IN THE KARACHAY-CHERKESSIA CUT DOWN HEALTHY FORESTS UNDER THE GUISE OF SANITARY LOGGING
WWF-Russia is working to stop illegal logging in the Caucasus. In 2017, the Fund was actively involved in the monitoring of legality of logging in the Krasnodar region. In 2018, we decided to assess the situation with the legality of sanitary logging in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. In April, an analysis of the official documents justifying sanitary logging was carried out, as part of which numerous errors were found that caused significant concerns about the validity of the purpose of logging.
Therefore, in June, the WWF-Russia conducted field work on the analysis of the legality of sanitary measures in the Arkhyz district forestry of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. The audit revealed numerous signs of violations of forest legislation. Almost all of the surveyed sites showed inconsistency of information from the documents to the real situation. Almost everywhere for logging appointed healthy trees, while like sanitary measures should be cutting down only sick, weakened or damaged trees.
On the territory of several sites found terraced skidding trail on steep slopes, which are prohibited by current legislation, as lead to degradation of mountain landscapes and the emergence of mudflows.