Centre for Forest Economy: 67% of forest districts have illegitimate status

On July 23, St. Petersburg hosted press conference “Russian forest industry: from State Council to implementing presidential regulations” of General Director of the Research Centre for Forest Economy and Management, Nikolai Petrunin.

Analysing the forest management system, Petrunin noted that all problems of the forestry industry are due to systemic failures. Within the last 100 years, forest management structure changed 39 times, and for today, forest-related issues are regarded to more or less extent by 12 different ministries and other bodies.

The country which has the largest forest fund in the world and second-largest forest stocks still does not have its own forest ministry. Forest management system is largely different in various Russian regions; legal status of forest districts is not defined. Regional authorities try to make forest districts budgetary organisations which are able to gain money by themselves, but in this case they do not have legal right to exercise their power in forest matters. As for today, status of approximately 67% of forest districts is not compliant with the law.

Nikolai Petrunin finds that the optimal system would be: Russian Government → forestry ministry (on the federal level); regional governments → regional forestry ministries → forest districts → local forest districts (on the regional level).

Forest officers should also obtain the status of civil servants, while forest districts should have the status of local executive bodies, Petrunin concluded.