Topical issues of fighting forest fires were discussed at the site of the ONF

On June 29, a working meeting “Actual issues of fighting forest fires. Development of solutions. The Russian Forest Association was represented by its first vice-president Andrey Goncharov.

The main topics of discussion were:

• forest fire risks and implementation of fire safety measures;
• legislative initiative to give additional powers to tenants of forest plots in terms of protecting forests from fires;
• interdepartmental cooperation in the development of measures to combat the causes of forest fires.

One of the main questions raised during the meeting concerns a legislative initiative to give additional powers to tenants of forest plots in terms of protecting forests from fires. Businesses are interested in saving their timber bases from fires, new technologies will continue to appear here. However, at present, it is necessary to concentrate joint efforts on solving the problems that the forest industry has faced in recent years - these are logistics, machinery, equipment, spare parts, sales markets.

Andrey Goncharov, First Vice-President of the Russian Forest Association: “A significant problem of integrated fire prevention is the inconsistency between the standards for landscaping of various categories of land. The Russian Forest Association proposes to develop and approve a single document that will regulate the conduct of fire prevention measures on lands of various categories, and not introduce criminal liability where it is already close to the maximum”.

Meeting participants noted that it would be worthwhile to consider moving from the currently prevailing rapid detection and response model to a methodical approach to forest fire risk management.

The meeting also noted a number of problems that hinder effective work to combat forest fires, including the failure to fulfill the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, which he gave back in 2013 within the State Council and in 2020 at a meeting on the development and decriminalization of the industry . Major of these errands include:

• stimulating the construction of forest roads, which are necessary for patrolling and extinguishing forest fires: the need for forest roads is increasing, but there are no mechanisms to stimulate their creation yet;
• Untimely implementation of sanitary and recreational activities in forests, which directly affects the fire hazard situation.

The Russian Forest Association interacts with the Control Department of the President of the Russian Federation, with authorities and other business associations on the development of decisions on these issues.