Statement by the Yabloko party, 22.07.2021

Photo by cluckva/depositphotos

In connection with large-scale forest fires and smoke pollution of settlements in Yakutia, the Yabloko party demands to introduce an emergency regime completely throughout the Republic, and not only in the regional forests (which was done by the decree of the head of Yakutia).

We demand from the country’s leadership to allocate additional funds from the federal budget to fight forest fires in the Republic. It is impossible to defeat fires of this magnitude by collecting donations from the population.

In general, the situation with forest fires in Russia has been developing catastrophically. The fire hazardous season has begun in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. An emergency regime has been introduced in ten constituent entities and a special fire regime has been introduced in 61 more regions.

What is happening in the country is a combination of the consequences of global climate change and the actions of the Russian authorities. In 2006, the Forest Code was adopted, which destroyed the system of forest management that had been developing for centuries in Russia.

According to the remote monitoring by the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz), over the past 15 years, the area of ​​forest fires exceeded 10 million hectares five times (in 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2020), and already 10.2 million hectares in the first seven months of 2021.

Fires in Yakutia, caused by global climate change and the state of the forest, increase the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, affecting climate warming, thereby further accelerating this process.

To prevent forest fires in the future, it is necessary to adopt a new Forest Code, completely restore the Forest Service, completely abandon uncontrolled agricultural burns, prohibit firing of grassland, strengthen Aerial Forest Protection and increase subventions to the regions for forestry and forest protection to 100 billion roubles per year.

We also demand that the Minister of Natural Resources immediately amend the Rules for Extinguishing Forest Fires, which today allow the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to refuse to extinguish some forest fires.

Under these conditions, Russia will be able to preserve its unique advantage – our forests.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman

Anatoly Nagovitsin,

Chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko in Yakutia