In September 2003, Evgenii Fedorov, a FSF researcher, made a field trip to the Boguchansky district of Krasnoyarsk region for the collection of information on illegal forest logging. He arranged a number of meetings with the representatives of the Forest Use and Ecology Department of the Boguchansky District Administration and of the District Court, with the specialists of the Boguchansky Main Forestry Enterprise, and with the local people. Boguchansky district is one of the few forest-rich districts in Krasnoyarsk region. He collected material on the volume of illegal logging in the forests of the district and found multiple instances of violations of current legislation. On the basis of the obtained data, he made recommendations to the leaders of Boguchansky district and Krasnoyarsk region on the need to take immediate measures to enforce control over the illegal turnover of timber in the district. It was recommended that an official investigation be conducted on illegal logging in close proximity to the Village of Boguchany. Also, he offered the help of Friends of the Siberian Forests to the non-government organization Ecologists of the Lower Priangarye, which is the only one in the district (Lower Priangarye is the region along the lower flow of the Angara River).

The present study was organized for the collection of information on the situation regarding illegal forest logging and for the determination of the causes of forest degradation in Boguchansky district.

The total forest area of Boguchansky district is 5,278,232 ha, the area covered by forests makes up 4,982,070 ha. In Russia, the total forest area includes all territories that can be forested, such as bogs or meadows inside the forest contours, and areas that were forested, such as logged places that are no longer actually covered with forests. The actual forest cover makes up 92.3% of the district, which has an area of 5,398,506 ha. The general growing stock in the stands in the whole forestry enterprise makes up 38,442,700 m3, of them the coniferous growing stock is 28,486,200 m3, and the soft-wooded broadleaved - 9,956,500 m3. In contrast with 1990 the general growing stock has decreased by 14,908,700 m3. The exploitation stock of the forestry enterprise has also vastly decreased (by 17,451,400 m3). This was mainly at the expense of the coniferous stands - 17,401,300 m3. The reduction of both the general growing stock of the stands, and that of the exploitation stock is connected, first of all, with the principal felling and wildfires. According to the data of the Forest Use and Ecology Department of the Boguchansky District Administration, at present more than 3 million m3 of timber is logged annually. At such a rate in just 20 years (and earlier in case of wildfires) there will be nothing to fell.

Because of the boundless expanses of the Siberian taiga, much of the area has been relatively unexploited to date. One often hears of the down-sizing and funding cuts in forest services, despite the need for protection for wilderness areas. In the area of Boguchansky district there are practically no specially protected natural areas. Timber extraction is of paramount importance. Thus, Minchandsky reserved forest, opened in 1976, was logged in 1986.

For ten years ecologists have tried to single out two little-disturbed forest areas (Kazhimsky and Punsky), each of about 200,000 ha in the northern part of the district and to assign them a protected status. But the advancement of the forest loggers to the north will hardly allow them to do it under present trends of the Russian economy.

A no less important problem, understood by the forest loggers themselves, is illegal forest logging. According to the Boguchansky forestry enterprise administration, the unbearable working conditions, and sometimes the helplessness of the forest guards, reduce to nil the energy spent on guarding the forests. The small staff of the forestry enterprise employees, which is constantly being down-sized, is unable to keep control over the enormous area of the forestry enterprise and to react efficiently to the violations. Compounding the problem, forest rangers feel helpless and frustrated when illegal loggers they have previously caught are allowed to go free to continue with illegal logging, assisted by corrupt officials.

Within this current study we documented one more type of illegal logging - the use of the forest resources close to the areas that had been earlier allocated for logging. Thus, within several kilometres from the Village of Boguchany, at the site of logging in 2000 with an area of 0.48 ha, traces were found of fresh illegal logging intended for sale as sawn timber. The butts and tops were left in the forest, which is indicative of removing the most valuable part of the trees in high demand by Chinese buyers (see picture above).

In the same area, which is in close proximity to the road, leading to the railway station of Karabula, we saw the situation pictured (below).

The main method to reduce violations in the forest should be enforcement of control over forest logging and improvement of the forest protection service's mobility.

Following an analysis of the cases brought to court in Boguchansky district in 2000, it was revealed that six cases were prosecuted, due to a large incurred by the forest management authorities of the district (Item 260, Part 2).

In 2001 the number of lawsuits against the forestry enterprises directors was sixteen. In nine cases, the persons who broke the law were punished with 1 year of imprisonment by Item 260 (2). In two of the lawsuits the violators were punished according to Item 260 (3) with 1.5 years. The financial losses incurred by these two violations were larger than in the cases considered earlier that year, making up about 500,000 roubles. In 2002, losses from illegal logging just within the five lawsuits analysed numbered more than one million roubles. Three suits were brought against organized groups, committing illegal actions by a preliminary agreement (Item 260, Part 3).

Besides the statistics of the prosecuted cases, there are also violations of Forest Legislation by businessmen and inhabitants of Boguchansky district, registered by the forestry service, but not submitted to the public prosecutor's office. As for the forestry enterprises, located in Boguchansky district, the loss from the illegal actions in 2001 made up 14,952,432 roubles, in 2002 - 23,892,474 roubles, and in the second quarter of 2003 - 2,646,822 roubles. For the three years the total amount recovered in favour of the state was just 1,856,902 roubles (less than 1%).

According to the report of the Boguchansky main forestry enterprise office about the violations of the Forest Legislation as of 01 June 2003, it follows that all the forest users (of them the 427 companies, working in the district area) broke the Forest Code. 31 forest users went bankrupt in 2003. Their unrecovered debt is about 38 million roubles. Such a pattern of forest business becomes a rule. Having spent several thousand roubles to open a company, a newly made forest user gets the profit of many millions, breaking the law, and then simply goes bankrupt with his organization, leaving the losses unpaid. At best he will be forced to return the debt. In the worst case the businessman will register under another name and continue doing his dirty business.

Using the data of the Forest Use and Ecology Department of the Boguchansky District Administration the customs levy on timber taken from the district in 2001 made about 15 million USD. In 2002 the levy totaled 23 million USD, and in 2003 it can make more than 30 million USD. Not a single cent was returned to the district and used for the conservation of the forest biodiversity.

• Enforce control over the illegal turnover of timber in the district and issuing of licenses to the logging companies.
• To combat illegal logging, the district and village administrations, as well as the forestry enterprise, should take hard and immediate measures to stop violations of the current legislation. To do so, it is necessary to form and support at a proper level the service guarding against illegal actions in the forests.
• Conduct an official investigation on the facts of illegal logging in the subcompartment #8, quarter #20, revealed by us in the Boguchansky forest district of Boguchansky forestry enterprise.
• The legislative and executive organs of the Russian Federation should in every way promote biodiversity conservation and render help to the other organizations with the realization of ecological programs in the areas with a high level of anthropogenic pressure on the environment and natural resources.
• Build up public awareness regarding the need to protect the environment and inform the public about the violators of legislation and the consequences of illegal logging for the environment.