Representatives of Rosleskhoz and the Federal customs service discussed issues of information exchange in the framework of strengthening control over the turnover of wood

The interdepartmental meeting was held on February 22, 2019. It discussed the issues of information exchange between the Federal Forestry Agency and the Federal customs service of the Russian Federation in terms of monitoring the legality of the origin of exported wood and the organization of information exchange through the third version of the system of interdepartmental electronic interaction (IEM).

Mikhail Klinov, Deputy head of the Federal Forestry Agency, made a keynote speech at the meeting. He stressed the need to develop a common format of mutual exchange of information, which will allow reaching a much higher level of cooperation between the two departments in the framework of solving the problem of control over the turnover of wood in Russia and its export abroad.

The participants of the meeting discussed peculiarities of the use of the system LesEGAIS by the employees of the Federal customs service. System LesEGAIS was identified as an effective monitoring tool because it records all the actions from harvested timber from the logging sites to processing and export. The system contains data on harvesting rights and transactions, including export transactions.

The meeting discussed the procedure for determining the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of timber, specifying information exchange, improving the processes of detection and suppression of violations of the law in the procurement and circulation of timber, including their import and export.

At the end of the meeting, the participants noted the main problem points and controversial issues that may arise in the mutual integration of these electronic systems of the two departments, outlined steps to develop a common concept of control of import and export of wood, indicating the need to create the most convenient mechanism for the use of information exchange, which will allow employees of departments to interact as quickly and smoothly.