Under the leadership of the country’s total wood reserves are now extremely low, you use the potential of Russian forests, said its Deputy Chairman of the government of Victoria Abramchenko. “Forestry is a 0.67% of the GDP of the country. While the forestry sector affects a significant portion of GDP – more than 30%, and affects many sectors of the economy, such as mining, construction, fuel and energy complex, agriculture and others. Revenues coming into the budget from forest, made up of 144.7 billion in 2019”, – stated the Deputy Prime Minister.
to Develop the domestic demand for “forest” products are planned in several directions. “First of all, in the framework of the “ecological” approach we are considering measures to encourage the use of biomaterials. As an example: the introduction of a minimum share of packaging from paper and cardboard. Such mechanisms today, we will discuss at the working group on preparation of the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR),” – said Abramchenko.
Another discussed solution is to stimulate the production of pellets – biofuel and its use instead of using fossil fuels (e.g. coal and fuel oil). “There is a significant potential. Global demand for wood fuel is 35 million tons per year, by 2030 it is expected to be a significant increase to 100 million tons per year. And Russia is one of the leading countries-exporters of those products,” – said Abramchenko.
Stimulation of production and demand will give impetus to the industry’s transition to the circular economy, the transformation of wood waste into eco-friendly goods. “One of the measures of support in this direction is already being implemented by the Ministry of industry, which included the production of pellets and briquettes in your order about subsidising of export shipments. Of course, this will increase the volume of their production and will allow companies to use wood waste and significantly reduce the number of landfills in the country. According to expert estimates, in Russia annually produces more than 25 million cubic meters of non-recyclable waste wood,” said she. The order of the Ministry of industry and trade is now on registration in Ministry of justice. This measure support will promote waste-free production in the forest sector.
the government is now preparing a unified strategy for the development of the forest industry. It will include all activities from forest management to wood processing and its implementation, for example, in modern wooden housing construction. According to the Vice Prime Minister, the most important condition for the withdrawal of the industry from the crisis is the transparency of the timber trade at all stages: from the establishment of boundaries of forest districts and forest land to the harvesting, processing, shippingkey to the end user. The unified state automated information system (Lasegue) will be upgraded and the plan will be “legally binding instrument by confirming the legality of origin of wood and transactions with it”, said Deputy Prime Minister. The strategy for forestry sector development will be submitted to the Chairman of the government this fall.
