The statistical area of forest plots in Russia has decreased by 124 million hectares after correcting statistical data with the adoption of the law on eliminating contradictions in state registers

In two years, Rosreestr (Federal Agency for State Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography) has deleted erroneous data on 124 million hectares of forest areas. As of June 30, 2019, 67,000 cases of the application of the Forest Amnesty Law were recorded. “When conducting accounting and registration activities, improving the quality of data in the Unified State Register of Immovable Property (USRIP), eliminating intersections of borders of forest plots with the borders of other forest plots and land plots of other land categories as well as correcting technical errors in the USRIP data, the total forest area has been reduced by 124 million hectares” – is stated in the report. For example, after the adoption of the Forest Amnesty Law, the forest area was reduced by 26,000 hectares by July 1, 2019, as a result of eliminating overlappings of borders of forest plots with the borders of land plots of other categories in the USRIP.

Duplicate information on 40,500 forest plots has been excluded from the USRIP. Also, register errors were corrected (overlapping borders were eliminated) in the information about 4,300 forest plots. The largest amount of duplicate information on forest plots was excluded from the USRIP in Kabardino-Balkaria (26,600), Mordovia (3,600), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (2,200), and Irkutsk Region (1,500). According to the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz), the area of Russian forest plots, including those occupied by forest stands, is 770 million hectares.