Dig in!

Independent environmentalists do not believe in the authorities’ ability to prevent new forest fires

A change in the leadership of the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz) and the reassignment of the agency directly to the head of government, Vladimir Putin, will not allow Russia to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic fires that engulfed the entire European part of the country last summer. The tragedy can only be prevented by radically amending the current Forest Code, restoring forest areas and developing a global system for preventing forest fires, ecologists from Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Green Russia, as well as the environmental human rights group said yesterday at a specially convened press conference Bellona Center. However, independent ecologists do not believe in the ability of the authorities to make quick and correct decisions and advise people to prepare for the coming summer as soon as possible, relying only on their own strength: putting together volunteer fire brigades and digging in villages and towns.

According to the general opinion of the “greens,” federal officials are to blame for the fact that the situation with forest fires last summer got out of control and took tragic forms, who at one time insisted on the adoption of the “pest” Forest Code, which finally eliminated the forestry system and made Russian forests are virtually ownerless.” “It wasn’t the heat that set the forests on fire; the forests were set on fire by the State Duma,” said former adviser to President Yeltsin, representative of the Yabloko party, academician Alexei Yablokov. However, the “strange” policy of the authorities in relation to forestry is not limited to the code adopted in 2006. According to Mr. Yablokov, the liquidation of forest districts as an immutable link in the forest protection system began when “40 thousand foresters were deprived of the right to draw up protocols on administrative violations.” “Only 400 major officials in regional centers could draw up protocols on illegal logging. But hopes for a smart, kind tenant were not justified,” Mr. Yablokov criticized the authorities.

The head of the forestry program of Greenpeace Russia, Alexey Yaroshenko, believes that the measures taken by the Russian leadership in hot pursuit of the fires clearly do not correspond to the scale of the problems faced by the domestic forestry industry. Let us recall that in August 2010, Vladimir Putin dismissed Alexey Savinov from his post as head of the forestry agency , appointing his deputy Viktor Maslyakov as head of Rosleskhoz. The prime minister reassigned the department itself to the government, announcing the need to amend the Forest Code. And although on Wednesday the State Duma adopted the first package of changes to the LoC, Mr. Yaroshenko is sure that this is clearly not enough. Firstly, according to him, replacing “one person, far from the forest, with another, no less distant, will not solve the problem.” And secondly, the authorities have not yet decided to take drastic measures - the restoration of forest services and a significant increase in their funding. In addition, Mr. Yaroshenko recalls, it is still not known for certain how many forests burned out during the “fire period.” The “greens” consider Rosleskhoz’s data on 1.2 million hectares of burned forests to be unconvincing. “Of course, more burned: according to our estimates, at least 7-8 million hectares,” said a Greenpeace representative.

“Realizing all this,” Mr. Yaroshenko concludes, “it is already possible to predict that the extremely slow bureaucratic machine will not be able to correct the situation until the beginning of next summer, and Russia may face a repeat of the catastrophe that it faced this year.” . Ordinary people in this situation, environmentalists advise, need to take care of themselves and not wait for help from the authorities. “Dig in your towns and villages, create fire brigades,” advised Alexey Yablokov.

Vyacheslav KOZLOV