The government has submitted a bill to the State Duma, according to which it is proposed to implement, utilize or destroy illegally felled trees. The document has been posted in the system of ensuring the legislative activity of the parliament. The Cabinet of Ministers proposes to supplement article 27.10 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) with part 14 and state part 1 of article 27.11 of the CAO in a new edition.
“Wood and (or) products obtained from it in the form of unprocessed timber, seized in proceedings on cases of administrative offenses provided for in Article 8.28 of this Code (illegal felling, damage to forest plantations or unauthorized digging of trees, bushes, lianas in forests.” – Ed. ), are sent for sale, utilization or destruction, “- says the text of the bill.
The explanatory note to the document notes that illegally felled trees become material evidence as part of the investigation of administrative cases. And the judges are obliged to take measures for their safety.
“At the same time, storage of timber as material evidence in cases of administrative offenses requires not only the availability of appropriate areas, maintenance of which entails financial costs, but also the provision of special storage conditions. And the proposed changes will help to reduce the storage time of seized illegally harvested timber in administrative matters, which will reduce the cost of storing it, preserve its consumer properties and sell it for its intended purpose, ”the explanatory note says.
According to the Russian government’s estimates, 10-30 million cubic meters of gas are illegally cut down in the country every year. m of industrial timber for 20-60 billion rubles. This forest is not counted anywhere, and there is no federal tax or sales tax. Almost 10% of the specified volume is cut without any documents at all (these are the so-called black loggers), the rest – as a result of forgery (under the pretext of sanitary felling or using outdated data on forest density in the allocated area), Vedomosti reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko, who oversees environmental issues in the government, said last October that the annual reduction in forest exceeds its restoration by an average of 450,000 hectares. Restoration requires more than 35 million hectares of retired forest. This is almost 20% of the area of all forest plots leased to timber industry enterprises for cutting and restoration, Abramchenko said.
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