The Forest Plan is of Social Importance
On July 18, 2008 the representatives of local population, funds, science, forest business from Syktyvkar, Udora, Pechora, Izhma, Sosnogorsk and Troitsko-Pechorsk regions of Komi gathered in Silver Taiga Foundation office to discuss the draft of the Forest Plan of the KomiRepublic.
According to a new Forest Code of the Russian Federation the whole system of forestry and business planning has changed a lot. The main innovation of the Forest Code is the Forest Plan of the region – a document of medium-term strategic planning approved by the Head of the Republic for the period of 10 years. The Forest Plan should define the main directions of regional forests use and regeneration in accordance with their resource-economical, ecological and social value.
The main author of the Forest Plan of the Komi Republic is the branch of the Federal Unitary Enterprise «Roslesinforg» – Sevlesproekt (former Northern forest management enterprise of Vologda town). The economic part of the Forest Plan has been prepared by the Institute of socio-economic and energy problems of the North of Komi scientific center of the Russian Academy of Science, the general scheme of forest roads development has been elaborated by the Territorial Fund of Information of the Komi Republic.
According to the procedure of the Forest Plan elaboration and approval it should be broadly discussed and approved by all interested forest stakeholders. With this purpose the Forest Plan draft was presented on the web site (http://komles.rkomi.ru/index.phtml) of the State Forestry Service of Komi in the beginning of July 2008. It should be mentioned that this document is very big in size so it is not easy to get it from the Internet.
In fact the draft of the Forest Plan of the Komi Republic is the continuation of the soviet system of remote forest territories development with no roads, population and infrastructure. As for the developed central and southern regions they are not in the focus of the Plan. Most of the participants of the meeting think that central and southern regions have more perspectives for intensive forestry. The intensification of forest growing in these regions can constantly provide logging companies with wood and more people can get job for a long-term period.
According to Galina Knyazeva a chairman of Community Chamber of the Komi Republic the authors of the Forest Plan should pay attention first to the structure of the forest reserves while projecting and elaborating the scheme of forest development and not to the risky investment projects which are not likely to be realized.
Finally the participants of the meeting agreed to continue the discussion of the Forest Plan draft in the regions of Komi and to direct all the comments and remarks concerning its content to the State Forestry Service of the Komi Republic at email: Okomles@parma.ru or by fax: +7 8212 244327.
Besides the leaders of the Pechora River Rescue Committee Valentina Semyashkina and Tamara Makarova came to the conclusion that according to item 1st of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation and item 12th of the Federal Law № 174 ФЗ «About ecological expertise» the Forest Plan draft is entitled to the state ecological expertise. As a result of a discussion a corresponding letter has been sent to the Minister of Natural Resources and Preservation of the Environment of the Komi Republic Alexander Borovinskikh.