Wagons brimming with logs accumulate in the Siberian railway station of Dalnerechensk, more than 8,000km (4,971 miles) east of Moscow. They are waiting to cross the nearby Chinese border.
Once in China, they will be processed and used for construction or turned into garden furniture and other products to be sold in European and US shops.
More than a third of all Russian logs are smuggled by mafias, a practice that doubled between 2005 and 2007, according to official figures... [Continue]
Russia - The Federal Customs Service yesterday reduced the number of customs checkpoints that will process unfinished timber exports from 668 to 128 with proper technology for assessing timber cargo. Kindling, sawdust, milling byproducts, pulp and other rough forms of wood are subject to the new procedure as well.
Finished wood products will be handled as before... [Continue]
Russia - One of Primorye's two national parks 'Udegeiskaya Legenda' located in the Krasnoarmeisky County has recently suffered from massive forest cuttings, the unlawful permission being issued by Primorye's administration forestry department.
The inspections performed by the regional environmental watchdogs and ecological organizations, and joined by officials of the county's administration, revealed numerous cases of illegal logging in the territory of the park, Primorye's ecological Phoenix Fund reported in a statement... [Continue]
