Illegal felling of Russian forest will begin to monitor from space

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

General informatization has reached one of the most closed and criminogenic segments of the Russian economy - the forest. Everybody has heard reports of gigantic deforestation being sent from Siberia to China, and the internet is full of photographs showing a bare plain in areas where forests have recently grown.

Not so long ago, the effectiveness of the fight against illegal logging was, to put it mildly, low. Huge territories to be monitored, low wages of foresters, corruption of local authorities, huge profits from the sale of timber - all this created fertile soil for the predatory extermination of Russian forests.

However, now a special system is being created in the country, which in real time will show the state of the entire forestry - including those areas where intensive logging is underway. It is hoped that with the help of computer and space technologies, illegal logging will disappear in Russia as a phenomenon.

The director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Roslesinforg" Igor Muraev told the VZGLYAD newspaper how this will happen.

VIEW: Igor Gennadievich, what does Roslesinforg have to do with accounting for Russian forests?

Igor Muraev:Roslesinforg is a federal budgetary institution that conducts forestry operations throughout the Russian Federation. We have 37 branches, more than four thousand employees and several main areas of work.

LOOK: Which ones?

THEM.:First, we carry out a state forest inventory. In 2020, we will complete it and receive complete, objective and digital information about the forest fund throughout the Russian Federation.

The second is forest management. This type of work is associated not only with taking into account the forest, but also with the design of measures for the protection, protection and reproduction of forests. In other words, how to use the forest correctly - and at the same time protect, reproduce and care for it.

A large block of work is associated with the definition of the boundaries of forestry. By 2023, all the forests of the Russian Federation, where forest districts are formed, must have borders, and these borders must be entered in the Unified State Register of Real Estate. This is done to protect forests from illegal, unjustified seizures and misconduct.

And the last block of work of our organization is informatization in forestry. A map "Forests of Russia" has already been developed - it is an Internet service that allows you to visualize information about forest resources throughout the Russian Federation. And in the coming years, a unified information system in forestry will be created, which will unite all specialized information resources, including in the regions. The draft of the corresponding federal law is now undergoing the stage of approval by the authorities.

VZGLYAD: What will such an information system give?

THEM.:With its help, we will be able to continuously monitor changes in all Russian forests. In real time, on a special map, you can see what is happening at a certain point in the forest, for example, felling. Then this data will be sent to the relevant government agencies so that they can determine its legality. And if illegal, take the necessary action.

VIEW: How is information about forests collected? Can you be sure of its accuracy?

THEM.:Until recently, this work was done, relatively speaking, by hand. Specialists are in the forest and carry out appropriate forest accounting work.

However, it is clear that it is impossible to be in the forest all the time, just as it is impossible to keep such a huge staff that would cope with all the necessary volume of work. In addition, there are hard-to-reach places. Therefore, we are introducing new methods of forest accounting.

VZGLYAD: Are we talking about space?

THEM.:We call this remote sensing. And yes, we are working together with Roskosmos, information on the state of forests will be collected online using satellite images. Surveying from space will detect this or that change that has occurred in the forest (deforestation, the appearance of a landfill, a quarry, and so on), and the information system will automatically determine this change as legal or with signs of illegal use of forests.

VZGLYAD: You mentioned illegal logging. How is their detection and control carried out today?

THEM.: To date, control over illegal logging is carried out in-situ - that is, it should be carried out by forestries. In other words, foresters should detect felling. But remote monitoring based on satellite images has already begun to be implemented, and this year we have analyzed about 140 million hectares of forests in this way.

VZGLYAD: And if there are doubts that felling is illegal?

THEM.: If there are controversial issues and it is impossible to say for sure that this is a particular offense, then this felling is checked with access to the forest - as we say, “in kind”, including by our specialists.

VZGLYAD: But 140 million hectares are far from all forests in Russia. Why were these areas selected for monitoring?

THEM.: Using special methods, we qualified the forest fund on the basis of the signs of the possible occurrence of illegal logging. Taking into account ten-year statistics, taking into account the availability of infrastructure, we predicted that it is in these territories that offenses may occur. In the short term, a year or two, we must increase the volume of remote monitoring to more than 200 million hectares. This makes up about 20% of the total forest fund in Russia, and these are precisely the places where the likelihood of illegal logging is high.

VZGLYAD: How effective is such monitoring in terms of combating illegal logging?

THEM.: We have reliable information that with such monitoring, especially if it is carried out continuously, the volume of illegal logging in the corresponding territories decreases. Moreover, there are examples when in a number of forestries of the constituent entities of the Federation it was completely reduced to zero in this way. If a forest user understands that all his actions are effectively and in real time monitored by the state, and illegal actions will immediately be brought to the attention of law enforcement agencies, he behaves in a much more civilized manner.

VZGLYAD: Can we say that a few years ago such a control instrument did not exist and the authorities did not have information about illegal logging in the required volumes?

THEM.: Undoubtedly, firstly, there were no such volumes of remote monitoring. And secondly, there was no information system "Forest EGAIS". The integration of monitoring and the "Forest EGAIS" system gave a completely new quality of knowledge about what is happening in Russian forests.

VZGLYAD: But the problem of illegal logging still persists

THEM.: Yes, there are also territories, subjects of the Federation, where the volume of illegal logging is still large. We record this and send it to law enforcement agencies for response.

VZGLYAD: How do you generally assess the forest reserves in Russia? How have they been changing lately - are they growing or falling?

THEM.: Wood reserves and forest area in Russia are among the largest in the world. Moreover, the forest grows annually, in natural conditions the forest grows, its volumes become larger. According to the data of our state forest inventory,

wood reserves in the forest fund of Russia are 25-30% more than the volume that is officially accounted for today.

VZGLYAD: But is there still such a danger that uncontrolled, and even controlled, legal felling will destroy the Russian forest? Maybe it is worth reducing the volume of deforestation in Russia?

THEM.:Where the forest is used, there it is restored. If the wood has an appropriate age, it must be harvested. A tree of each species lives for a certain number of years, then it can begin to weaken and even die, posing a threat to the existence of the rest of the forest: diseases, pest colonization, windfalls and fires. Therefore, the main principle is the rational use of forest resources: harvesting, and protection, and protection, and of course, reproduction.

A number of federal legal regulations have now been adopted, which determine the need for reforestation after felling. This applies not only to industrial logging, but also to land and infrastructure facilities. A hectare of forest has been cut down - a hectare of forest must be restored.

VZGLYAD: Literally now the "Save the Forest" campaign is taking place. How do you feel about her?

THEM.:A very good and significant project, within the framework of which more than one million trees have already been planted. These actions will continue in the near future in different regions of Russia.

LOOK: Your organization is sometimes reproached for monopolizing the activities that you are doing. How would you answer them?

THEM.:The question of how many and what organizations are needed for forest accounting activities in Russia has been discussed many times. For this discussion, both science and public organizations were involved. Within the framework of this discussion, everyone agreed that this was not a question of monopolization at all, but that a special federal department should be centrally involved in the issues of security and guaranteed use of forest resources. And this decision was supported at the highest government level.

Commerce in matters of forest management - that is, determining how to use the forest correctly, how much of it can be taken, where exactly to take it - has led to very negative things, to a conflict of interest. There were examples when commercial organizations that carried out forest management work incorrectly prepared documentation - in particular, they prepared documents only for deforestation, and did not deal with its protection and conservation.

He cannot determine where it is necessary to cut wood, and where not, the one who receives commercial profit from the forest. The forest is a resource, and the owner must keep records of the resource. And the owner of the forest resource is the Russian Federation.