Sale of Russian forests to private loggers could create ecological crisis

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1045069,00.html
It's Europe's lungs and home to many rare species. But to Russia it's £100bn of wood

Sale of forests to private loggers could create ecological crisis

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday September 19, 2003
The Guardian

A plan by the Kremlin which would allow Moscow to sell off the 843m hectares of Russia's forests to private logging companies has raised fears of an ecological disaster. Forest makes up 70% of Russia's territory and spans 12 time zones. It is known as Europe's lungs and is second only to the Amazon in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs, and is home to many rare species. On Wednesday the Kremlin decided to review the law on state ownership of Russia's forests, currently under the management of the ministry of natural resources, so they could be bought up by private companies. The estimated value of the land at private sale has been put at $164bn (£106.5bn). Yet environmentalists fear that the cost of its destruction to the planet, and air quality in Europe, may be far higher.

Andrei Ptichnikov, forest coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund, Russia, said: "Russia has 22% of the forest on earth - a very important part of climate stability and global biodiversity because of all the rare species that live there. According to some estimates, Russian forests absorb 15% of the world's carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. It provides a huge amount of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world."

A new draft of the forest code - a part of Russian law notorious among bureaucrats and ecologists for being as dense and impenetrable as the forest it governs - focuses on selling off the forest to private companies. At present, private firms can lease some of the land from the government for up to 49 years. The Kremlin heavily regulates its use. The new law however gives any private company the chance to buy the forest land outright, or to have use of it for up to 99 years and then buy it. The government hopes it will be approved by parliament by November 1.

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The big sell-off:Oil, gas and aluminium During the mid-90s, the Yeltsin government accepted a proposal by businessmen to "manage" the state utilities and natural resource companies, in exchange for a "loan" to the government. This gave half a dozen men control over companies like Gazprom, which owns 30% of the world's natural gas, and oil giants Yukos and Lukoil. The finance, coupled with the media outlets these oligarchs owned, helped sway the 1996 elections in Boris Yeltsin's favour...The 2002 land code permits sale of land on which factories sit and of private plots, previously prohibited. Yet the sale of farmland remains prohibited, and tenants have to go through a complicated procedure to change how the land may officially be used Airlines Aeroflot was turned into a private company by Valeri Okoluv, Mr Yeltsin's son-in-law, with help from the Kremlin kingmaker at the time - now receiving political asylum in London - Boris Berezovsky