This is important: the European Union introduces a ban on the import of wood products

Very good positive news. In Europe, the authorities have reached an agreement with all countries of the alliance to ban the import of goods whose production is associated with deforestation. Including PRIMARY, that is, ancient untouched areas of wildlife. This is exactly what we are now actively fighting for in Russia!

Let me quote a post on the official EP Twitter channel.

“To combat climate change, products from deforested lands will no longer be sold in the EU. An agreement between parliament and council still needs to be formally adopted before it can become law.”

These are truly global changes, radical steps to protect forests! For the first time, Europe, on whose territory all ancient climate-regulating forests have been reduced to almost zero, decides to limit the import of any products from trees, the felling of which has led to deforestation and ecosystem degradation.

To date, there are opportunities to control the movement of wood from logging to finished products. And in Russia, such technologies have long been introduced, and are now being actively promoted and improved. The EGAIS system for wood accounting is a federal information system designed to track and record the harvesting and supply of wood, sawn timber and other products made from wood.

We tracked the digitalization of the country’s forestry sector from the very creation of the Unified State Automated Information System and all discussions to implementation in the regions of the country. Now the system, albeit with frank holes, but works, is being improved, and it is likely that in the near future we will see a well-coordinated permanent control over the Russian Taiga.

In some countries of the world, technologies are already being introduced that allow buyers to find out from which particular tree and in which part of the world it grew, products were made. Whether it’s a table, a cabinet or a stack of paper for printing. Such technologies give each person the opportunity to consciously decide for himself: whether he will buy products for the manufacture of which another reserve was destroyed or cutting down completely provoked the global destruction of ecosystems.

And everything would be fine, but you can’t get by with the awareness of a rare Person alone. The consumer “gobbles up and does not choke.” Therefore, a state ban on the import and sale of such products is a really important and very necessary step in protecting the world’s forests! Less demand means less cutting.

Now the European Parliament reports that products from paper production and animal husbandry, soybeans, coffee, palm oil and so on may also fall under the restrictions. That is, everything that is directly related to the destruction of forests! The EU countries will track the supply chains using digital technologies, and it is planned to issue special certificates for those products that will be allowed to be imported and sold.

The bill will soon be adopted, it is still necessary to go through a number of bureaucratic procedures, to establish a control system, but the EU countries plan to do this in the shortest possible time. For our part, we will follow developments.

In Russia, we have been trying for a long time to achieve recognition of the climate-regulating functions of the Russian Taiga and a ban on cutting down ancient forests (natural primary forests). Conducted expeditions, attracted the attention of society and authorities, I wrote the book “Ancient” about this, which was published in all online bookstores in the country. And now the authorities are discussing the need to ban the cutting down of ancient forests, no matter how the clumsy bureaucracy resists, the results will be. We will achieve the protection of the ancient forests! But given the need for a complete rethinking of forest management in the country, this will not be easy to do.

I also want to note that thanks to the EGAIS system, the export of sawn timber and wood products is now controlled both within Russia and to other countries of the world. Moreover, checkpoints at the borders work to a limited extent, high customs duties have been introduced, and all exported timber is carefully checked. In addition, we managed to achieve a ban on the export of round timber from the country: through the efforts of the entire public, organizations, allies in power! Since January 1, 2022, such a ban has been in force in Russia by presidential decree.

If earlier wood was exported from the country by wagons, just in its raw, unprocessed form, now deep processing has been established within the country, and only finished products are produced. I know from the regions that many cuttings have been reduced, and this really affects the scale of the destruction of the Russian Taiga.

In the very near future, on my own behalf, I will draw up and send a request to the Government of Russia! We will ask them to consider the issue of banning the import into the country of products from trees that have been destroyed in other countries and their cutting has led to environmental disasters. Such control can be organized using the EGAIS system, expanding its capabilities. I am sure that with the support of our allies in power, such a proposal will be considered and accepted.

Let me remind you that throughout 2023 we will work in the International format! For the first time, international expeditions will be held to protect wildlife, and we will also promote a project to create territories of complete ecological tranquility and protect ancient climate-regulating forests! We will try to push through projects not only in Russia, but also in the governments of other countries of the world.

Our Russian Taiga must live! I sincerely believe that together we will be able to achieve global changes.

© PAVEL PASHKOV