Amendments to the Forest Code concerning forestry competitions came into force

Legislative novels provided for by Federal Law No. 471-FZ of December 29, 2017 "On Amendments to the Forest Code of the Russian Federation with regard to the improvement of the procedure for forests use with and without provision of forest plots" came into force.

Amendments to the Forest Code introduced an additional way to conclude a lease agreement for the forest site for timber harvesting - a tender, and also the procedure for organizing auctions for the right to conclude lease contracts for forest areas and contracts for the purchase and sale of forest plantations were improved.

At the same time, for the first time in the Forest Code, the declarative principle of organizing and conducting forest auctions (tenders and auctions) was implemented. And in order to ensure conditions for healthy competition, auctions will now be held only in electronic form and on official sites operating in accordance with the Russian Federation legislation on the contract system in the procurement of goods, works and services to ensure state and municipal needs.

An exception when a forest auction is not held in electronic form is the leasing of forest plots to peasant farms for the purpose of using forests for agriculture, leasing forest plots for the use of forests to collect gum and harvesting

non-timber forest resources, concluding a forest plantations sale and purchase contracts to small and medium-sized enterprises, based on contracts for the purchase and sale of forest plantations.

As for forestry tenders, a legal entity, an individual entrepreneur owning the objects of timber processing infrastructure intended for the production of wood products and other products of wood processing, as a property or on other legal grounds, whose types are determined by the Government of the Russian Federation in accordance with the All-Russian Classification of Products by Economic Activities, Commodity Nomenclature of foreign economic activity of the Eurasian Economic Union.

In this case, the applicant must, on the basis of documents, confirm the technical specifications, the parameters of the wood processing facilities and feasibility for the additional demand of wood of a certain species (breed) and assortment composition for loading the existing capacities.

In order to implement the provisions of 471-FZ and implement forestry tenders, it is necessary to develop five regulatory legal acts, two of which will be approved by the Government of the Russian Federation: the procedure for examining the application and the methodology for assessing the additional demand and availability of forest plots on the territory of the Russian Federation territorial unit, criteria for evaluating the bids of tender participants.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia in cooperation with the Federal Forestry Agency has already organized the work on the preparation of the relevant draft normative legal acts.

Another innovation of the federal law under consideration is the adoption at the legislative level of such important principles of forestry policy as the transparency of information on forests. So information about forests is public information, to which access of citizens and legal entities cannot be restricted, unless otherwise provided by current legislation. Information on forests is posted on official websites of state authorities and local self-government bodies that exercise powers in the field of forest use, preservation, protection and reproduction. The composition and content of information on forests shall be established by the authorized federal executive body, that is, the order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia.