How to Manage State Forests in the Dark?

Deputy Prime Minister Patrushev congratulated all those involved on the International Day of Forests, which was established in 2012 by the UN General Assembly to remind everyone of the importance of all types of forests and to raise awareness of their role.

Quote: “Today, each of us needs to understand how important the topic of preserving the “lungs of the planet”” is in the environmental agenda. The Deputy Prime Minister clearly demonstrates an understanding that forests have a global ecological function. Note that not only as a carbon sink and oxygen generator, which everyone knows from school, but also as a hydroregulator.

Undisturbed forests of wild nature, due to the large area of ​​closed crown and powerful evaporation, create a zone of low pressure and act as a kind of biotic pump, drawing atmospheric moisture from the ocean deep into the continent.

In our case, the pump operates mainly along the north-south axis, providing air transport of moisture from the Arctic Ocean for thousands of kilometers beyond Krasnoyarsk all the way to northern China. That is, our forests, primarily the almost untouched old-growth forests of the wild nature of the North, the tundra zone, as well as large forest areas of Siberia, the Far East and the North-West of the country, in fact, prevent the territory of Russia from becoming desertified en masse and maintain the climate suitable for human life.

The Forest Code of the Russian Federation, despite the fact that it is directly and unambiguously aimed at extracting money from forests (that is, cutting them down first of all) and encourages the attitude towards our forests as a log deposit, nevertheless provides for the need for reforestation. But as is known from Russian classics, the severity of Russian laws is compensated by the non-obligation of their implementation.

In this regard, we will cite the following quote from the Deputy Prime Minister: “Our country ranks first in the world in terms of forest area (about 1.2 billion hectares) … and also second in the world in terms of timber reserves… A significant success of the industry is that the area of ​​reforestation and afforestation has exceeded the area of ​​cut down and dead forests for four years in a row.” From here, as they say, in more detail. Yes, indeed, in the reports of officials authorized to “talk BS” to the top (just in case, these are the words of the President about one of such comrades), everything is just wonderful. Lessees are restoring forests with terrible force. So much so that there is practically nowhere to plant. But there is a nuance.

Reports of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Accounts Chamber, the Public Chamber and the Public Council under the Federal Forestry Agency, independent of the executive branch, confirm that all these forests have been restored mainly on paper. It is no coincidence that the most important project, which is being enthusiastically implemented today by the authorized federal executive body (Rosleskhoz), is a digital twin of the forest. And there, in this digital forest, everything will always be clean, neat, in the required volume and species composition, precisely and at any time.

The situation with Patrushev’s congratulations clearly shows that for new leaders of an illiberal persuasion (and it is difficult to suspect Dmitry Nikolaevich of the opposite) to rely on officials who have contributed to the degradation of the industry for many years, including falsifying data, sending outright lies to the top, means a guaranteed failure of any development vector. Note to new big leaders.