The Forest code may be amended for the Far East

According to the press service of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the development of the Far East, the Minvostokrazvitiya of Russia proposes to amend the Forest code of the Russian Federation in terms of establishing the features of the conclusion and termination of lease agreements for forest plots in state or municipal ownership and located in the far Eastern regions. The relevant draft law has been submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation for consideration.

The bill was developed on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – Plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President Yuri Trutnev. The document was agreed by the Ministry of industry and trade, the Ministry of natural resources and the governments of the far Eastern Federal district.

Within the framework of the bill, it is proposed in the far East to conclude lease contracts for forest plots with individual entrepreneurs and legal entities for the purpose of timber harvesting, including the results of trading, if there are two mandatory conditions. The first is the sale by the lessee of round timber in the amount of less than fifty percent of the total volume of sold products made from harvested wood. The second is the implementation of the timber harvesting on the leased forest land in the amount of not less than seventy percent of the allowable exemptions of wood for two consecutive calendar years. Violation by the tenant of two obligations simultaneously is the basis for early termination of the forest lease agreement unilaterally.

As explained in the Minvostokrazvitiya of Russia, the proposed mechanism of logging will allow more efficient use of the provided forest areas and will allow better control of the activities of loggers.