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- To give a descent: for ski complexes it will be allowed to cut down protective mountain forests
To give a descent: for ski complexes it will be allowed to cut down protective mountain forests
To create and develop ski resorts in Russia, it will be allowed to cut down part of the mountain protective forests, the Ministry of Economic Development has finalized a draft law that amends the Forest Code. In particular, they require the restoration of felled trees and shrubs and limit the categories of forests where logging is possible. The amendments appeared after a public discussion around the first version of the document. But opinions are also divided about the revised version: some experts are confident that the balance of interests of the tourism industry and environmental legislation has been found, but a number of other experts insist that reforestation in full in mountainous areas is almost impossible. See the Izvestia article about what business and environmentalists think about plans to expand the territories of ski resorts.
New opportunities and responsibilities
Ski resorts will be required to restore forests if trees have been cut down to create and operate facilities of such a complex. This is stated in the revised version of the draft law on ensuring conditions for the creation of ski resorts (Izvestia has it). The Ministry of Economic Development submitted the first version of the amendments to the law on tourism and the Forest Code in early 2024, but now the document has been revised — the final version will be posted soon on the portal of draft regulatory acts.
There are about 400 active ski resorts in Russia, the explanatory note says. However, the country does not have a separate regulatory framework for regulating the construction of capital and non-capital buildings and ski infrastructure facilities, which may require selective and continuous logging. And, as noted in the draft law, the specifics of creating such an infrastructure should be taken into account in the Forest Code "to ensure the safety of citizens and create the necessary conditions for the operation of facilities."
According to the new amendments, selective and continuous cutting of trees, shrubs and lianas will be possible in operational and protective forests of the subcategory "mountain forests". Operational forests are those in which industrial timber is harvested, while protective forests are natural objects of particularly valuable importance that are necessary to protect the territory and facilities from undesirable natural influences (wind, avalanches, and so on). In the previous version of the document, it was separately stated that logging is generally allowed in protective forests, and now it has been specified in mountainous forests.
"It is important to note that the bill does not provide for uncontrolled logging of forest stands and diverse development of forest areas, and continuous logging is required exclusively for the construction of facilities that are part of the ski complex," the explanatory note says.
The bill will remove restrictions on the area for the construction of ski slopes and cable cars, which are part of the GLK. Currently, the Forest Code allows for the exploitation of only 20% of the area of the forest plot provided for use, with a total area of no more than 1 hectare. For other capital construction facilities and non-capital buildings, structures that are part of the complex, the 20% limit remains, but without limiting its total area to 1 hectare.
Another innovation of the document was the introduction into the Forest Code of the obligation for compensatory reforestation or afforestation during the construction of a ski complex.
Now, according to experts, there are already more than 4 million skaters in the country, and their number continues to grow, the Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia.
"To this end, it is necessary to develop existing ski resorts, increase the number of trails and lifts, and create favorable conditions for the construction of new facilities," the ministry said. — The current version of the draft law has been finalized taking into account the opinions of the industry and business communities, public associations and organizations, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources as a regulator in the field of forest relations, and maximally adheres to the balance of business interests and environmental standards.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told Izvestia that the agency supports the development of existing ski resorts in specially designated recreational areas of national parks. This attracts investments in these specially protected areas, contributes to the growth of the sphere of ecological tourism, they said.
— The key to the construction of new ski resorts outside the parks is to ensure reforestation. Such a mechanism is fixed in the Forest Code and obliges companies not only to plant trees, but also to carry out agrotechnical care of seedlings for three years, the department said.
What the industry thinks
Ski tourism in Russia, a country with a long and vibrant winter season, is one of the most sought—after types of recreation, according to the state corporation "Tourism.RF".
— 33 million trips are expected in the 2024/25 season, which is 4 million more than last season. The most popular destinations are traditionally the Krasnodar Territory, St. Petersburg, Kemerovo Region, and the North Caucasus.
And more than half of all Russian ski resorts are located on the lands of the forest fund, Svetlana Danilina, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Association of Ski Resorts, Territories and Services, told Izvestia.
— The new law is very important for the development of ski infrastructure. Our association has done a lot of work on the bill and found out that 52 ski resorts located in protected forests are ready to invest about 90 billion rubles in the development of ski and tourism infrastructure," she said.
As Svetlana Danilina noted, the indication in the revised version that logging can only take place in mountain protective forests significantly narrows the range of ski resorts.
— Given the fact that few GLCs are located in mountain forests, the impact on nature will be very targeted and non-aggressive. The Association also believes that business itself is interested in preserving and restoring natural landscapes, since it is nature and the forest that attract tourists and determine the choice of a particular recreation complex," she said.
The construction of ski resorts stimulates the development of tourism and the economy of the regions, creating new jobs and attracting investments, said the General director of the ANO Center for the Development of the Ski Industry and Tourist Territories (Mountains of Russia). Ilya Vinogradov.
"In the coming years, it is planned to build 17 ski resorts and introduce infrastructural changes at 15 facilities, which will attract about 600 billion rubles of investment," he said. — Such facilities are being built in forest areas and affect territories with a special protection regime. And when making decisions about the construction of complexes or their expansion, it is important to take into account not only direct income from tourism activities, but also indirect costs related to environmental protection.
What environmentalists say
The revised version of the draft law, to a greater extent than the previous one, provides for a balance between the interests of the tourism industry and environmental legislation in terms of possible environmental impacts, says Natalia Sokolova, head of the Union for Energy and Environmental Safety. In her opinion, the fact that it is possible to build ski facilities only in operational forests and in one of the subcategories of protective forests excludes massive development of forest lands and "assumes targeted development of territories."
— The bill does not provide for uncontrolled logging of forest plantations. Before obtaining a construction permit, a business entity must, in accordance with current legislation, draw up a forest development project and receive a positive opinion from the state expert examination," she recalled. — The obligation for businesses to restore forests fully takes into account the principles of environmental legislation and will allow them to conduct recreational activities in forest areas with minimal environmental impact.
However, not all environmentalists interviewed by Izvestia agreed with this opinion.
"The bill has not become more environmentally friendly," said Nikolai Shmatkov, director of the Lesnoy Etalon certification system and a member of the Public Council of the Federal Forestry Agency. — The requirement for compensatory reforestation will not mitigate the consequences for forests and the environment in general. Trees that are 100 or 200 years old will be cut down for construction on mountain slopes, and instead sprouts will be planted somewhere that will be able to perform nature protection and health functions only after many decades.
The expert added that, as a rule, there are no free areas for afforestation in mountainous regions, respectively, seedlings will be planted in other regions.
— And one more aspect: mountain slopes, as a rule, are a place of concentration of rare and endemic species. Their destruction cannot be compensated by planting ordinary firs and pines, and we have not yet learned how to breed rare species, much less how to recreate entire rare ecosystems, species complexes," he said.
Nikolai Shmatkov called for creating opportunities for "targeted, individual consideration of the possibility of implementing individual projects with the mandatory involvement of scientific and public environmental organizations."
Mikhail Kreindlin, an expert at the Earth Concerns Everyone environmental project, also believes that reforestation is "almost never effective" in mountainous areas due to erosion, or this process requires terracing of the territory, which still destroys the natural slopes.
— And reforestation in other areas will in no way affect the situation in the area where the plantations were cut down, — he said.
Elena Sharoikina, Chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Ecology and Sustainable Development, recalled that mountain groves are one of the most important categories of protective forests. Among the functions they perform are preventing landslides and mudslides, securing mountain slopes and erosion—prone areas, regulating the flow of mountain rivers and streams, flood control during spring snowmelt and extreme rains, securing snow cover and reducing avalanche risk.
"Russian and international experience shows that clearing or intensive logging of mountain forests significantly increases the risks of catastrophic events, primarily devastating floods," she said.
As an example, the expert cited the flooding in the Irkutsk region in 2019 on the rivers Oya, Uda, and Oka, which led to the deaths of 26 people, the destruction of more than 5,000 homes, and damage of at least 29 billion rubles.
— This natural disaster was associated, among other things, with intensive logging of mountain forests in the upper reaches of rivers. They were carried out under the guise of sanitary and health measures, and although formally they were mostly not continuous, but selective sanitary, nevertheless they led to the formation of highly sparse forest areas, erosion and the formation of new ways of rapid water flow," said Elena Sharoikina.
She added that in that situation, untouched forests would not have prevented flooding completely, but would have been able to reduce the rate of water rise and the maximum height of the flood.
Deforestation for ski trails is also associated with a violation of the soil cover, said Mikhail Kreindlin.
"This will create increased risks of soil demolition into mountain streams and rivers and their pollution, and in some cases, catastrophic consequences in the form of landslides or mudflows," he said. — In addition, during the construction of such facilities, rare species of plants and animals will inevitably be destroyed, which are mainly preserved in remote mountainous areas.
Andrey Khoroshilov, CEO and founder of the Save the Forest service, recalled that cutting down trees on one site can lead to harmful consequences for nature tens and hundreds of kilometers from the construction site.
"The simplest example is that the migration of species from a logging site to neighboring forests has unpredictable consequences," he said. — Imagine that residents from the other side of the city come to your residential area and declare that they have nowhere to live, and your entire living space will have to be shared with sudden migrants. Such "domestic conflicts" in the language of ecosystems mean a violation of habitual relationships and an imbalance in the population of species.
He called the measures to compensate for the consequences of deforestation insufficient.
— As a rule, mixed relict forests grow on mountain slopes: it is simply impossible to reproduce such a species diversity through an artificial project due to the high cost of planting and maintenance, - he said.
According to the expert, the authorities are unlikely to be able to force businesses to plant complex and mixed forests, but called for a compromise. For example, they could be the introduction of multiples of increased recovery coefficients, when up to a dozen hectares will need to be planted for each felled hectare. He also added that another point of potential modernization of the draft law could be the consolidation in it of a mandatory independent environmental assessment of the project and a comprehensive analysis of possible consequences for the flora, fauna and habitat of Red Book species.
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