Why the forests of Belarus do not burn
Ally as an example
From day to day, nature itself will remove most of the problems with forest fires. But only for a while - until the next terrible summer that can happen, and very soon.
How the Russian hinterland is burning, we are well aware, not only from reports, but also from personal feelings. And all because of the smog that reached both Moscow and even a number of large cities. But if the wind rose were a little different, many might not know anything about fires at all.
At the same time, according to open data from the Ministry of Emergencies, not Russian, of course, in 2022 the average fire area in the forest-peat regions of the Republic of Belarus amounted to ... only about 4 hectares. In 2020, it was 6,7 hectares, and in 2021 - only 1,2 hectares.
Comparing these figures with the scale of similar fires in the Russian Federation, a real national disaster, is literally more expensive. Yes, the territories of Belarus and the Russian Federation are not comparable. But the area of peatlands is up to 65% of the Belarusian territory, which is a potentially dangerous forest fire zone for this country.
However, and this is no secret to anyone, it has been kept in exemplary order for decades. From the events of 2010, when Belarus was also fairly touched by fire, appropriate conclusions were drawn and the necessary measures were taken.
State, come back
This is now recognized by both the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the World Wildlife Fund. And all thanks to strict state control in all areas of the Belarusian forestry, which in Russia is customary only to envy. It doesn't change anything in essence.
Suffice it to say that in Belarus, fires in forest-peat areas, according to the data for the late 2010s - early 2020s, are eliminated in 1-2 hours, and the largest in these areas - no more than a day. Back in September 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for studying and using the experience of Belarus in preventing forest fires. Well, it's long overdue.
But do the Russian Federation intend to "return" the state - as it has long been characteristic of Belarus - to the maintenance, protection, use, and increase of forests?
In strict control over compliance with the rules for the use of the same peatlands, their irrigation / reclamation?
In the reconstruction of forestries abolished in the Russian Federation, but increasing in Belarus?
In the creation, like the Belarusians, fully equipped mobile units to prevent forest fires, to quickly eliminate them and their consequences?
Let us clarify in this regard that almost 90% of the entire forest area of Belarus is under the jurisdiction of the state through the Ministry of Forestry. In the country, since the Soviet period, there has been a state system, we emphasize, of daily monitoring of the fire hazard of peatlands and adjacent territories.
It, among other things, provides for regular checks of reports of forest tenants and harvesters of timber and timber products on fire-fighting and reforestation measures. In general, they are a prerequisite for the admission of private business to the Belarusian forestry.
Plus, the state, represented by the Ministry of Forestry, annually increases funding for the training of personnel for the forest industry: they are trained at the Belarusian Technical State University in Minsk and at the Gomel State University named after Francysk Skaryna. Moreover, the number of free (budgetary) and paid places in forestry specialties is in favor of the former: 60–70% versus 40–30%.
In addition, according to the estimates of the Ministry of Forestry of Belarus, by mid-2022, the fleet of various equipment intended for firefighting activities in peat bogs and in general in forests has been updated by more than half over the past six years. Not less than 80% - again, at the expense of public investment and public procurement. Moreover, this equipment is mainly of Belarusian production, which now makes up at least 65% in this fleet (against 50% by the mid-2010s).
Not everything is for sale
We also note that Belarusian special equipment has been exported - for over ten years - to more than 20 countries, including not only the Russian Federation, but also, for example, China, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan. And in the pre-sanction years, the same Belarusian equipment was also supplied to the Baltic countries, Scandinavia, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, where it is still used today.
A characteristic touch: according to the Belarusian Ministry of Forestry, special attention in 2018-2021. the state devoted to the restoration of forests that suffered not from fires, but from ... the bark beetle. Because the country lost over 2010 forest hectares in the early to mid-47s because of it.
Again, it was the state that ensured the restoration - in a matter of years - of over 70% of this area. Accordingly, the volume of clear sanitary felling in Belarusian forests has decreased by at least ten times by 2022.
No less characteristic is the fact that the forestry authorities all neighboring countries repeatedly thanked their Belarusian colleagues for timely and comprehensive measures in the field of fire prevention, as well as for the conservation and restoration of transboundary forests.
The forest needs both a leshoz and a forester
To date, there are 100 forestries in Belarus with 840 forestries. They have the right, in particular, to suspend logging and bring individuals and legal entities to justice for almost any violation of the law in the field of forest use.
Among other things, for example, for violation of the rules for the exploitation of the forest fund, for non-compliance with the rules of fire safety and hunting, obligations for reforestation, for compensation for damage to forests, their fauna, their food and medicinal resources.
In Russia, according to the Forest Code-2006, forests were transferred to tenants, foresters were reduced many times, and their powers were reduced to a minimum. More precisely, to the fixation of trees affected by bio-pests or natural disasters and detected violations in logging. A sort of forest inspectors without the right to even fine.
And this is actually the only function prescribed by the Russian forester. The consequences of "innovations" of this kind are quite obvious. But, of course, not in Belarus ...
- Alexey Chichkin, Alexey Podymov
- studlife.net, 1rre.ru, fr.slidserve.com
Information