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BROC Report 4

BROC Report 4

Monitoring remote forest sites of the most criminalized district, which is also the main loading point in Primorye of timber trains for China

REGION: Primorsky

DISTRICT: Dalnerechenski

DATES OF RIDES: 11th -12th March, 2003

PARTICIPANTS:

Artur Romanenko (BROC)
Roman Fadeev (BROC)
Serguei Markov (Forest Inspection)
Yurii Kostin (Beekeepers Association)
Alexander Samoilenko (Beekeepers Association)

Summary

In Dalnerechenski district rangers found significant differences to Chuguevski. Each private yard in Pozhiga town has logging and timber carrying equipment and timber piles. There were expensive jeeps in some yards. Illegality here is the norm; the sawmills rapidly process stolen timber into consumer boards, making it difficult to trace the origin of the logs.

Purpose

The goal was to check how a reduction in the number of customs points and timber depots in Dalnerechensk from about 30 to 5-6 influenced the intensity of illegal and official operations in the forest.

Introduction

The governor's initiative to reduce the number of wholesale-customs points and timber depots was supported by logging companies. The initiative appeared at first to make checking legality easier. On the other hand, there were some signals that this open monopolization of the whole business brought a lot of problems to the most fragile, and unwittingly criminalized, middle and small operators, mainly local citizens. This simultaneously increased all levels of corruption, in which most leskhozes, militia and Chinese-concerned companies are involved.

Timber train in Dalnerechensk, March 2003, Photo © BROC

Findings

On the way from Pozhiga north to Zimniki riders met 11 empty trucks, 9 of which were equipped with a self-loading facility. One local citizen, noticing the State Forest Inspection mark on the uniform of Markov, enquired, "Are you with the new forest police? Let me at least remember the licence plate number of your car". That meant almost certainly that all of them had unloaded their logs during the previous night around Dalnerechensk and were going to collect the next load of timber from the logging sites. According to Fyodor Kronikovski in Roschino, they also carry timber via this road from Tayozhni Refuge (Zakaznik). Near Ariadnoye town around 3 pm investigators watched 2 cars, accompanying timber, and one more further inside the forest. In the village of Romny one more sawmill is located, and a logging brigade, prepared to go to the forest with a truck and a car had been observed.

In Dalnerechensk riders stayed overnight and negotiated with our informer, local journalist Alexey Burmenko. Then they watched a series of closed timber depots and customs points (Dalnerechensk-2 and joint venture (Couple Dragons), and some of them had seriously increased the volume of timber in their yards (Horizon).

Recommendations

  • Continue regular monitoring of the changes on timber customs points to check official statistics of timber export.
  • Try find more local informers in the remote villages to create a clear picture of corrupt involvement of the militia and other inspectors.
  • Lobby district administration to shift economy back to traditional agricultural and NTFP activities to protect forests from exhaustive exploitation.