Putin has allowed to cut down forests near lake Baikal

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allows the carrying out of continuous cabins of the wood at lake Baikal for the expansion of the Baikal-Amur (BAM) and TRANS-Siberian Railways. The document is available on the portal of legal information.

Recall, the law was previously adopted by the state Duma and approved by the Federation Council, despite requests from environmentalists to reject the document.

the Law takes the relevant projects under environmental constraints to speed up their completion. In particular, the legislation introduced an exception in which in the zone of the Baikal natural territory allowed the activities necessary to increase the bandwidth of the BAM/Transsib. For the forest lands on which the construction is allowed to translate in the lands of other categories. Amendments will be in effect until December 31, 2024.

“no One will harm our national heritage — lake Baikal”, — said the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. According to her, we are talking about a specific list of main and other major infrastructure projects that will define the government of the Russian Federation.

the world wildlife Fund (WWF) believes will cause “irreparable damage to the protected nature” of Russia. It will actually authorize any capital construction on specially protected natural territories (SPNT). Until the end of 2024, it allows the construction and reconstruction of objects of capital construction for the modernization and expansion of backbone infrastructure within the boundaries of protected areas of Federal, regional and local significance without the state ecological examination in the cases when such activity is permitted by Federal or regional law.

“Greenpeace of Russia” said that the adoption of the law will affect no less than 63 national parks, in particular, in the “Losiny island” will resume the construction of the shopping center and through the Park will pave the highway.