A meeting of the Council for the Development of the Forestry Complex was held in Irkutsk

The first meeting of the Council for the Development of the Forestry Complex of the Irkutsk Region took place on March 4 under the leadership of Governor Igor Kobzev. Representatives of federal and regional government bodies, businesses and industry associations took part in the meeting. The Russian Timber Association was represented by its Vice President Alexey Loginov.

The agenda included key issues: implementation of investment projects, operation of the Federal State Information System of Forestry, transportation of forest products and conversion of boiler houses to biofuel. Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Sovetnikov noted that the Irkutsk Region remains one of the leaders in the country's forestry industry.

The region ranks third in Russia in terms of forest area - 69.5 million hectares, which is 90% of the territory. In 2024, 27.6 million m3 were harvested in the Irkutsk Region. timber, which corresponds to 35.6% of the estimated felling area.

Igor Kobzev, Governor of the Irkutsk Region: “The day before, I reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the fight against forest fires in the Angara region. In addition to productive work in this area, the Irkutsk Region is certainly also focused on developing the forestry complex. The forestry complex of the Irkutsk Region is made up of 649 forestry and logging enterprises, 530 enterprises involved in wood processing and the pulp and paper industry. The industry employs about 30 thousand people”.

Currently, 12 priority investment projects are being implemented in the region to develop the forestry complex with a total investment of 140 billion rubles. By 2029, it is planned to increase the number of projects to 14, and the total investment is up to 150 billion rubles.

In 2024, the region's enterprises produced:

• 2.6 million tons of pulp and cardboard;
• 4.4 million m³ of sawn timber;
• 148 thousand tons of biofuel.

More than 80% of the products are exported. The main destinations are China, Japan, Korea, and the CIS countries. According to the East Siberian Railway, 42.2% of export deliveries are pulp and paper products, and 51.4% are sawn timber.

According to the results of 2024, the forestry enterprises of the Irkutsk Region provided 4.4 billion rubles in tax revenues to the budget, which makes the region the leader in forest tax payments in the country.