NEWS

The law was signed by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, on March 12, 2014. Amendments made to the Forest code allow constituent entities of the Russian Federation to restore the legal framework for existence of state forestry organizations responsible in the long-term for execution of works in the forest, creation of specialized budgetary organizations for forestry management, and they are meant to avoid tenders for execution of forestry works in order profit from sale of products and services.

          The Minister Nail Magdeev noted in his interview to the newspaper “Russian Forest News” (“Rossiyskie Lesnye Vesti”) that “special establishments are an optimal form of arrangement of work in the forest. That is why the Republic of Tatarstan took its own path a long time ago – more than 20 specialized budgetary establishments “Forest” are engaged in work on protection, defense and reproduction of forests. Owing to such an approach to work arrangement, we managed to preserve personnel and material and technical base. The Republic of Tatarstan supports organizations founded by it. As a result, there is no one to hold accountable for the carried out work and spent monetary means – heads of establishments bear personal responsibility for the quality of forest planting, protection and defense of forests”. (No. 28 as of February 28, 2014)

Meetings and fund raising in support of the Crimea were held in various regions of the Russian Federation. Experts of the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan have also done their part and decided to transfer their one-day earnings to the citizens of the peninsula.

This year nature protection campaigns — Forest planting days — with participation of the citizens of the Republic will be held on April 26th and on October 4th. These days were defined considering weather and climatic conditions and positive experience of event holding starting from 2011. Preparation works for Forest planting days are carried out at the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the experts in charge of its holding have been assigned. Afforestation of the area of more than 730 ha in 2013 was the result of these campaigns, about 2.8 mln. pieces of seedlings were planted in the Republic, and the amount of participants in the planting process exceeded 35 thousand people.

On the lakes “Chistoe”, “Bezymyannoe”, and “Atamanskoe” that are natural monuments located in the “Tri ozera” village of Spassky Municipal District of the Republic of Tatarstan, the experts together with an ichthyologist of the Federal State Budgetary Establishment “Srednevolzhrybvod” carried out melioration activities to rescue underwater dwellers from oxygen deprivation: fish can easily suffocate under a thick layer of ice.

The experts drilled more than 50 ice-holes through a thick ice layer using a power ice bore and placed straw there to prevent freeze-up and ensure oxygen access to lakes.

The contest was held for the third year in a row. It sparks great interest in amateurs of winter fishing, and this year more than 70 people participated in it at the water body near the Nurmabash village. The Head of the State nature complex reserve “Baltasinsky”, A. Farkhutdinov, familiarized participants with contest rules.

For two hours fishermen demonstrated their skills to beautiful music and kept their fingers crossed. The jury of the contest evaluated each catch and named the winners in the following categories: the most dexterous fisherman, the most honorable fisherman, the most distant guest fisherman, the luckiest fisherman and the birthday fisherman. Alexey Grigoryev (Baltasi) was named the absolute winner of the contest.

The winners were awarded with valuable prizes, diplomas and books.

The Ministry of Forestry and its establishments are provided with a variety of high quality planting material for the beginning of silvicultural works. This has also been promoted by the Forest selection and seed center that possesses the most advanced technologies on production of 12 thousand pieces of ball-rooted planting material and forest seeds with enhanced qualities, and 55 nursery gardens to grow standard planting material.

The amount of planting material (about 100 million pieces) is sufficient for creation of forest plantations in the forest fund and protection forest vegetation on the lands of agricultural organizations and other categories of lands in 2014.

Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency, Nikolay Krotov, held the All-Russian meeting on preparation for the silvicultural season 2014.  “Spring becomes shorter and shorter, he admitted during the meeting, and that’s why the regions for whom planting is not a mere word should take all the necessary measures in order to carry out the required work intensively and within a short period of time. The first of April is a critical time point for the start of silvicultural works, which is imposed not by the legislation, but by the forest biology. This year forecasters talk about an early, short and hot spring on the biggest part of the country’s territory”.

It was acknowledged during the meeting that Heads bear personal responsibility for the failure to fulfill the plans of forest restoration. According to N. Krotov, this year the silvicultural season starts in the context of dramatically changing legislation. The State Duma of the Russian Federation made amendments to the Forest Code of the Russian Federation that directly concerns the field of forest restoration: federal monitoring of forest reproduction is being introduced, and a legal groundwork for transfer of forest plantations to forested areas was developed.

Vegetation with high fire hazard in the forest fund of the Republic (coniferous forests and vegetation that includes coniferous species) occupy 674 thousand ha or a half of all the forests of the Republic. In order to protect forests, the Ministry elaborated and approved the Summary plan for extinguishing of forest fires that was coordinated by the Federal Forest Agency and approved of by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan I. Khalikov.

Lately, the forest sector of the Russian Federation has been actively participating in the program activity of the United National Economic Commission for Europe. At present, 72 sessions of the ECE have been held, in which about 300 representatives of forest structures took part inclusive of Russia and Tatarstan.

Such an event has never been conducted on the territory of Russia before. Last year the Minister of Forestry, Nail Magdeev, presented the Republic of Tatarstan and its forest husbandry during the session of the Commission that was held in Finland. One of the ways to improve the ecological situation is to augment forest areas and enhance the quality of forests. This is promoted by the largest in Europe Selection and Seed Center growing 12 millions of ball-rooted seedlings, as well as powerful protection of forests from fires, modern timber harvesting and wood processing. Moreover, for several times now, Kazan was the place where both the world and Russian political, economic and forest communities met.

       The session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) on forests and forest industry and the European Commission on forest husbandry under the Food and Agricultural Organization in the Republic of Tatarstan will become the site for constructive exchange of opinions of the world forest community with regard to solution of the most burning problems of forest industry.

The Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan, Nail Magdeev, held a weekly working meeting in Elabuga on arrangement of work on delivery of soft-wooded timber at the manufacturing site of the plant “Kastamonu Entegre Wood Industry” (special economic zone “Alabuga”). The “Kastamonu Entegre” company is included into the ten largest European countries on production of MDF, chip boards, non-treated chip boards, laminated flooring, door panels and plywood, and it has subsidiaries in ten countries of Western Europe.

Right after the meeting, directors of the State Budgetary Establishment “Forest” visited the site of wood unloading and workshops of the plant under construction, whereof the first tranche, according to Turkish partners, will be put into operation in May.

At present, 70 thousand cubic meters of wood have been delivered to the site of the plant.