Problems and prospects for development of forest management were discussed in Kazan
Today, a plenary meeting of the scientific-practical conference “Forest inventory and forest regulation for forest management and business” was held in Korston-Kazan Hotel and Entertainment Complex. The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Natural Resources, Property and Land Relations Nikolai Nikolayev, State Duma Deputy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Aleksei Kanayev, Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Mikhail Klinov, Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Roslesinforg Igor Murayev, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Nigmatullin, the Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan Ravil Kuzyurov and others. In total, more than 300 people from 40 constituent entities of the Russian Federation became participants in the forum.
Welcoming the audience, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Natural Resources, Property and Land Relations Nikolai Nikolayev noted that there were currently many problems in forestry. “People who work with forests know how to eliminate them, he said. - I was at one site today, of course, we have a huge number of opportunities and excellent specialists who are united by the desire to make our industry better”.
“Forestry needs funds for digitalization, protection of the forest fund. We are categorically unhappy with the amount of financing in the industry. Now the budget for the next 3 years has increased by 4 billion rubles. Moreover, this year alone, more than 6.5 billion rubles were allocated from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation to extinguish fires, Nikolai Nikolayev added. - It is necessary to talk about the rationality of investments in the forest industry. It’s better to invest, to provide real protection of the forest from fires, instead of fighting the consequences”.
State Duma Deputy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Aleksei Kanayev in his welcoming speech focused on forest management and implementation of Federal Law of July 19, 2018 No. 212-FZ. “It was very interesting to hear at one of the sites how this law is being implemented in practice. If you look objectively, cases arise when in some regions it is either impractical to engage in compensatory reforestation, or there is no space for these works. Perhaps it makes sense to change the rule and, with the consent of the regional authorities and society, engage in reforestation in another entity”, said Aleksei Kanayev.
Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Mikhail Klinov focused the attention of the meeting participants on the role of forest management. “Forest management is the basis of everything that happens in the forest. The basis is ecological, since this is the allocation of specially protected areas of forests, economic - payment for timber, forest resources, social - jobs, said Mikhail Klinov. - Now we are working together to correct the current situation in forest management, introduce new technologies, working methods of accounting for forests. Of course, I would like these processes to go faster. But we understand that along with the efficiency, the most important thing is the accuracy of the data on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forest stands”.
RT First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Nigmatullin noted the importance of holding such a large-scale discussion on forest accounting. “We are pleased to welcome you here in Kazan, he said. - I am confident that this conference will become an effective platform for dialogue and development of specific decisions in the field of forest management, forest legislation, and organization of intensive and sustainable forest management”.
Further, the Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan Ravil Kuzyurov made a report on topic “Experience in forest management in the Republic of Tatarstan. Past, Present, Future”. During his speech, he acquainted the participants of the meeting with the history of forest management in the Republic of Tatarstan and tasks for the coming period.
In particular, he said that currently the forestry sector uses up-to-date forest inventory materials. The materials are less than 10 years old. Thus, forest inventory works were carried out on the 1st level in the period from 2011 to 2019 on the total area of more than 1.2 million hectares.
“This year it is planned to begin forest management works in the territory of 3 forest districts of the republic - Prigorodnyi, Zelenodolskiy and Kaibitskiy - on the area of more than 80 thousand hectares. 7 million rubles were allocated from the republican budget in the form of co-financing for these purposes”, the Minister added.
Along with this, Ravil Kuzyurov spoke about the digitalization of the forest industry, the ongoing work on development of the Geographic Information System of the Forest Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan and the service for monitoring and controlling the state of forest stands based on remote sensing data. According to him, this system will automate the activities of accounting and management of forest resources, timely detect changes in the forest fund, including illegal logging, burned forest areas, areas with forest pathology, illegally erected buildings and structures.
“Now work is underway to analyze the forest fund in the territory of 17 forest districts with a total area of 680 thousand hectares. As a result of the first stage, 10 forest districts were surveyed with a total area of more than 300 thousand hectares, 5 thousand plots were digitized, 438 potential clear-cutting, 169 objects with forest pathology were identified. The completion of the second stage in all forest districts of the republic is scheduled for the end of 2019”, the Minister concluded.
Also in the framework of the meeting, reports were made by the Director of FSBI Roslesinforg Igor Murayev, Chairman of the Committee for Natural Resources of the Leningrad Region Pavel Nemchinov, Acting Director of the Federal Forestry Agency Roslesozashchita Pavel Popov, representatives of the Ilim, Segezha, and other woodworking enterprises.