Translated material
Angara region: The State Duma deputy opposed the continuous cutting of forest near Lake Baikal
The State Duma deputy from the Irkutsk region Mikhail Shchapov sent a letter to the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko with a request to reject the law adopted by the State Duma that allows Russian Railways to carry out a continuous logging, including in the Baikal region, in the area of Baikal. The deputy announced this in his telegram and published a letter.
"In the Irkutsk region, amendments that appeared to the second reading and pleasant in just two days without a wide discussion caused a huge resonance. Citizens rightly fear that the resolution of continuous logging and the construction of transport infrastructure objects within the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory in conditions of simplification and acceleration of ordinary controlling procedures will lead to abuse will do great harm to Lake Baikal, ”wrote Shchapov.
He also prepared a letter to the head of government Mikhail Mishustin and the head of the Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov with a proposal to conduct an environmental examination and public hearings when considering any projects in the central environmental zone of Baikal.
- On July 15, State Duma deputies adopted a bill, which allows a continuous deforestation in Lake Baikal for the construction of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian highways. According to the new document adopted in the third reading, projects of Russian railways are displayed from under a series of environmental restrictions until December 31, 2024. A list of infrastructure facilities, under which can be cutting down, will be determined by the government, in particular, we are talking about roads, bridges and ports.
- Earlier, the head of the program for specially protected natural territories of the Greenpeace branch in Russia, Mikhail Crenillene, warned that Baikal is the UNESCO universal natural heritage object, and the organization may not arrange the adoption of such a law. He believes that this can lead to the fact that the World Heritage of Lake Baikal will be transferred to the category of the World Heritage, which is at risk, and this is such a shameful fact for any state, ”Craindlene noted. In addition, the new law cancels environmental examination in the Baikal area.