The Russian Forest association and the Office of the Business Ombudsman under the President of Russia will join forces on forestry issues

Vice-President of the Russian Forest Association of Timber Industry Andrey Goncharov took part in the round table "Key issues of the annual report of the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights to the President of the Russian Federation in the field of forestry", which took place on October 20, 2021 in Moscow.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, regional ombudsmen for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, the Federal Forestry Agency, representatives of business associations and the scientific community.

The experts discussed the issues faced by entrepreneurs in the process of carrying out economic activities in forest areas. In particular, the imposition of the boundaries of forest lands on plots of other categories due to discrepancies between the data of Rosreestr and the databases of other departments and the lack of a method for determining the initial price, taking into account regional characteristics when conducting auctions for the sale of the right to conclude contracts for the sale of forest stands.

Andrey Goncharov voiced several problematic issues that the Russian Forest association received, in particular, the imperfection of the open tender procedure for the right to conclude a lease agreement for a forest plot for timber harvesting, as well as the ambiguous interpretation of the concept of “illegal logging” by the authorities.

Within the framework of the round table, an agreement was reached to unite the efforts of the Russian Forest association and the staff of the representative under the President of Russia for the forestry complex.