Cedar is to be included into the list of finewood

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia has developed a draft federal law “On Amendments Being Made to the Article 50.2 of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation” according to which cedar will be qualified as the finewood.

“Taking into account the high ecosystem significance of the cedar forests, a bill has been developed as an additional measure to protect them from illegal logging, according to which cedar will be qualified as the finewood,” said the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia Sergey Donskoy.

This legislative initiative is supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the Ministry of Finance of Russia, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, the Federal Forestry Agency, and currently is in the process of public discussion and interagency coordination.

Inclusion of cedar into the list of finewood will oblige the owners of cedar timber (persons harvesting cedar, and effecting transactions with cedar timber) to mark each log individually, to register it and enter the data about it in the unified state automated information system (USAIS) for recording of wood and transactions therewith.

The draft law also provides for a standard that will ensure the marking of all finewood, and origin authentication of each log – cedar, oak, beech, ash – not only in export, but also in turnover on the territory of the Russian Federation.

It will be recalled that the cedar forests are one of the most valuable forests in the natural and social respect. They are rich in biological diversity and have an important socio-economic importance in those areas where the harvesting of pine nuts is an important source of livelihood for the local population, and therefore they need special protection.

The cedar timber has high physical and consumer properties, which creates a steady demand for it and increases the risks of illegal logging and turnover. The illegal logging along with the wildfires and forest diseases cause significant damage to cedar forests.