The meeting of the Public Council at the Federal Forestry Agency

  On December 20, 2016 in the Federal Forestry Agency a meeting of the Public Council at the Federal Forestry Agency was held. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation – the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik and the Director for Conservation Policy of the World Wildlife Fund of Russia – the Chairman of the Public Council at the Federal Forestry Agency Evgeny Schwartz.

The key topics of the Public Council’s meeting were such issues as the implementation in 2016 of the Transparency Concept of the Federal Forestry Agency, including the availability of the open source data – information on the use, reproduction and protection of forests and other information and put of the forest pathology survey reports in compliance with the Federal Law No.455-FZ on the Internet sites of the state forest management authorities in the constituents of the Russian Federation.

The draft of the State program of the Russian Federation “Development of forestry” for 2013-2020 and the issue of legal regulation of the use of forests on agricultural lands in the context of the intensification of forestry were discussed. The separate matter was the draft of the Public Declaration of aims and goals of the Federal Forestry Agency for 2017 and the implementation of Public Declaration of aims and goals of the Federal Forestry Agency in 2015 and 2016.

An important agenda item was the draft federal law “On Amendments being made to the Federal Law “On Protection of Lake Baikal” and the Forest Code of the Russian Federation in terms of improving the regulation of forest relations” allowing clear-cutting in the forests of water protection zones and the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory.

“As for the work of our Public Council, I believe that this is one of the most active public councils. In general, we analyzed the practical aspects of other agencies – in many agencies the meetings are more relaxed, less severity in the discussions. I think we should keep within these parameters and not to lose momentum, because the forests issues in our country, the sectoral problems are in quite complicated condition, despite the fact that much is taken and much has been done.

From the point of view of the public council’s recommendations, 53 out of 90 recommendations have been taken into account. I think it is a good indicator, because they are take into account not only as a matter of form, but also put behind the changes in the Russian legislation,” said the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik.