Federal Forestry Agency forms a register of unscrupulous forest users

The Federal Forestry Agency has posted on its official website the register of unscrupulous tenants of forest areas and buyers of forest plantations.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 98.1 of the Forest Code, there is a permanent Commission in Federal Forestry Agency to review the information received about unscrupulous tenants of forest plots and buyers of forest plantations. Chairman of the Commission - Elena Komar, a Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency. The management of the register is entrusted to the Office of Forest Use and Reproduction.

The rules of a "register of unscrupulous users" are designed to increase the level of healthy competition in the conduct of auctions for the conclusion of contracts for the purchase and sale of forest plantations and lease contracts for forest areas. This is especially important when bidding for the conclusion of lease agreements. As the term on which the lease contracts are concluded is up to 49 years, in contrast to sales contracts that are concluded for up to one year.

With a significant increase in the number of auctions conducted by regional forest services in 2017, there have been more cases with participation of speculators. Speculators inflated prices for forest resources, won as a result of bidding, and then refused to conclude a contract.

Now the regional forestry authorities have received an instrument preventing the conclusion of new contracts for persons who do not fulfill contractual conditions or who at all evaded the conclusion of the contract. Only in the first half of 2018, it is planned to conduct tenders for the conclusion of more than 5 thousand contracts for the purchase and sale of forest plantations for small and medium-sized businesses. Experts are sure that the register will increase the efficiency and transparency of tenders, and will ensure the entry of forest products to the market without mark-ups "on speculators".