In Belarus, on forest management, including fires fighting, there allotted in 13.5 times public funds more than in Russia. So, for one hectare of forest Belarusian budget allocates $7.45 from, while only $0.55 in Russia.
In 2010, all Russian regions, taken together, allotted only 2.2 billion Russian rubles for forest protection, Vedomosti inform. The thing is that in 2007 Russia introduced new Forest Code, which abolished state forest protection. As a result, forests were transferred into private person’s property, who must be responsible for their safety.
To avoid catastrophic situation with forest fires in the future, it is necessary to restore the system of state forest protection in Russia, Alexei Yaroshenko, the head of Greenpeace forest program believes. According to him, to operate effectively the staff of forest protection on the territory of Russia should include not less than 20 thousand people.
«The most important thing is that forest protection must not become another bureaucratic agency with prosperous leadership and beggarly inspectors», Alexei Yaroshenko said. The specialist believes that for the purpose, it is necessary to fund forest protection not from regional budgets and not by the leftover principle.
Furthermore, the head of Greenpeace forest program stresses the need to recreate a unified system of aviation forests’ protection and large forest fires’ putting out (which was also abrogated in 2007). It will allow to redeploy promptly skilled forces and equipment from one region to another — precisely where there is a fire.
According to preliminary calculations of ecologists, to maintain full-fledged forest protection in Russia there needed about 23 billion Russian rubles per year. The specialists say that this amount is much less than Russia spends on firefighting and elimination of its consequences how. In 2010, only to put out the fire, excluding compensations to the victims, the budget would have to spend 30-40 billion Russian rubles.
