NEWS

The state of forests of the urban green belts (in Kazan, Zelenodolsk, Nizhnekamsk) was examined at the meeting of the Public Council at the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan. The meeting was chaired by E.A. Guskov. The heads and foresters of Zelenodolskoye Forestry, Nizhnekamskoye Forestry and Prigorodnoye Forestry addressed the meeting making their reports.

Yesterday the ceremony of awarding the winners of competitions “ECOleader” and “Man and Nature” was held. The competitions were organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan in order to preserve the environment, bring the environmental safety problems into the public eye, and encourage environmental activities of enterprises. TNurlatsky Forst Establishment took the 1st place in the competitive group “Companies and Organizations” in the category “Timber and Wood Processing Industry”. The award was handed out by the Deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Chairman of the Committee for Ecology, Natural Resource Management, Agriculture and Food Policy Tahir Khadeev. The 2nd place was taken by the Arskoye Forestry.

As part of the International Anticorruption Day in Kukmorsky District Recreation Center a competition of the Club of Cheerful and Sharp-witted the “Youth Against Corruption” was held among students of Lubyansky Forest Engineering College and Kukmorsky Agricultural College. The teams with the highly expressive, artistic performances showed the young people's attitude to the corruption, calling their peers for fight against this negative phenomenon in society. The team of Lubyansky Forest Engineering College has taken the 2 place with a difference of 1 point. Both teams were awarded the diplomas and valuable prizes.

The fate of the birds is largely dependent on the human kindness and mercifulness. There is a proverb: “He who is full is not afraid of the cold”, so the feathered friends need the human help. In the school forestry unit of Krasnoborskaya Secondary School of the Agryzsky Municipal District of the Republic of Tatarstan a master class on bird feeders making out of materials at hand was held. The schoolchildren together with the specialists of the district forestry Mudarisov I.R. and Korobeinikova V.N. have made 11 bird feeders, which they hung on trees on their school grounds. In each bird feeder they put the food.

The ceremony honoring the winners of the “Ecoleader” and “Man and Nature” competitions takes place in the Pyramid Entertainment Center with participation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov. The competitions were held by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan in order to preserve the environment, bring the environmental safety problems into the public eye, and encourage environmental activities of enterprises.

As part of the working visit to Lubyansky Forest Engineering College the First Deputy Minister of Forestry of Tatarstan Emir Bedertdinov visited the room where the practical preparation for the open regional championship “Young professionals” World Skills Russia in the Republic of Tatarstan on the Landscape competence is carried out. The competitions will take place from 1-3 February 2017 in Kazan. In a specially equipped room the students laid the paving stone blocks, wooden flooring and brick masonry (flower bed) on the basis of drawing. In the championship in Landscaping competence the college students will participate for the third year in a row. This year, 4 teams will participate. The Deputy Director for Housekeeping Unit Nail Serazetdinov and teacher Natalia Serazetdinova gave the practical training to the students. This year they trained two winning teams, in the national championship the students took the 2nd and 3rd places.

Of these, there are the Republic of Buryatia, the Krasnoyarsk Region and Trans-Baikal Territory, the Irkutsk and Amur Regions.

The head of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy gave these data while opening a teleconference with regional authorities on the wildfire season results 2016 and the missions for 2017.

The meeting was held on December 6, 2016 in the Government of the Russian Federation.

“Although the wildfire season 2016 was marked by an improvement in the fire hazardous situation as compared to 2015, the analysis of the effectiveness of measures to prevent and extinguish wildfires showed that many regions have not taken comprehensive measures, emphasized the Minister. The reasons are in the unsatisfactory work of the Commission for the Emergency Response in the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Irkutsk Region, weakness in terms of the organization of the interdepartmental cooperation in these regions and in the Amur Region”. Sergey Donskoy noted that due to such discoordination there were numerous cases of fire spread to the forest reserve lands.

“I hope, we can learn even from our mistakes, if we are not able to learn from others,” said the minister, addressing the heads of the constituents of Russia subjects to the agenda of the preparations for the wildfire season 2017.

Since the beginning of the wildfire season 2016, 11 025 wildfires on the area of ​​2 465.6 thousand hectares have been recorded on the territory of the Russian Federation. These figures, according to the Federal Forestry Agency, are in all respects better than in last year: below the five-year average by 1.5 times in number and correspond to the fire covered area.

The positive trends are outlined on the lands of the specially protected natural reservations. The Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik, in particular, noted that thanks to the set of organizational and financial measures taken by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, the area covered by fire on the lands of the specially protected natural reservations is reduced by half in 2016.

In general, according to Ivan Valentik, despite the budgetary constraints, in 2016 more than 20 billion rubles were given to the Russian Federation subjects for exercise of forestry powers. The total amount of federal funding for activities related to the prevention and suppression of wildfires has been maintained. In this case the limits for the protection of forests from fires, which are 4.1 billion rubles, were transferred to the regions before the fire season started. Another 648.7 million rubles were additionally transferred during the fire season from the unappropriated reserve of the Federal Forestry Agency.

Of great importance also is the fact that in 2016 the federal Forestry Agency and the constituents of the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts have made an agreement on cooperation in the field of forest protection against fires. In 2017 such headquarters will work in all federal districts.

In addition, the work for forest firefighting management has been arranged in a consistent manner: 3874.1 km of forest roads were built and 6116 km were reconstructed.

“The damage caused by wildfires this year is decreased by 3.8 times and, according to preliminary data, it is 15 billion rubles. This season we have adequately dealt with fire situations also thanks to everyone's attention to the problem of wildfires. The instructions were given by the Russian President and the two Vice-Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation,” summarized Ivan Valentik.

From 6 to 16 December the 2nd walk-through audit of forest management and the internal supply chain will take place in the territory of the forest reserve of the Republic of Tatarstan. The aim of the audit is to confirm the compliance of forest management and internal supply chain carried out by the forestries of the Republic and the Ministry as a whole, with the requirements of the Russian national standard of voluntary forest certification under the FSC scheme, as well as to confirm the compliance of production activities of forest establishments with  the standards of multi-site supply from-producer-to-consumer-chain.

In the Republic of Tatarstan the community of English oak and small-leaved lime is located in the north-eastern boundary of the range of their natural origin. The English oak is interesting for Tatarstan both environmentally and economically. However, due to the harsh environmental conditions the acorn years are quite rare in this region. Thus, for large-scale reforestation in the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan the planting material of the English oak may be not enough. One way to solve this problem is to reduce the number of oak seedlings per hectare while establishing the artificial mixed lime stands. The aim of the project is to find out the minimum number of oak seedlings for the establishment of oak and lime plants where the production of quality oak wood assortment corresponding to regional needs would be provided. To clarify the issues raised and document the oak wood quality it will be required to make a chronological analysis in the different in age young English oak stands with different planting density and different forms of competition. The recommendations on the required quantity of oak seedlings when establishing the oak and lime plantings, as well as an assistance in establishment of the pilot sites according to Nelder, for study of interspecies competition and for determination of the optimal planting schemes will reduce the problem of providing the necessary amount of planting material.

Project Duration: 08.01.2015. – 30.09.2018.

On November 30, 2016 the II International Conference “Pulp and Paper Industry of Russia - New Realities and New Opportunities” has started work in Vienna (Austria). The event was organized by the Russian Union of Timber Industrialists and Exporters and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. The conference operator is the Paper Industry Experts Association.

The head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation Sergey Donskoy took part in the international conference. “Russia has tremendous raw material potential for the creation of new pulp-and-paper plants and further modernization of the existing ones. The potential of the additional production capacity provision with timber exceeds 10 million tons of pulp,” Sergey Donskoy said.

The most promising regions in terms of the forest resources for the establishment of new pulp and paper plants, according to Sergey Donskoy, are the Krasnoyarsk Region (calculated unused felling rate 65 million cubic meters), the Irkutsk Region (39 million cubic meters), the Khanty-Mansijsk Autonomous District (Yugra) (36 million cubic meters), the Tomsk Region (34 million cubic meters), the Komi Republic (25 million cubic meters), the Khabarovsk Region (18 million cubic meters), the Chita Region (16 million cubic meters) and the Vologda Region (14 million cubic meters).

Sergey Donskoy also emphasized that Russia ranks first in the world in terms of most valuable coniferous forest species, and has 20% of global forest resources. However, 2/3 of these areas are in a harsh climate, the forest reserve is used not-efficiently, with a low yield of industrial wood and high costs in its procurement and transportation. “The situation should be turned around,” said Sergey Donskoy.