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### Viewing cable 09MOSCOW2366, RUSSIAN ILLEGAL LOGGING - AN OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09MOSCOW2366 | 2009-09-15 11:11 | 2010-12-01 21:09 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Moscow
Appears in these articles: http://www.spiegel.de

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    VZCZCXRO5832
    PP RUEHAST RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTM
    RUEHTRO
    DE RUEHMO #2366/01 2581150
    ZNR UUUUU ZZH
    P 151150Z SEP 09
    FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4809
    INFO RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 3699
    RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 3346
    RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 5468
    RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 1679
    RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
    RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
    RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
    RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
    RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 002366

    AIDAC STATE FOR USAID/E&E
    STATE FOR OES/STC, OES/PCI, EUR/ACE, EUR/RUS, EUR/PGI
    INTERIOR PLEASE PASS TO USFWS
    USDA PLEASE PASS TO U.S. FOREST SERVICE - LARA PETERSON
    COPENHAGEN FOR ERIK HALL

    SENSITIVE

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: N/A

    TAGS: SENV EAGR KGHG EAID KCRM SOCI PREL RS
    SUBJECT: RUSSIAN ILLEGAL LOGGING - AN OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE

    REF: Vladivostok 5

    Moscow 00002366 001.2 of 004

    Sensitive but unclassified -- please protect accordingly.

    ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The USG has an opportunity to work with Russia to
    combat illegal logging, and increasing reasons to do so. Russia
    contains more of the world's forested area than any other country --
    approximately 20 percent -- and between 10 and 30 percent of wood is
    harvested illegally. Illegal logging leads to environmental
    degradation, exacerbates global climate change, and disrupts trade
    and local economies. Russia's illegal logging problem is magnified
    by systemic flaws in the forest management system and an inadequate
    legal framework, many stemming from the new Forest Code of 2006.
    The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has worked with some Russian regional
    governments to combat illegal logging. There are several new
    opportunities for cooperation on this issue, including the planned
    new Protocol of Intent between the USFS and the Russian Federal
    Forestry Agency, as well as the Embassy's proposal for $200,000 in
    FY2008 performance funds to address illegal logging. END SUMMARY.

    Russia's Forests - World's Largest and Most Degraded
    --------------------------------------------- -------

    ¶2. (U) Russia contains approximately 22 percent of the world's
    forested area, more than any other country. (NOTE: Second-place
    Brazil has 16 percent. END NOTE.) Russia's boreal forests are the
    Earth's largest forested region. Russia has more than 55 percent of
    the world's conifers, which comprise over 21 percent of the world's
    growing stock, and 11 percent of the world's live forest biomass.
    Russia's over 887 million hectares of forest and woodland cover 52
    percent of its land area -- equivalent to about 95 percent of the
    area of the United States, including Alaska. Boreal forests make up
    about one-third of the world's forested area and one-third of the
    world's stored carbon. Together, Russia and the United States have
    two-thirds of the world's boreal forests. This broad band of mixed
    coniferous and deciduous trees stretches across northern North
    America, Europe and Asia, with taiga along its northern edge meeting
    Arctic tundra.

    ¶3. (U) Russia's forests are vital economic, biodiversity, cultural,
    and climate change assets. And as in many countries, they are under
    increasing threat from illegal logging, unsustainable forestry
    practices, and forest fires. Illegal logging reduces the forests'
    carbon uptake; it is estimated that forest fires and illegal logging
    contribute 5-15 percent of Russian greenhouse gas emissions. An
    August 25, 2009, ScienceDaily press release characterized Russian
    boreal forest as the world's most degraded and least intact and
    found that it has suffered the greatest decline in the last few
    decades.

    A Quarter of Russia's Logging Illegal?
    --------------------------------------

    ¶4. (SBU) Estimates vary as to the amount of illegal logging. In
    April 2008, the Environment News Service quoted Ministry of Natural
    Resources and Ecology (MNRE) Deputy Head Semyon Levi estimating that
    10 percent of Russian timber is illegally harvested. Greenpeace
    Russia estimates are between 20 and 30 percent. In some regions, it
    is estimated that up to half of the timber is being harvested
    illegally. There are three types of illegal logging in Russia:

    -- unauthorized commercial logging operations;

    -- legitimate commercial operations that illegally augment their
    harvest by cutting timber outside of authorized zones; and

    -- non-commercial harvesting by locals for fuel, construction, and
    other personal uses.

    ¶5. (U) Powerful organized crime groups are involved in illegal
    commercial logging, abetted by local corruption. Poachers and
    organized crime groups even set fire to woodlands to facilitate
    illegal logging, later securing the contracts to clear the burned
    areas.

    ¶6. (SBU) There are strong economic incentives for illegal logging,
    particularly in border regions close to foreign markets. But the

    Moscow 00002366 002.2 of 004

    extent of illegal logging is driven primarily by systemic weaknesses
    in Russia's forest management practices. In 2006, Russia introduced
    a new forest code intended to encourage sustainable forest use by
    large corporations. Instead, forestry experts have told us, the new
    code decimated forest protection. It decentralized forest
    management by moving forestry administration from federal to
    regional authorities, assigned the responsibility for forestry
    infrastructure and reforestation to lessee logging companies, and
    did away with the federally employed cadre of forest rangers that
    once enforced a standardized set of federal regulations. Forestry
    management is now subject to the vagaries of regional budgets and
    governments.

    ¶7. (SBU) Illegal logging is also aggravated by the lack of effective
    prosecution. Prosecution is hindered by the absence of an effective
    timber tracking system to establish a chain of custody for every
    tree that is cut. Once trees are cut and loaded onto trucks,
    internal customs officials and forestry inspectors have no way of
    knowing the exact origin of the timber. Weak enforcement and
    monitoring is also a problem, with the number of forest rangers
    reduced dramatically by the new forest code. In one region, the
    number of rangers was reduced from 200-300 to only three. Some law
    enforcement officials claim that another obstacle is the poorly
    written, vague body of laws that demand a standard of proof that is
    extremely difficult to achieve. A police official in the Ivanovo
    region told the English-language daily "Moscow Times" that
    prosecuting illegal loggers is nearly impossible because, unless the
    loggers are caught in the act, they can show lease documents from
    anywhere in Russia and claim that they are simply transporting the
    timber. This inadequate legal framework raises concern that persons
    caught logging illegally cannot be prosecuted in a timely and
    effective manner, which the U.S. Forest Service asserts is critical
    to effective forest management.

    ¶8. (SBU) China is the primary market for illegal Russian timber,
    much of which reaches the United States as finished products. A
    long investigative report in "The New Yorker" reported in October
    2008 that the greatest traffic in illicit wood is thought to be from
    Russia to China. Commercial illegal logging for export to China is
    concentrated in the Far East border regions. According to a 2007
    U.S. Forest Service report, 20-50 percent of timber harvested in the
    Krasnoyarsk region is illegal, with most sent to China. In January
    2009, authorities caught a Chinese company attempting to export
    4,000 cubic meters of oak and ash valued at 2 million dollars from
    Primorye using fake export documents. Two officers of the
    Khabarovsk Regional Service for Economic Crimes detained in 2007
    were ultimately found guilty of aiding Chinese and Russian companies
    in illegally harvesting and exporting Russian timber. Given the
    high percentage of illegally harvested timber, it is particularly
    worrisome for the United States that 50 percent of soft wood and 90
    percent of hardwood harvested in the Russian Far East and Siberia
    ends up in the United States as finished goods after being processed
    in China, according to Denis Smirnov, coordinator of the World
    Wildlife Fund's forestry program in Primorye (reftel).

    Growing Attention to Illegal Logging
    ------------------------------------

    ¶9. (SBU) The Russian government and local communities are
    increasingly aware of the effects of illegal logging. We are slowly
    seeing an increase in activities to promote sustainable forestry and
    to stop illegal logging.

    -- FLEG Commitments: In the St. Petersburg Ministerial Declaration
    at the 2005 Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and
    Governance conference (ENA FLEG), 44 governments, including Russia
    and the United States, expressed their intent to take action to
    improve forest governance and combat illegal logging and associated
    forest crimes. The Declaration includes an Indicative List of
    Actions to implement the declaration and calls for a second
    Ministerial within 5 years to assess progress made and decide on
    further actions needed.

    -- Plans for a National Timber Tracking System: In April 2009,
    Alexei Savinov, head of the Ministry of Agriculture's Federal
    Forestry Agency, announced that by 2011 Russia will have introduced
    an integrated system to control timber circulation and decrease

    Moscow 00002366 003.2 of 004

    illegal logging. With support from the U.S. Forest Service and
    USAID, Krasnoyarsk Authorities in 2008 sought funding from the
    Ministry of Natural Resources to introduce a timber tracking system.
    (NOTE: At that time the Forestry Agency was under the umbrella of
    the Ministry of Natural Resources; now it is under the Ministry of
    Agriculture. END NOTE.) Krasnoyarsk, in Central Siberia, is
    Russia's second largest administrative territory, producing
    one-fifth of Russia's total timber output. According to USFS
    estimates, 20-50 percent of Krasnoyarsk's timber is harvested
    illegally. The lack of federal funding and subsequent personnel
    changes in both the Russian Federal Forest Agency and in the
    Krasnoyarsk administration have so far stymied introduction of this
    pilot chain-of-custody system.

    -- Increased Domestic Timber Processing: Both President Medvedev
    and Prime Minister Putin have endorsed the development of timber
    processing as a national goal. Although their support is driven
    mainly by economic concerns -- creating jobs and developing local
    industry by exporting finished products instead of raw wood --
    creating timber processing facilities in Russia could help reduce
    illegal logging. By expanding local processing capacity, Russia
    would reduce the incentive to export illegally harvested raw timber
    to other countries for processing, though mechanisms will have to be
    put in place to ensure any illegally harvested raw timber is not
    instead simply processed directly in Russia itself. Officials in
    Tomsk informed us that they are facilitating the establishment of
    Chinese wood processing facilities in the region, which they noted
    might discourage the export of illegal wood. As part of the
    government's goal to increase domestic wood processing they have
    gradually increased the export tariffs on logs. On April 1, 2008,
    the tariff increased to 25 percent, but not less than 15 euros, and
    as of January 1, 2010, up to 80 percent, but not less than 50 euros,
    making the cost of importing unprocessed logs from Russia
    prohibitive.

    -- Civil Society Activity: Local residents in Primorye, frustrated
    by the inaction of police and local authorities, often stage
    protests to attract attention to illegal logging. WWF and other
    environmental NGOs support their efforts. Residents of Melnichnoye,
    a village north of Vladivostok, staged a summer 2008 protest against
    "sanitary cutting," whereby logging companies supposedly harvest
    dead trees and clean woodlands after fires (reftel). In fact,
    according to villagers, loggers cut down healthy trees and leave
    behind wastelands instead of protected forests.

    ¶10. (SBU) Organized crime is a serious threat to civilian
    environmental activists in illegal logging locales. According to
    WWF and nature preserve workers in the Russian Far East, the local
    "forest mafia," a group engaged in illegal timber operations, has
    openly declared war on those working to preserve forests and enforce
    environmental laws. The house of Yuriy Bersenev, a WWF project
    coordinator who works to safeguard protected nature preserves, was
    set on fire by unknown perpetrators in the winter of 2009. This
    incident came on the heels of two earlier attempts to intimidate WWF
    staff in Primorye in December 2008, including another case of arson
    (ref A). Yuriy Bersenev attributes the current drastic situation to
    the weakness of national forest legislation and the rampancy of
    corruption in the Russian Far East, USFS is beginning work on a
    $200,000 performance fund project to create linkages between NGOs,
    law enforcement, business, wardens, and regional officials to reduce
    illegal logging.

    -- Lacey Act: The Lacey Act amendments of 2008 expanded the
    statute's anti-trafficking protections for the purpose of combating
    illegal logging. The act now covers timber illegally harvested in
    the country of origin and brought into the United States, either
    directly or through manufactured products. The reinforced Lacey Act
    has prompted large timber-product importers such as Wal-Mart to
    reexamine their supply chains to ensure compliance. Consequently,
    the Lacey Act puts significant pressure on regional governments in
    Russia to fight illegal logging at the risk of losing the business
    and contacts so valuable to their economies. With the Lacey Act
    calling attention to the international trade in illegal timber,
    Russian and Chinese businesses are more conscious of the need to
    prove legality to American companies, leading them to seek official
    logging permits from the Federal Forestry Agency. xxxxx

    COMMENT: Potential for Expanded Cooperation
    -------------------------------------------

    ¶11. (SBU) The United States and Russia have a number of
    opportunities to work bilaterally and multilaterally in the coming
    year to stem illegal logging:

    -- A new protocol of intent between USFS and USAID, jointly, and the
    Russian Federal Forestry Agency, will be signed in the next few
    months. The POI addresses several forestry issues, including illegal
    logging. It can help spur policy dialogue and exchange of best
    practices on implementing environmental regulations, promoting
    sustainable forestry practices, engaging civil society, and
    expanding environmental education. It should also assist in reducing
    the number and extent of fires through increasing the forest
    managers' monitoring capacities. USFS specialists are attending an
    October workshop in Khabarovsk, which they see as a valuable
    stepping stone in the larger illegal logging project.

    -- Russia took the initiative to host the 2005 FLEG conference, and
    the U.S. has played a critical role as organizer in the program.
    With a planned assessment of progress in 2010, the United States has
    an opportunity to become more involved.

    -- The U.S. can also cooperate with Russian law enforcement to help
    expand its capacity to investigate the causes of illegal logging and
    forest fires and their connection to organized criminal groups.

    ¶12. (SBU) One possible model for cooperation is the May 2008
    U.S.-China Memorandum of Understanding on Illegal Logging and
    Associated Trade. A similar agreement with Russia, which could even
    involve China as a third party, might facilitate cooperation among
    the three countries to strengthen forest law enforcement and
    governance.

    Beyrle

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