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Russian Authorities Fail to Stop Illegal Logging in Far East Taiga

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Russian Ren TV on 24 January

[Presenter] A large scale police operation code-named Forest has been launched in Khabarovsk Territory. The operation is intended to fight illegal logging. The illegal activities of over 40 [timber] companies have been stopped. Some of the companies were producing timber with illegal assistance and cover from the local forestry officials and former officers of law-enforcement agencies. But it is the unemployed villagers, who have to resort to illegal logging to feed their families, who usually find themselves in the dock.

[Correspondent] There are hundreds of the so-called wild logging teams active in the Khabarovsk Territory taiga. Each of the teams has its own set of tricks to circumvent the law. For example one may get the logging licence for a certain area and go logging to some other place taking advantage of the cheap labour force.

[Semen Korolev, captioned as an official of the Khor village forestry authority] They usually employ people who have no job in the collective and state-run farms. The state-run farms have been closed down. And the children have to eat something. So the unemployed people get this employment. And they always get caught, as a rule.

[Correspondent, over video of a man sitting on a log and trying to hide his face from the camera] This illegal logger has been detained by the police in a thick part of the taiga. An irony of fate - just five years ago he worked as a local forestry inspector. He was to guard the forest and he knows it very well.

[Unidentified policeman] What's your name?

[Logger] Ivan Ivanych Ivanov [Russian equivalent of Joe Bloggs].

[Unidentified policeman] Ivan Ivanych Ivanov?

[Logger] Yes.

[Correspondent] The villagers' employer is practically immune to the law enforcers. He never comes to the logging area and the loggers' wages are paid by a middleman. Some of the villagers can be employed for R100 a day [about 3.6 US dollars] and daily food. Most often it is some cheap Chinese instant noodles. The loggers usually live right here, in portable cabins, all through the winter.

[Unidentified logger, standing with back to the camera] It's because I want to live and earn some money.

[Correspondent] Khabarovsk Territory has one of the highest rates of illegal logging in Russia. Last year [2005] the illegal loggers caused tens of millions of roubles' worth of damage. The illegally logged wood is bought by the Chinese neighbours. The precious linden, ash and oak are smuggled to China and return to Russia in the form of building materials, furniture and matchboxes.

[Unidentified logger, standing with back to the camera] There will be no wood left here after we have logged the last trees. And you'd better forget about it. The area has almost been cleared of it. It is being cleared of it.

[Correspondent] The illegal logging teams work under the cover of the forestry officials. Some of them are already being investigated but it is almost impossible to prove that a man who is an expert in this business is involved in criminal activities.

[Vasiliy Rabskiy, captioned as deputy head of the Federal Forestry Agency department in Khabarovsk Territory] They [the illegal loggers] are mobile. They are unpredictable. They can start logging in some place today and move to another place tomorrow.

[Correspondent] Most of the criminal cases against the leaders of criminal groups, some of which are led by forestry officials, usually break apart before they are referred to court. And even if these people are tried in courts they usually get off lightly with suspended prison terms. As for the unemployed villagers, they are usually let go because they usually have already spent the unlawfully earned money on food and drinks.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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