Moscow’s Failure to Address Impact of Siberian Fires Prompts Private Russian Group to Seek to Plant One Million Trees in 2020

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 25 – Many Russians were shocked and outraged when Moscow officials said that they would just allow the fires in Siberia and the Far East to burn out and let nature take its course to restore them. There were protests, but something even more important has happened: a group of private citizens has decided to take action on its own.

            “When I learned about the Siberian fires and heard the official declaration that putting them out was ‘economically impracticable,’ my picture of the world changed,” Sergey Lesnoy, an environmental activist and founder of a group devoted to doing something about that, Lesnoye Delo (recyclemag.ru/article/--million-derevev-vosstanovlenie-pogibshih-lesov).

            According to the activist, “at that moment, I understood that I would occupy myself with the restoration of the forests regardless of how much money the project would bring me or whether other people would support it because doing so was a personal task, a manifestation of who I am, and that I simply could not fail to get involved.”

            Last year was a horrific one for the forests of Russia, Lesnoy says. About 15 million hectares burned, an area comparable to the size of Bulgaria. Some 500 million cubic meters of wood were harvested, including many illegally. And nearly 60 percent of the country’s forests are on the brink of dying.

            Using his personal funds and some help from friends, the activist purchased and planted 20,000 trees in the Moscow region.  Now, he has launched a website lesnoedelo.com/forestpay where people can contribute 150 rubles (2.50 US dollars), about the cost of a cup of coffee and secure the planting of a tree.

            This entirely private volunteer effort is attracting attention, and Lesnoy says that he hopes to get socially conscious private businesses involved as well.  He adds that businesses which do get involved will get credit and that will only add to their positive image in the Russian population.

            Up to now, he continues, his group has focused on Moscow oblast. But this year, it wants to extend its efforts to Rostov oblast and other regions. Unfortunately, working each of the Urals where the fires were the worst is quite a bit more difficult: getting trees in is vastly more difficult and expensive as there are no roads or other means of access.

            Nonetheless, Lesnoy says, he hopes to be able to plant a million trees in 2020 and thus make a small contribution to the recovery of the natural environment that the government appears to have given up on.