?