Devastating forest fires in Russia made worse by new law

Russia is currently experiencing large devastating forest fires.

Now there is talk that Russia's fire situation has been made way worse due to a new law passed 4 years ago by Vladimir Putin and powerful logging interests that disbanded a centralized system of forest protection and turned the country’s vast forests into a virtual no-man’s land.

Forest protection is now been left to regional authorities.

40 people have died, and about 2,000 families have lost their homes already in the current fires. A state of emergency has been declared in 7 Russian provinces, while Russia's worst heatwave in decades continues.

Officials have now disclosed that 13 hangars, full of aircraft and equipment, have been burned by the forest fires near Moscow. There is an unofficial word that 200 aircraft have been destroyed.

Environmentals are faulting bureaucracy and business lobbies for the faults in the forestry legislation, which they say was aimed at milking the Russian forests for quick profits.

When the centralized forest protection system was disbanded, 70,000 forest guards were eliminated. The forest guards used to watch over the forests and called in forest firefighters to extinguish any fires.

Environmentals are specifically pointing their fingers at Ilim Group, Russia’s largest timber processing firm, as the driving force behind the forest code changes.

International Paper owns a 50% stake in Ilim Group.

Source:

Law crippled Russia fire-response: opposition (Gulf Times)