Russia's huge forests in the Far East are an example. Any chance of success in avoiding threatened global ecosystem collapse depends upon a credible and massive policy response being launched at the earliest possible moment. Ending deforestation, preserving old-growth forests, conserving all forests, maintaining climatic systems and commencing the age of ecological restoration are global imperatives. Outlaws are plundering protected forests, cutting timber without licenses and targeting endangered tree species in the Far East of Russia.
Federal authorities are unable, or unwilling, to stop it.
But some Russians bear public witness to what's happening to their forests. One is Anatoly Lebedev, an environmental activist with his own TV show on a local network. He believes organized crime and corruption are behind the alarming increase in illegal logging. Authorities here have confiscated a truckload of a rare pine prized for furniture making, cut illegally from a protected reserve. But it's unlikely the lawbreakers will be punished, according to Lebedev.