Try the Lycos Find it index or return to the front page of Lycos. Please email us. On February 12, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared null and void the illegal Decree of the Russian Federation government on reclassifying first-category forested lands as nonforested lands. On 16 February a successful protest action was organized against the illegal sale of wood in the Istra District of the Moscow Region. On 23 February legal proceedings over logging commenced in the Naro-Fominsk District of the Moscow Region.
Russian forests are the people' s national wealth and are federal property.
First-category forests perform sanitary and hygienic, water protection and recreational functions around large cities. Such forests are under special protection of the Russian Federation law. In the Moscow Region, this process has become large-scale and uncontrollable. As a result of forest exploitation, the system of water supply for the city of Moscow is endangered. This problem is especially acute for such districts of the region as Mytishchi, Krasnogorsk, Istra and Pushkino.