OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin chaired a State Council Presidium meeting on strengthening the timber sector of the Russian Federation.

The issues discussed include different aspects of state policy on the use, protection and rehabilitation of forests, the development of the timber industry and forest management.

Before the meeting, the President learned about the work of a number of logging and timber processing companies.

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Opening remarks at the State Council Presidium meeting on strengthening the timber sector of the Russian Federation

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues,

The theme of our meeting today is strengthening Russia’s timber complex. As we know, Russia is the largest producer of timber products, and it is the highest forest cover country.

Forests cover 69% of its territory, which is a quarter of global forest cover. Russian forests are the most powerful green lungs of the earth, the most powerful green lungs of the planet. We can say that this is a key factor in maintaining the environmental balance of the planet.

This global importance of Russian forests augments our responsibility for its preservation and reproduction, especially as it is an ecological framework for the whole world, an enormous economic resource that is essential for economic growth and the prosperity and health of our citizens.

Today let us look at how we manage this resource. The State Council working group has issued a report that contains a detailed analysis of the timber industry. I will focus only on some important points.

Of key importance are the protection, conservation and rehabilitation of forests. I must say that today we do not have full and most importantly, reliable information about the amount and the quality of forest resources. Such information is available only on 19% of forest areas. One of the reasons for that is the protracted process of forest management decentralisation.

Under the new Forest Code, the responsibility for the protection and rehabilitation of forests has been transferred to the constituent entities of the Federation, but most regions did not tackle the development of forest plans with due attention and based them on generally outdated approaches. This has had some grave consequences.

The funding for forest management has decreased to a minimum, including for the assessment and management of forest lands. It became necessary to renew federal funding. In 2012, 300 million rubles [USD 10 million] were allocated for this purpose. As a result, work was conducted on 15 million hectares, which is slightly more than 1% of all Russian forests.

That is a very small share but before we increase the funding, we must analyse the use of the funds that have already been distributed and whether they were spent on top priority tasks.

The low level of forest management is due to the reduction by seven times the number of people employed in this sector. Their average age is close to 60. We must take measures that encourage the inflow of young professionals in the industry. I should add that the number of fire protection personnel has decreased by 4.6 times compared to 2005.

I will come back to this matter but let me just say that I just visited two small timber companies, and no fire fighting services available to them at all except their own resources. They run around themselves, and that’s all the fire fighting services they have.

Dogmatism and corruption are thriving in forestry management because of the short-sighted, ill-conceived financial, staffing and management decisions. All this leads to the deterioration in the environmental safety and reduction in the forest area available for felling.

The imbalance between forestry and timber industry has not been addressed. Currently 20% of the forests have been leased for harvesting and processing timber. Moreover, the auctions’ organisation is not transparent. They are primarily won by companies close to the authorities and intermediaries. People living near forests often cannot lease them for their own needs and at an affordable price. They have to beg the local authorities, grovel, run around different offices and overpay. All of this is simply a manifestation of despotism.

At the same time, the tenants do not always fulfil their contractual obligations, to put it mildly. The felling sites often look lamentable: there is abandoned bark, branches and land scarred by heavy vehicles. Incidentally, we will talk about the transport and the roads separately. The leasing term (49 years) means that only one harvest of timber can be collected, and after that it is not clear what to do.

The forest must also be protected from illegal logging. In the past five years, it has increased by 66%, its volume is still huge, and there is no problem selling the stolen timber at all. Such illegal logging sites are identified only when 60% of the trees are felled, whereas regions with intensive logging have 30% on average, but this information is incomplete. I think the real figures are actually even lower.

It turns out that the Federal Agency for Forestry and a number of regions have been submitting intentionally misleading information. The law enforcement agencies have been ineffective and sometimes they do nothing at all. Let us now discuss all these issues.

First of all it is crucial to establish an accurate monitoring system and introduce more severe penalties for those who are brutally destroying the forests. I can tell you that in 2012, more than 7,000 people have been charged with criminal and administrative offences for illegal logging. The damage amounted to 10 billion rubles [USD 33 million], and only 2% of that amount was recovered.

Colleagues, we must recognise that the enormous economic potential of the forest sector remains unused. Its contribution to the GDP is declining. For example, it was 2.3% in 2003, and only 1.6% today. At the same time, we have every opportunity to increase the state revenues by several times.

Our key tasks are to facilitate the establishment of timber processing enterprises, increase the capacity of the national timber and paper industry to make full use of low quality timber and waste materials, and begin the implementation of biotechnology projects.