During the action against the hack Forest Code. Three mountain climbers are stretchind a banner on the arch of the Novoarbatsky bridge that read: “Recall the Hack Forest Code”
10 participants of the protest dressed in colourful tree suits
blocked the entrance to the White House. They held banners with a
demand to rescind a hack draft of the Forest Code from the Duma. In
response several security officers attempted to break up the
demonstration. They also made a list of journalists who had come
there. After that the police arrived to the place. All the
activists were detained and taken to the local police station of
the Presnensky district.
During the demonstration three mountain climbers stretched
another banner on the arch of the Novoarbatsky bridge that read:
“Recall the Hack Forest Code”
Greenpeace forest unit head Alexey Yaroshenko comments:
"The forest reform is vitally important for Russia. However, it
must have a clear legislative base, which will provide clear
answers to the crucial issues of the forest management. The
proposed by the government draft of the Code is a bungling and
vague document, according to which the most important issues come
under the jurisdiction of the federal bodies. This promotes further
corruption."
The new Forest Code is developed by people who are not able to
provide expertise in forest management. During the discussion the
draft received no positive response from forest experts. According
to Russian forestry specialists, the Forest Code is unacceptable in
its current edition. It has to be either amended or redeveloped.
Despite of the severe criticism of the new Forest Code, almost no
essential comments were taken into account.
The Code does not provide for general requirements to the forest
management in so called "forest protection" zones - green areas
near cities and villages, water protection forests and other
similar areas.
Moreover, these legislative changes will inevitably result in
the decline in the Russian forest industry: devastation of the
Russian forestry, destruction of high conservation value forests
and redistribution of property in the forest sector.
There is still time to stop. Greenpeace calls on the RF
government to rescind the draft of the new Forest Code and to send
it for further development. The working group to develop amendments
to the Code is going to be formed with forestry experts,
representatives of the forest industry, science, non-governmental
organizations. They will take into consideration all the proposals
and comments on the Forest Code received from the Russian
regions.
Additional information
1. The current Forest Code was passed in 1997. It's not a long
period on the global scale. In most countries with the developed
forest industry the principal forest laws are valid for 15-20
years. More frequent changes in the forest legislation are
considered to result in the chaos and instability in the forest
sector. However, Russia goes its own way. The first post Soviet
forest law - Foundations of the Forest Legislation - was passed in
1993; the next one - the Forest Code - in 1997. Later on it was
amended several times. Fundamental amendments were introduced in
the Code in summer 2004 by the notorious Federal law №122-ФЗ (these
amendments had never come into force, because they were revoked by
the next law 199-ФЗ). On 28th of December 2004, according to the
Federal law №199-ФЗ (prepared by the same government that developed
the draft of the new Forest Code), a number of important amendments
were introduced in the current Forest Code that completely changed
the forest management system. On 22nd of April 2005 - less than
four months after the last amendments were passed - a new draft of
the Forest Code was submitted to the State Duma. All these changes
are another proof that the government has no clear plans about
reforming the Russian forest management system.
2. All major "forested" members of the Russian Federation
criticize the draft of the Forest Code and propose either to
rescind it or to amend it fundamentally.
3. More than a hundred non-governmental organizations submitted
a suit to the Presnensky district court against the RF government.
They accuse it in neglecting thousands of appeals with a demand to
rescind the new Forest Code as a law that violates the rights of
citizens and contradicts national interests.