About the situation in the Russian forest sector in spring 2011

Forest "reforms" of the last decade (the elimination of the Federal Forestry Service in 2000 and the subsequent chaotic changes in the structure of forest management, the introduction of the new Forest Code in 2007, replacing professional managers by political appointees, and others) have led to a profound decline of Russian forestry. Current crisis in forestry has a chance to be the most severe crisis in the history of state forest management in Russia. In fact, the old system of forest management and forestry, formed by centuries, was destroyed and now is in a state of agony. But a new system doesn't work and may not emerge because of the incompatibility of the new forest law and life.

In the foreseeable future (at least in the next year or two), the situation will getting worse and worse, because the mistakes of "reformers" are not recognized and not corrected. The "reformers" explain the critical state of affairs in forestry due to false and secondary causes, inoffensive for them. Mainly the regional authorities are deemed guilty, because they ostensibly can not cope with their responsibilities and do not justify the trust placed in them. Accordingly, solutions, ostensibly aimed at correcting the situation are wrong or ineffective, and lead to growing of the level of devastation every year.

The current system of forest management reminds a "Potemkin village". It has a beautiful front facade, which can convince government leaders and other people far from the forests, that the forest is in relative order, and behind the facade everything gradually collapsing and dies. Maintaining of the beautiful front facade (an imitation of feverish legislative and compliance and enforcement activity, drafting of an unimaginable number of sectoral plans, programs, policies, concepts, reports, etc.) swallows up the most share of efforts and resources of forestry, and everything else is funded and provided by leftovers. Every year the content of the system of forest management is getting for the federal budget more and more expensive, but for real performers, working in the forest, of money comes less and less. Most often it happens that the money and time employees are only sufficient to produce reports on work performed, but not for real organizing and executing the work.

There is no normal forestry in our country, there is only bad-organized forest use and some elements of forestry, preserved from past times and gradually disappearing in the course of "reform". Virtually disappeared applied forest science and forest experiment work, forest protection, centralized system of fighting forest fires, the system of work with the public on fire prevention and forest violation. Reduced to the obscene, sometimes to zero, the volume and especially the quality of reforestation, care of the saplings, forest activities. Forest inventory almost ceased to exist, and a workable system of state forest inventory has not been established. It results in absence of reliable information on the country's forests, and in the coming years this information is not expected.

Effective system of protection of forests and other natural areas from fires also doesn't exist. After the fire disaster of 2010, forest protection has been restored "on paper", but only by imposing appropriate authority to those people, who are already fully engaged in fulfillment of other duties. People for whom the protection of forests would be the primary or sole responsibility has not appeared, because it was not allocated the money. Federal funds intended for the purchase of a new forest fire equipment will be obtained regions after the start of fire season, and the technique itself is likely to be able to start work almost exclusively in the following year. People able to organize an effective fight against forest fires will become much smaller, because in 2011, every employee of the forest will be forced to spend much more time on reporting and other office work - he wouldn't have enough time for working in the forest.

In general, the bureaucratization of the system of forest management has reached an unimaginable earlier level - an average "paperwork" of leaders and specialists in forestry takes more than three-quarters of working hours. The leaders also have to spend a significant proportion of their time in various meetings, usually incoherent and ineffective, so they doesn't have enough time for real work or they need to do it after hours. In fact, the largest funds in forestry are spent on maintaining paperwork and conducting various meetings.

The traditional system of forest management quickly dies. Most forest enterprises, many of which are major employers in their villages and towns are barely survive without much hope for the future. The main reasons for this - the critical level of depletion of economically accessible forest resources and the insane forestry legislation, which makes almost any lawful activity in the forest economically inefficient. Viability of the Russian forest sector is partly ensured by the abundance of relatively cheap illegally logged timber, but in many regions there is already nothing to steal. Despite this, more and more new large "investment" projects appear, including "priority" that receive forest resources on concessional terms (they are about a hundred such projects in the country), so the shortage of forest resources is becoming more hard. The continued depletion of forest resources and increasing costs associated with forest management (transportation costs, fuel, electricity, taxes, fees, etc.), make the forest sector of our country less competitive, and the chances of the majority of forest enterprises to survive - all the more elusive.

Catastrophically deteriorating situation with forest around large cities, particularly Moscow and St. Petersburg. Forestry is actually turned into a system of land distribution from the forest under a variety of needs (construction, infrastructure construction, placement of quarries, industrial facilities, etc.). Every year large areas of forest are built, fenced and taken out of general use, and primarily in the areas most attractive to the rest of people. Numerous fences and structures impede access of citizens, including those forests, which formally are still free - and these forests are also in fact removed from public use. From the perspective of ordinary people, the forests around large cities are rapidly disappearing or becoming private, inaccessible for most of the people.

One of the consequences of disruption in the forestry sector became a sharp and uncontrolled growth of loss in forest cover, dying as a result of outbreaks of pests, diseases, fires and similar disasters. The forests of many densely populated regions is already littered with deadwood, and after all the "reforms" the forest authorities simply can not dismantle obstructions. In the central regions of European Russia, there is a catastrophic outbreak of bark beetle, which will inevitably lead to forest destruction on a scale comparable to their death from fires in 2010, but much closer to major cities and towns. The forest administration authorities can not do anything with it - as there is not enough strength and expertise, and new legislation does not allow to carry forest protection measures fast enough.

In general, the situation looks dire, and even almost hopeless, but it is not much different from the situation in many other spheres of activity - agriculture, science, education, public order, etc. The roots of many problems that severely affected our forest, lie far outside the forest sector. Now it seems to be quite clear, that it is impossible to restore order in a particular forestry, without changing the overall situation in the country. It's necessary to recover workable legislation, professional bodies of state power, the system of holding officials accountable to the society and the law, and many other matters, which has been destroyed in recent years.

What to do with all this - is not very clear. Future of forestry and forests themselves are very closely linked with the future of our country, and it is now highly unpredictable. It is unknown whether already passed the historic "point of no return" after which return to the old life is impossible, or it has not been passed yet - but seems to be somewhere very close to it. Therefore, in conclusion, let me simply cite the words of Professor George Fedorovich Morozov, uttered in a similar historical situation - in April, 1917, at the opening of the All-Russian Congress of Delegates of the Union of Foresters:

"I am finishing, and in conclusion I say, that my speech unfortunately was sad - as if devoid of spiritual vitality. I can not say that I overcame pessimism, but declining optimism is unmistakable. Yet we should not despair. There is no place for cowardice now. Already the presence of you all in such a great number, in spite of the travel difficulties, testifies to the strength of life, the desire to work. And we will work, but will avoid partisanship. We will not sacrifice for the slogans any living persons or living things. We will not issue bills for which will not be able to pay, in conversation do not forget the forest, do not forget the interests of science, culture, and our knowledge that we carry. Let's turn all our optimism into the state affair. And a wise life is likely to find its way to the creative wisdom of the resultant extreme flows. Demonstrate statehood of our decisions, and let us remember that our banner keeps the eternal words: "Take care of the forest".

A. Yaroshenko, March 18, 2011