What does the Siberian taiga look like now

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In Ulan-Ude, on May 14, police dispersed an unauthorized rally against the deforestation of a Chinese company in the Zakamensk District. Meanwhile, on May 11, residents of the region, together with members of the government of Buryatia, decided not to lease the forests.

The United States used to buy a lot of timber from Europe, and for the past three years it has been buying from China.

I wonder where the Chinese have found so much cheap wood?

In Ulan-Ude, on May 14, police dispersed an unauthorized rally against the deforestation of a Chinese company in the Zakamensk District. Meanwhile, on May 11, residents of the region, together with members of the government of Buryatia, decided not to lease the forests.

The townspeople came to the building of the people's khural (parliament) at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the number of protesters grew every minute, according to Arigus.tv. Citizens carried posters with the words "Do not touch our forest", "For Baikal, for the Motherland", "Stop the barbaric deforestation."

An hour later, the police called on the protesters to disperse over the speakerphone. Moreover, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Buryatia Oleg Kudinov himself came out to calm the protesters, Gazeta-n1.ru notes. "We must act within the law, colleagues. The situation as a whole is not easy. The head of the republic and the government are aware of the problems that are in the Zakamensk region. This will all be resolved in a normal, legal manner, dear citizens. Please disperse," Kudinova quotes Tv2.today.

Nevertheless, the protesters refused to disperse, then law enforcement officers detained a young man, who was called the organizer of the rally, and put him on a service bus. Environmentalist and social activist Olga Baishnikova was also detained. "Free the Zakamenians!" - shouted in the crowd.

The rally turned into a scuffle with the police, one of the protesters tried to stop the departing police bus, throwing himself under the wheels. As a result, eight people were detained.

The United States used to buy a lot of timber from Europe, and for the past three years it has been buying from China

I wonder where the Chinese have found so much cheap wood?

Hemp instead of taiga: how China cuts Russia down

The vast forest areas of Siberia have already turned into a desert. In general, in the Far East, the illegal sale of timber brings in $ 450 million in profit a year, with two-thirds of this amount going to foreign operators, mainly of Chinese and South Korean origin

Blogger Andrey Zubets brings shocking data and photos to FB. But first, one of the comments on his post:

“Several years ago I talked with a helicopter pilot and said that there are territories in Siberia over which you can fly for half a day - and some stumps in the place of the former taiga, all to China.”

Russia leased to China 1 million hectares of forest for felling - this shocking news came long ago and for some reason did not cause the slightest resonance. The representative of the People's Republic of China said that the Chinese economy is in dire need of forest resources, and therefore considers Russia, with its huge timber reserves, as the main strategic partner. The Rosleskhoz said that the pilot project envisages "organizing an enterprise with the participation of Chinese capital on the terms of the forestry legislation of the Russian Federation, which will carry out forestry on the territory of the forest fund, logging and processing, including pulp production." One of the regions of Siberia will become an experimental site. In order to identify the most profitable area, Rosleskhoz expressed its readiness to provide the Chinese side with "any information about the timber reserves in Russia and the ways of its development."

The true price of this deal is probably known only to those who entered into it, who, instead of developing their own woodworking industry, invites a neighbor for this purpose. And, here, what will their benefit cost us?

Statistics from M. S. Palnikov's article "The Chinese Presence in Russia: Interim Results":

“In Primorye, for example, annually up to 1.5 million cubic meters of timber is illegally cut down, which brings shadow structures at least $ 150 million in profit - almost half of the regional budget. The famous Baikal-Amur Mainline today includes dozens of logging enterprises, tenants of the Amur logging sites. According to the Environmental Prosecutor's Office, more than half of the state forest fund has been allocated for felling in the Amur Region.

According to the estimates of the World Fund for Conservation of Nature (as of February 2002), such a scale of deforestation threatens the complete disappearance of forests in the very near future!

In general, in the Far East, the illegal sale of timber brings in $ 450 million in profit a year, with two-thirds of this amount going to foreign operators, mainly of Chinese and South Korean origin.

The animal world is being exterminated in the most barbaric way. In the summaries of the border department of the FSB for the Far East Military District, it was reported as rather commonplace facts that during the arrest, some Chinese couriers were found to have paws of 210 killed bears, others - 250 kg of lips of killed moose, others - 2500 sable skins, etc.

In recent years, the forests of the Irkutsk Region have been seriously damaged. By acquiring a permit supposedly for sanitary felling, loggers (usually local residents hired by the Chinese) then act at their own discretion, cutting down the first-class sawlogs and taking only the lower, most valuable part of the trunk, and throwing the rest at the felling site. Having paid $ 40 for a cubic meter of round timber, Chinese firms then sell lumber at international timber exchanges at $ 500 per cubic meter. In facilitating this robbery, the Chinese government even passed a law prohibiting the purchase of processed timber in Russia.”

Now this robbery, unprecedented in any other country, except perhaps the most backward colonies, will receive an additional legal basis.

Simultaneously with the news of the conclusion of the above transaction, a message came about the detention of smugglers who were trying to smuggle 500 paws of brown and Himalayan bears to China. It's amazing that the bears in Siberia have not died out yet! That they are not included in the Red Book along with the Amur tiger. How long? The Chinese, as you know, do not show concern for the flora and fauna, even on their own territory. What can we say about a stranger!

Apart from the problem of expansion, it is of great concern that with such a policy we will soon get a desert instead of taiga!

But this prospect does not in the least concern the Russian authorities. Immediate benefit obscures everything. For her sake, forests are sold for cutting to China. Rivers are destroyed for her. For her sake, our country is turning into a worldwide dump for radioactive waste, which has accumulated over 550 million tons at the moment. Representatives of international environmental organizations have repeatedly drawn attention to the unacceptable storage conditions for radioactive waste in Russia. Not so long ago, one of the German TV channels showed a report about a chemical plant in the city of Seversk, on the territory of which barrels with uranium waste brought from Germany are rusting in the open air. Rosatom plans to create a system of storage facilities for radioactive waste and to launch a radioactive waste management system in 2010. The corporation also plans to launch in 2015 a system for handling spent nuclear fuel and a program for decommissioning nuclear facilities. The question is, why not have these systems set up before importing hazardous waste into the country? Why, in general, Western countries prefer to send this "valuable cargo" to us, and not engage in its processing? But all this is not important for the gentlemen from the government! The main thing was to get a profit for a permit for the import of radioactive waste, and what to do with them then - again, "maybe" will lead …"

China protects its forest, and ours destroys

Russian forest is ruthlessly cut down for export to China

2017 has been declared the Year of the Environment in Russia. Only it seems not our country, but China … Such a feeling is created by looking at how, in order to please the Celestial Empire, which is restoring its forests, taiga is being cut down in Siberia and the Far East. The Irkutsk Region holds the anti-record. Last year, it was illegally cut down and taken to China. more than a million cubic metersRussian wood.

What is the main natural wealth of our country? Many will answer: of course, oil and gas. After all, it is on their exports that the main budgetary revenues of Russia are built. However, there is another answer: this is a forest, " green gold" country. First, in terms of oil reserves, our country is only eighth in the world, and in terms of forest area - the first on the whole planet … In Russia, about 25% of all world forest reserves, 3 times more than in the United States and Canada, taken together, over 50% of the world's reserves of valuable conifers. Secondly, and this is the main thing, oil, gas and other minerals are extracted and not restored, that is, sooner or later they will run out. And the forest, if you treat it with care and diligence, will live forever, bringing great benefits to the entire people - both economic and environmental. This is especially true of the Siberian and Far Eastern taiga, which is rightly called one of the main "lungs of the planet" and our national treasure.

More than half of all illegally mined timber is cut down in the Irkutsk region

Alas, this national treasure is now not simply not protected. His barbarously destroy … Forests are shrinking at an alarming rate, and millions of hectares of green space have already been lost. And, according to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Sergei Donskoy, the damage from logging in Russia is growing every year. Over the past five years, the volume of illegal logging has increased by 70%!

Almost all of this Russian wealth, which has become an export item, goes in the form of timber to China. In the Amur Region, according to official data from the environmental prosecutor's office, more than half (!) the state forest fund. And these are only legal volumes. The scale of the shadow business is at least no less. In Primorye alone, up to 1.5 million cubic meters of timber is illegally cut down annually, which brings shadow structures at least $ 150 million in profit. This amount is almost half of the regional budget.

According to the reports of the Siberian Customs Administration, in 2016 alone, loggers supplied almost 7 million cubic meters of timber to foreign consumers. Three quarters of this volume falls on the Baikal taiga, where more than 10% of the forest reserves of all of Russia are concentrated. As a result, ecology Baikal - one of the most beautiful pearls in Russia - is now under threat of destruction. The territory of the Irkutsk region is unique, since the share of valuable conifers is very high here, even on a global scale. In addition, the forest protects the soil from drying out. However, even in Soviet times, the Irkutsk region was in the lead in terms of logging volumes. In the post-Soviet period, she achieved even greater success in this field, cutting down timber several times more than any other subject of the Russian Federation. According to the official data of the Ministry of Natural Resources, more than half of all illegally mined Russian timber is harvested in the Irkutsk region. It accounts for 62% of the timber exports of the entire Siberian Federal District. The entire southern half of the Irkutsk Region is now almost a continuous felling area. The areas covered by legal and especially illegal logging are unprecedented. The territory of the Irkutsk region is currently covered by clearcuts by almost 50%, even in space images, huge wastelands are visible.

The largest forest dump in the world

Throughout the Irkutsk region, forest cemeteries are multiplying - and not only in the form of dead stumps of former living lush trees. Every city in the south and in the center of the Baikal region has huge dumps of discarded trunks and branches. The largest such forest dump in the world with a volume of 2 million cubic meters - under the city Ust-Kut … After all, as a rule, only round timber is exported, that is, the lower, most valuable part of the trunk, while the rest of the trunk and crown remain in place to rot - like the corpse of a former living tree. This is done by both "black" lumberjacks and legal tenants.… And it is more convenient to transport round timber. Russia has already become the planet's leader in the export of round, unprocessed timber - 16% of the world market - an unremarkable leadership.

Local residents are killing their own ecology, because for many it is the only way to earn money. The local authorities are satisfied with this, because they do not have to bother with the creation of legal jobs. And there are no protesters among the residents, because many are involuntarily employed in the criminal forest business. Corrupt officials are doing everything they can to keep this massacre going. Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of valuable species are illegally cut down under the pretext of sanitary felling. Almost no one seems to be really checking whether the logger has chosen his quota or has already exceeded it many times over. Moreover, the government also helps in every possible way to cut down the taiga for commercial purposes. A large part of the territory of Siberia and the Far East has already been leased to entrepreneurs from China or to a joint Russian-Chinese management … Tenants from China, which has become the main importer of Russian timber (64% of all its exports), are given tax preferences. For export to the Celestial Empire, there are preferential duties.

China has banned deforestation on its territory

The Ministry of Justice has approved the rules according to which the Ministry of Natural Resources has increased the area of forests, where it is possible to harvest wood, by 1.5 times. Now industrial felling is allowed in valuable cedar forests. Head of the Greenpeace Russia program for protected areas Mikhail Kreindlin outraged: “This will result in the destruction of forests in many regions of Siberia and the Far East, from the Tomsk region to Primorye. Many animals will lose their homes. The most valuable species - Angara pine, Mongolian oak, Korean pine, Manchurian ash - are being destroyed, and this is a blow to the entire ecosystem of the region. The water level in many rivers is already abnormally low, lakes are drying up. In the thinning forests of the Far East, according to the World Wildlife Fund, there are only 450 individuals of the Amur tiger listed in the Red Book.

But cedar wood is in significant demand, including among processors in China, where own harvesting of cedar is almost completely stopped … Not surprisingly, exports from Russia are growing. However, rather it is similar to the export of raw materials from an occupied colony. The Chinese government even passed a law prohibiting the import of processed timber from Russia- everything is in the interests of domestic, that is, Chinese, manufacturers. One cubic meter of Russian round timber is sold to China for about $ 40, and lumber made from it there for the USA and Europe is already on the international timber exchanges for 500 "bucks" per cubic meter. Nice broth, right? When 2017 was officially approved as the Year of the Environment, the minister Donskoy assured: "I am sure that positive changes will be noticeable to everyone." And he did not deceive. The positive changes are very noticeable … in China. If in the south of Siberia and the Far East there are already deserts made of stumps alone, because timber is cut down all day long, and there are practically no processing industries, then in In a 50-kilometer zone on the side of China, there are huge processing complexeslittered with Russian timber.

BY THE WAY

The authorities of the Celestial Empire, where forests were mercilessly destroyed before, 10 years ago they rigidly prohibited their cutting down - under strict criminal punishment. With the aim of transforming China into an ecological civilization, the authorities are working to restore forests that will cover about a quarter of the country by 2020. This state program is already bearing fruit. To date, about 13 million hectares of forest areas have been created. Where there were all the stumps, green oak forests rustled again. Let's be glad that this is also the merit of Russian forests sacrificed to the revival of Chinese ecology …

China remembers how nature can take revenge, but we seem to have forgotten this example, which we studied earlier at school in the NATURE lessons in India (How nature took revenge on China for the sparrows).

If we, the inhabitants of Russia, do not begin to take steps to change the situation, then soon the whole of Russia will turn into a desert on which trees will not grow, in which animals and birds cannot live, in which people also cannot live, i.e. e. We. And so it will be if we don’t think about it today, if we don’t start doing something to change the situation!

Related articles about our "friendship" with China:

1. IN THE LAST FEW YEARS RUSSIA GIVEN TO CHINA AS MUCH LAND AS IT COULD NOT TAKE DURING THE PREVIOUS EFFECTIVE CENTURY
2. BAIKAL - THE HEART OF THE WORLD, SOLD IN CHINA