Results of the meeting of the Council on the development of the forestry complex of the Russian Federation under the Federation Council

On November 20, the 34th International Exhibition “Furniture, Fittings, Upholstery Materials” opened at the Moscow Expocenter. As part of its work, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Yuri Vorobyov held a meeting of the Council on the development of the forestry complex of the Russian Federation. The Russian Forest Association was represented at the meeting by its first vice-president Andrey Goncharov.

Meeting participants summed up the work of the Council for 2023. Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Oleg Bocharov made a big report. In his speech, he emphasized that the ministry proposes a number of measures that need to be taken. The main ones are the abolition of the 10% export customs duty on wet lumber and the abolition of the 7% export duty on pulp and paper products.

Oleg Bocharov, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation: “The industry has a stable position in foreign markets. No other sub-sector of the forestry complex can provide the export capacity that pulp and paper industry provides. Loading it now at 7% means giving the market to Brazil, Canada, and through deep-water ports to the countries of Southeast Asia and China.”.

The meeting also included a discussion of the implementation of the national project “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (UAS) until 2030, within the framework of which it is planned to purchase domestically produced drones for regional forestry departments, subordinate institutions and territorial bodies of Rosleskhoz. Drones will be used not only for monitoring forest fire conditions, promptly detecting fires and extinguishing forests, but also for forest pathological examination of forests and protection from illegal logging.

Summarizing the results of the work, members of the Presidium of the Council for the Development of the Forestry Sector of the Russian Federation noted that it is necessary to accelerate the adoption of measures aimed at:

• • further development of wooden house construction;
• ensuring deep wood processing through the construction of new and expansion of existing wood processing enterprises, including pulp and paper mills;
• development of the Northern Sea Route and expansion of the capacity of the Volga-Baltic and Volga-Don canals;
• commissioning of additional and reconstruction of existing checkpoints, primarily on the eastern border;
• modernization of existing ports of the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas to ensure transshipment of timber cargo through them.

At a meeting, the Council for the Development of the Forestry Complex of the Russian Federation outlined a work plan for 2024. The meeting was attended by State Duma deputies, senators, representatives of interested federal authorities, leaders and representatives of 22 regions of Russia, the scientific and business community.