The head of the Federal Forestry Agency, Valery Roshchupkin, within the framework of the Ministerial Conference “Negotiation process on problems of law enforcement and management in the forest sector of Europe and North Asia (ESA-FLEG)” in St. Petersburg, said that the system of access to forest resources and the legislation of the Russian Federation in this area is very strict bureaucratic.

He said that in this regard, within the framework of the Forestry Code, the federal agency is changing the concept of a logging ticket to a voluntary declaration of its intentions. “We are going to dramatically simplify the procedure for assessing resources - the position of the forest user and logger will become dominant, although it will remain under the control of government agencies. Many functions can be entrusted to forest users,” said V. Roshchupkin.

According to V. Roshchupkin, to combat illegal logging it is necessary to use not only the levers of power, but also the levers of civil society. In his opinion, the system should be transparent and accessible. Within the framework of the Ministerial Conference, it is planned to develop a unified plan of international action to combat illegal logging, which is planned to be signed following the results of the negotiation process - November 25, 2005.

V. Roshchupkin also noted that Russia will develop its own national plan to combat illegal logging, taking into account the requirements of the international community. To effectively combat illegal timber trafficking, according to V. Roshchupkin, it is necessary to unite supplying countries and consuming countries of forest resources. According to V. Roshchupkin, illegal timber trafficking destroys the balance of the economy. He said that, according to ground-based research methods, illegal timber trafficking in Russia annually causes damage amounting to about 5 billion rubles. As a result of remote monitoring, which is planned to cover the entire exploited forest region of the Russian Federation until 2008, this figure will be significantly higher. “But this does not scare us. Remote monitoring will make it possible not only to determine the volume of logging, but also the specific places where it occurs and those who are involved in it,” said V. Roshchupkin.

As John Hudson, Forest Policy Advisor to the UK Department for International Development, noted in his report, there are common problems around the world related to the lack of property rights and access to forest resources, as well as corruption and ineffective taxation. Solving this problem will require an integrated approach. “The G8 countries should and can pay great attention to solving this problem. Most of the forests grow in the G8 countries, it is obvious that these countries have great influence,” said D. Hudson.

V. Roshchupkin: Access to forest resources of the Russian Federation is bureaucratic