A foreign forest expert who witnessed yesterdays incident describes her first impressions of the Khimki situation. Yesterday, a group of around 30 people went to a site near Shermetyevo airport where currently illegal logging takes place. The aim of the activists was to ask the workers on the site to show them a cutting permission and documents which can prove that the logging activities aren't illegal.
Today I witnessed the treatment of peaceful activists trying to protect forests in Russian: they do not only get beaten up by thugs, but also officially by police forces.
I went with a group of activists to a site where currently illegal logging activities are taking place. The aim of the visit was to ask the loggers for cutting permissions and official documents. After a short discussion, a bulk of riot police and private security forces detained and beat up some of the peaceful activists.
The sad story of the fight for protection of Khimki forest is at a new peak after a couple of days ago illegal logging activities in the disputed area have been discovered. This story goes far beyond forest protection, it's about crimes against civil society and human rights violations, arbitrariness and corruption of officials (administration and police): Interaction between authorities and civil society have been accompanied by massive attacks on life and health of civil society activists, intimidation, threatening of activists' children etc.
The Khimki case more than just another "forest protection case" - it is a precedent for Russian civil society and involves all political levels up to the top - which makes it very delicate to deal with. For more information on the Khimki case, check out this forum - also here you can find explaining why this case is so important.
There is a video of todays scene on the GP Russia live blog - a bit long (10 min.) and in Russian - but worth to see the beginning and the end.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
the Khimki forest news
In early April the laying of high-speed toll highway through the Khimki forest resumed despite of the findings of the independent commission on the inadmissibility of construction and availability of other options. Also six forest sites were set for sale for individual housing construction.
Government`s decision to continue construction of toll highway through the Khimki forest (while there are other options, including lower-cost, direct and short variants) shows that in terms of Government forest is the most low-value category of land and they don`t see fit to take care of forests. If this decision consider to be correct and we agree with him – the saving forests of our country will be forgotten for a long time.
The story of the Khimki forest is a very important precedent. If the route through the Khimki forest is built and the forest mostly destroyed, nobody will take care of other similar forests in densely populated areas of the country. Likely, many workers have to leave the forest too - people who take care of forest will only hinder to take forest lands away for building and so on.
You can help to save the Khimki forest if you send an email to the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev!
Details (in Russian): http://www.forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9215
Government`s decision to continue construction of toll highway through the Khimki forest (while there are other options, including lower-cost, direct and short variants) shows that in terms of Government forest is the most low-value category of land and they don`t see fit to take care of forests. If this decision consider to be correct and we agree with him – the saving forests of our country will be forgotten for a long time.
The story of the Khimki forest is a very important precedent. If the route through the Khimki forest is built and the forest mostly destroyed, nobody will take care of other similar forests in densely populated areas of the country. Likely, many workers have to leave the forest too - people who take care of forest will only hinder to take forest lands away for building and so on.
You can help to save the Khimki forest if you send an email to the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev!
Details (in Russian): http://www.forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9215
Monday, March 28, 2011
Forest fires again
The season of massive fires in natural areas of Russia began, and now the breaks will not be until at least late October. Currently, among wildfires completely dominated the dry grass and reeds fires - they are the most widespread in the southern regions of European Russia, in Kaliningrad region and the south of Primorsky Krai. The daily number of large grass fires is in hundreds, but a week later the number will rise in ten times. A week ago at least two summer houses and outbuildings in the south of Primorsky Krai were burned by dry grass fires. Firefighters managed to defend the oil tanks cane in Kaliningrad from reed fire, as well as the pipeline - from the fall of dry grass. In some regions the first small forest fires are already recorded. The smoldering peat in drained peatlands affected by last year's peat-forest fires in regions. Details (in Russian): http://www.forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9055
About the situation in the Russian forest sector in spring 2011
Forest "reforms" of the last decade (the elimination of the Federal Forestry Service in 2000 and the subsequent chaotic changes in the structure of forest management, the introduction of the new Forest Code in 2007, replacing professional managers by political appointees, and others) have led to a profound decline of Russian forestry. Current crisis in forestry has a chance to be the most severe crisis in the history of state forest management in Russia. In fact, the old system of forest management and forestry, formed by centuries, was destroyed and now is in a state of agony. But a new system doesn't work and may not emerge because of the incompatibility of the new forest law and life.
In the foreseeable future (at least in the next year or two), the situation will getting worse and worse, because the mistakes of "reformers" are not recognized and not corrected. The "reformers" explain the critical state of affairs in forestry due to false and secondary causes, inoffensive for them. Mainly the regional authorities are deemed guilty, because they ostensibly can not cope with their responsibilities and do not justify the trust placed in them. Accordingly, solutions, ostensibly aimed at correcting the situation are wrong or ineffective, and lead to growing of the level of devastation every year.
The current system of forest management reminds a "Potemkin village". It has a beautiful front facade, which can convince government leaders and other people far from the forests, that the forest is in relative order, and behind the facade everything gradually collapsing and dies. Maintaining of the beautiful front facade (an imitation of feverish legislative and compliance and enforcement activity, drafting of an unimaginable number of sectoral plans, programs, policies, concepts, reports, etc.) swallows up the most share of efforts and resources of forestry, and everything else is funded and provided by leftovers. Every year the content of the system of forest management is getting for the federal budget more and more expensive, but for real performers, working in the forest, of money comes less and less. Most often it happens that the money and time employees are only sufficient to produce reports on work performed, but not for real organizing and executing the work.
There is no normal forestry in our country, there is only bad-organized forest use and some elements of forestry, preserved from past times and gradually disappearing in the course of "reform". Virtually disappeared applied forest science and forest experiment work, forest protection, centralized system of fighting forest fires, the system of work with the public on fire prevention and forest violation. Reduced to the obscene, sometimes to zero, the volume and especially the quality of reforestation, care of the saplings, forest activities. Forest inventory almost ceased to exist, and a workable system of state forest inventory has not been established. It results in absence of reliable information on the country's forests, and in the coming years this information is not expected.
Effective system of protection of forests and other natural areas from fires also doesn't exist. After the fire disaster of 2010, forest protection has been restored "on paper", but only by imposing appropriate authority to those people, who are already fully engaged in fulfillment of other duties. People for whom the protection of forests would be the primary or sole responsibility has not appeared, because it was not allocated the money. Federal funds intended for the purchase of a new forest fire equipment will be obtained regions after the start of fire season, and the technique itself is likely to be able to start work almost exclusively in the following year. People able to organize an effective fight against forest fires will become much smaller, because in 2011, every employee of the forest will be forced to spend much more time on reporting and other office work - he wouldn't have enough time for working in the forest.
In general, the bureaucratization of the system of forest management has reached an unimaginable earlier level - an average "paperwork" of leaders and specialists in forestry takes more than three-quarters of working hours. The leaders also have to spend a significant proportion of their time in various meetings, usually incoherent and ineffective, so they doesn't have enough time for real work or they need to do it after hours. In fact, the largest funds in forestry are spent on maintaining paperwork and conducting various meetings.
The traditional system of forest management quickly dies. Most forest enterprises, many of which are major employers in their villages and towns are barely survive without much hope for the future. The main reasons for this - the critical level of depletion of economically accessible forest resources and the insane forestry legislation, which makes almost any lawful activity in the forest economically inefficient. Viability of the Russian forest sector is partly ensured by the abundance of relatively cheap illegally logged timber, but in many regions there is already nothing to steal. Despite this, more and more new large "investment" projects appear, including "priority" that receive forest resources on concessional terms (they are about a hundred such projects in the country), so the shortage of forest resources is becoming more hard. The continued depletion of forest resources and increasing costs associated with forest management (transportation costs, fuel, electricity, taxes, fees, etc.), make the forest sector of our country less competitive, and the chances of the majority of forest enterprises to survive - all the more elusive.
Catastrophically deteriorating situation with forest around large cities, particularly Moscow and St. Petersburg. Forestry is actually turned into a system of land distribution from the forest under a variety of needs (construction, infrastructure construction, placement of quarries, industrial facilities, etc.). Every year large areas of forest are built, fenced and taken out of general use, and primarily in the areas most attractive to the rest of people. Numerous fences and structures impede access of citizens, including those forests, which formally are still free - and these forests are also in fact removed from public use. From the perspective of ordinary people, the forests around large cities are rapidly disappearing or becoming private, inaccessible for most of the people.
One of the consequences of disruption in the forestry sector became a sharp and uncontrolled growth of loss in forest cover, dying as a result of outbreaks of pests, diseases, fires and similar disasters. The forests of many densely populated regions is already littered with deadwood, and after all the "reforms" the forest authorities simply can not dismantle obstructions. In the central regions of European Russia, there is a catastrophic outbreak of bark beetle, which will inevitably lead to forest destruction on a scale comparable to their death from fires in 2010, but much closer to major cities and towns. The forest administration authorities can not do anything with it - as there is not enough strength and expertise, and new legislation does not allow to carry forest protection measures fast enough.
In general, the situation looks dire, and even almost hopeless, but it is not much different from the situation in many other spheres of activity - agriculture, science, education, public order, etc. The roots of many problems that severely affected our forest, lie far outside the forest sector. Now it seems to be quite clear, that it is impossible to restore order in a particular forestry, without changing the overall situation in the country. It's necessary to recover workable legislation, professional bodies of state power, the system of holding officials accountable to the society and the law, and many other matters, which has been destroyed in recent years.
What to do with all this - is not very clear. Future of forestry and forests themselves are very closely linked with the future of our country, and it is now highly unpredictable. It is unknown whether already passed the historic "point of no return" after which return to the old life is impossible, or it has not been passed yet - but seems to be somewhere very close to it. Therefore, in conclusion, let me simply cite the words of Professor George Fedorovich Morozov, uttered in a similar historical situation - in April, 1917, at the opening of the All-Russian Congress of Delegates of the Union of Foresters:
"I am finishing, and in conclusion I say, that my speech unfortunately was sad - as if devoid of spiritual vitality. I can not say that I overcame pessimism, but declining optimism is unmistakable. Yet we should not despair. There is no place for cowardice now. Already the presence of you all in such a great number, in spite of the travel difficulties, testifies to the strength of life, the desire to work. And we will work, but will avoid partisanship. We will not sacrifice for the slogans any living persons or living things. We will not issue bills for which will not be able to pay, in conversation do not forget the forest, do not forget the interests of science, culture, and our knowledge that we carry. Let's turn all our optimism into the state affair. And a wise life is likely to find its way to the creative wisdom of the resultant extreme flows. Demonstrate statehood of our decisions, and let us remember that our banner keeps the eternal words: "Take care of the forest".
A. Yaroshenko (Greenpeace), March 18, 2011
In the foreseeable future (at least in the next year or two), the situation will getting worse and worse, because the mistakes of "reformers" are not recognized and not corrected. The "reformers" explain the critical state of affairs in forestry due to false and secondary causes, inoffensive for them. Mainly the regional authorities are deemed guilty, because they ostensibly can not cope with their responsibilities and do not justify the trust placed in them. Accordingly, solutions, ostensibly aimed at correcting the situation are wrong or ineffective, and lead to growing of the level of devastation every year.
The current system of forest management reminds a "Potemkin village". It has a beautiful front facade, which can convince government leaders and other people far from the forests, that the forest is in relative order, and behind the facade everything gradually collapsing and dies. Maintaining of the beautiful front facade (an imitation of feverish legislative and compliance and enforcement activity, drafting of an unimaginable number of sectoral plans, programs, policies, concepts, reports, etc.) swallows up the most share of efforts and resources of forestry, and everything else is funded and provided by leftovers. Every year the content of the system of forest management is getting for the federal budget more and more expensive, but for real performers, working in the forest, of money comes less and less. Most often it happens that the money and time employees are only sufficient to produce reports on work performed, but not for real organizing and executing the work.
There is no normal forestry in our country, there is only bad-organized forest use and some elements of forestry, preserved from past times and gradually disappearing in the course of "reform". Virtually disappeared applied forest science and forest experiment work, forest protection, centralized system of fighting forest fires, the system of work with the public on fire prevention and forest violation. Reduced to the obscene, sometimes to zero, the volume and especially the quality of reforestation, care of the saplings, forest activities. Forest inventory almost ceased to exist, and a workable system of state forest inventory has not been established. It results in absence of reliable information on the country's forests, and in the coming years this information is not expected.
Effective system of protection of forests and other natural areas from fires also doesn't exist. After the fire disaster of 2010, forest protection has been restored "on paper", but only by imposing appropriate authority to those people, who are already fully engaged in fulfillment of other duties. People for whom the protection of forests would be the primary or sole responsibility has not appeared, because it was not allocated the money. Federal funds intended for the purchase of a new forest fire equipment will be obtained regions after the start of fire season, and the technique itself is likely to be able to start work almost exclusively in the following year. People able to organize an effective fight against forest fires will become much smaller, because in 2011, every employee of the forest will be forced to spend much more time on reporting and other office work - he wouldn't have enough time for working in the forest.
In general, the bureaucratization of the system of forest management has reached an unimaginable earlier level - an average "paperwork" of leaders and specialists in forestry takes more than three-quarters of working hours. The leaders also have to spend a significant proportion of their time in various meetings, usually incoherent and ineffective, so they doesn't have enough time for real work or they need to do it after hours. In fact, the largest funds in forestry are spent on maintaining paperwork and conducting various meetings.
The traditional system of forest management quickly dies. Most forest enterprises, many of which are major employers in their villages and towns are barely survive without much hope for the future. The main reasons for this - the critical level of depletion of economically accessible forest resources and the insane forestry legislation, which makes almost any lawful activity in the forest economically inefficient. Viability of the Russian forest sector is partly ensured by the abundance of relatively cheap illegally logged timber, but in many regions there is already nothing to steal. Despite this, more and more new large "investment" projects appear, including "priority" that receive forest resources on concessional terms (they are about a hundred such projects in the country), so the shortage of forest resources is becoming more hard. The continued depletion of forest resources and increasing costs associated with forest management (transportation costs, fuel, electricity, taxes, fees, etc.), make the forest sector of our country less competitive, and the chances of the majority of forest enterprises to survive - all the more elusive.
Catastrophically deteriorating situation with forest around large cities, particularly Moscow and St. Petersburg. Forestry is actually turned into a system of land distribution from the forest under a variety of needs (construction, infrastructure construction, placement of quarries, industrial facilities, etc.). Every year large areas of forest are built, fenced and taken out of general use, and primarily in the areas most attractive to the rest of people. Numerous fences and structures impede access of citizens, including those forests, which formally are still free - and these forests are also in fact removed from public use. From the perspective of ordinary people, the forests around large cities are rapidly disappearing or becoming private, inaccessible for most of the people.
One of the consequences of disruption in the forestry sector became a sharp and uncontrolled growth of loss in forest cover, dying as a result of outbreaks of pests, diseases, fires and similar disasters. The forests of many densely populated regions is already littered with deadwood, and after all the "reforms" the forest authorities simply can not dismantle obstructions. In the central regions of European Russia, there is a catastrophic outbreak of bark beetle, which will inevitably lead to forest destruction on a scale comparable to their death from fires in 2010, but much closer to major cities and towns. The forest administration authorities can not do anything with it - as there is not enough strength and expertise, and new legislation does not allow to carry forest protection measures fast enough.
In general, the situation looks dire, and even almost hopeless, but it is not much different from the situation in many other spheres of activity - agriculture, science, education, public order, etc. The roots of many problems that severely affected our forest, lie far outside the forest sector. Now it seems to be quite clear, that it is impossible to restore order in a particular forestry, without changing the overall situation in the country. It's necessary to recover workable legislation, professional bodies of state power, the system of holding officials accountable to the society and the law, and many other matters, which has been destroyed in recent years.
What to do with all this - is not very clear. Future of forestry and forests themselves are very closely linked with the future of our country, and it is now highly unpredictable. It is unknown whether already passed the historic "point of no return" after which return to the old life is impossible, or it has not been passed yet - but seems to be somewhere very close to it. Therefore, in conclusion, let me simply cite the words of Professor George Fedorovich Morozov, uttered in a similar historical situation - in April, 1917, at the opening of the All-Russian Congress of Delegates of the Union of Foresters:
"I am finishing, and in conclusion I say, that my speech unfortunately was sad - as if devoid of spiritual vitality. I can not say that I overcame pessimism, but declining optimism is unmistakable. Yet we should not despair. There is no place for cowardice now. Already the presence of you all in such a great number, in spite of the travel difficulties, testifies to the strength of life, the desire to work. And we will work, but will avoid partisanship. We will not sacrifice for the slogans any living persons or living things. We will not issue bills for which will not be able to pay, in conversation do not forget the forest, do not forget the interests of science, culture, and our knowledge that we carry. Let's turn all our optimism into the state affair. And a wise life is likely to find its way to the creative wisdom of the resultant extreme flows. Demonstrate statehood of our decisions, and let us remember that our banner keeps the eternal words: "Take care of the forest".
A. Yaroshenko (Greenpeace), March 18, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Forest laws in Russia
Ministry of Economic Development has prepared a draft federal law ”On Amendments to the Land Code of the Russian Federation and other legislative acts of the Russian Federation to clarify the provision of land and determine the order of their permitted use,” implying substantial revisions in the Forest Code. Reminder: this is the ministry what in 2004-2006 developed a draft Forest Code currently in force, nearly killed the Russian forestry, leading to a catastrophic rise in poverty and unemployment in rural villages and towns, made the forest land neglected and eventually became the main cause of the fire catastrophe in the summer of 2010. The quality of the new amendments consistent saved ”ministerial style” - from their introduction can only be expected deterioration in the woods. The amendments reduce the scope of forestry legislation, introduced a new term - forestry (forest industries), but do not define this term, provide a basis for ignoring the characteristics and modes of protection forests.
The project has a very large volume and requires serious study. While it is clear that this once confused the bill is not based on whatever was the concept of forestry development in Russia, is not linked with the related laws and insertion of amendments and does not reflect the views of industry experts. Details (in Russian): http://forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8651
The project has a very large volume and requires serious study. While it is clear that this once confused the bill is not based on whatever was the concept of forestry development in Russia, is not linked with the related laws and insertion of amendments and does not reflect the views of industry experts. Details (in Russian): http://forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8651
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Environmentalists in Russia have no rights
Yesterday I got a message with a report attached from one of activists of the environmental movement named North Caucasus Environmental Watch. It was a report about visiting “the Putin Residence” that is located on the shore of the Black sea. I translated a part of this report to show how powerful the hand of corrupted officials in Russia is and how few rights environmentalists have. But first, I need to say a few words about the history of the question. The residence is officially owned by a close friend of Putin, Nikolay Shamalov, who was working for a while for Siemens AG. According to the information provided by Sergey Kolesnikov, a business man who oversaw the finances of the project, about 1 billion dollars were spent on the construction. You can find the open letter with additional information, written by Kolesnikov, here (Russian) http://corruptionfreerussia.com/?lang=ru.
Impressions of visiting “the Putin Residence” on the shore of the Black sea
More information about this can be found here
http://www.ewnc.org/node/6243
Impressions of visiting “the Putin Residence” on the shore of the Black sea
It is a VIP-building near the village of Praskoveevka, built at the cost of the destruction of thousands of specimens of endangered trees. The amount of energy and the natural gas spent to support the residence would be enough for a Russian town. We came to the building, which, according to the well-known letter Sergey Kolesnikov , called "Project South, on February 11 from Gelendzhik. In our team we had the journalist from the local newspaper Rimma Achimirova. Her plans were the same as ours, we were planning to see what is going on there. As we knew the project was built with serious violations of environmental laws. {..} There were eighth of us.
We didn’t see any cars on our way to the village. The only thing we saw on this stretch of road was new stretching power lines. They were impressive because of their strong steel towers. It may be suggested that the line ran to some big metallurgical plant. There are no such huge lines around there because all towns in this area are fed by simple electrical lines.
That is, the power needs of this project are many times greater than the needs of all surrounding communities together. According to unofficial information, about 20 percent of all electricity Gelendzhik county goes to the unfinished "Putin palace". Another thing that caught my eye on the road, was a gas pipe that ran to the residence from the side of Gelendzhik. Its diameter was about 80 centimeters, which would be enough to supply the gas of a cement plant. But there is no gas in the Praskoveevka as there aren't even distribution networks.
There is a checkpoint (a cabin with a barrier), which stands at fork in the roads, we got through without slowing down. Vladimir Ivanov, the head of Gelendzhik Human Rights Center, who was driving ahead of us, stopped his car by the cabin and asked the guard something. Suren (another activist) went through the open gate without stopping, and the guards paid no attention. In addition, there were no signs, informing you that the ride on this road is restricted. We didn’t see any on our trip. Two-lane road is quite narrow, but of excellent quality.
The road led us in three or four kilometers to the pass where it was possible to survey a part of the territory of "Estate". We even stopped at a parking lot to look around. Far below the sea could be seen on both sides the forest, the concrete skeletons still under construction buildings and roads. A whole town in the forest. Also we saw a tower for mobile communications. Few trucks drove by us and we saw several builders on the way. They looked with surprise at our car, apparently trying to guess if we are VIP, but there wasn’t any contact between us. The road came to some kind of underground garage. The main entrance to the Palace and the cypress avenue were farther on the road. Here we were divided. Suren and Katia Solovieva remained near the garage; I and a journalist Rima went toward the alley”.
After a while “The Watch activists and journalist were illegally detained near the palace and kept there, surrounded by Federal Protective Service staff and guards, for more than five hours. As they had not broken any laws they were not charged. The activists were abused by members of the FPS and the guards. All their stuff was taken (including phones, laptops, camcorder, navigator GPS ans documents) by guards. Items and documents have still not been returned. Illegal detention and robbery occurred in the presence of the police Internal Affairs of the resort city of Gelendzhik, which as a result of its inaction were complicit in the crime. {..} Actions of FPS staff who have committed robbery were directed to delete photos and video footage of what is happening in the Putin Residence. However, their goal wasn't achieved. Greens managed to keep memory cards with information and now you can see some photos from this place.”
More information about this can be found here
http://www.ewnc.org/node/6243
Friday, January 28, 2011
Confluence of art and nature
Most environmental art objects that I have ever seen, certainly original and embody the idea of protecting nature. Waste installations, photo exhibits and a lot more carry the call to be more attentive to the environment. But art, as well as actively growing number of fans of the green lifestyle, is not static, it evolves and absorbs the images and moods of the society, and gradually becomes more than just a mirror of the various social problems. Artists want to be not just an observers, especially when we see how global environmental problems are destroying our planet, but take a part in environmental movements. Daniel McCormick is one of such green art designers. His blog http://danielmccormick.blogspot.com/ I have been on his exibition in the David Brower Center.
Some pictures from the event.
Some pictures from the event.
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