Viktor Zubkov responded to journalists after the meeting:                                       

“The council members have just approved the draft state programme The Development of the Timber Industry in 2012-2020.

“This is one of the first state programmes which is now ready to be approved. It will be enacted next year and will be implemented in three phases.

“During the first phase, in 2012-2014, we will create an effective forest-fire prevention system which will also protect forests from other non-fire threats. A common state forest registration system and material-technical base for forest reproduction will also be created. A joint dispatch-control service comprising over 1,500 local dispatch centres will also be established for this purpose. Specialised forest fire prevention agencies will start operating at full capacity in every region. Modern fire-detection and fire-fighting systems, including thermal imagers and unmanned aerial vehicles, will be introduced. Forest monitoring programmes will cover a much larger area, up to 400 million hectares annually.

“Furthermore, in 2015-2017, we will improve our lease-holding agreements and our efforts in forest management and road construction in forests. We plan to construct 27 genetic selection centres which will provide more than 110 million saplings annually. This work has already started. The area of leased forest land not linked with timber harvesting will expand by 30%. The forests will have legal owners.

“In the final phase, in 2018-2020, we will complete the creation of a state forest inventory system, and we will also upgrade the system of scientific research.

“As a result, annual timber-procurement volume will increase two-fold by 2020 totaling approximately 270 million cu. m. per year. The route-kilometers of forest roads will increase by 7,000.

“In all, state projects will receive over 472.5 billion roubles, including 270 billion roubles’ worth of federal-budget allocations. The rest will come from regional budgets and extra-budgetary sources.

“This state programme will promote the positive trends in the timber industry and will set forth a clear state policy in forestry.”

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This programme was drafted by the Federal Agency for Forestry per Government Executive Order No. 1950-r “On approving the list of state programmes of the Russian Federation” dated November 11, 2010 and in line with Government Resolution No. 588 “On approving the procedure for drafting and implementing state programmes of the Russian Federation and assessing their effectiveness” dated August 2, 2010.

The programme’s main goals are as follows: facilitate a more cost-effective use of forests, their protection and reproduction; meet commercial demand for forest resources, while preserving the resource and environmental potential.

With due consideration for the main problems of the timber industry, the programme calls for accomplishing the following main objectives:

- facilitating more effective forest-fire prevention, detection and fire-fighting operations and minimise the economic and environmental damage and losses incurred by forest fires;

- facilitating more effective forest protection from unfavourable natural-climatic factors;

- raising the productivity and quality of forests based on guaranteed reproduction and forestation with a view to strengthening the environmental, recreational and timber-industry potential of Russian regions;

- facilitating the intensive use of forests, while retaining their environmental functions and biological diversity (biodiversity), as well as more effective control over forest use, protection and reproduction;

- improving socio-economic conditions inside the timber industry, raising the quality of forest research and improving personnel retraining and advanced-training programmes;

The programme’s goals will be achieved and its objectives accomplished under six sub-programmes stipulating the implementation of 25 main projects at the federal and regional levels. The implementation of the state programme will be overseen in line with 48 parameters.

The programme was designed within the parameters of the Concept of Long-Term Economic Development up to 2020 and those of the Strategy of the Timber Industry’s Development up to 2020.