Illegal forest clearance

In a Russian state television report, parts of which were recorded by a hidden camera, the head of the Primorye forestry board, Pyotr Diuk, admits to corruption, illegal forest clearance in protected areas and “faked auctions” of logging concessions (www.youtube.com/wwfdeutschland). As reported in a news item from the WWF, he says in so many words that Russia’s Far East will soon be “completely deforested”. The camera records Diuk stating that only the involvement of conservationists and organisations like the WWF are preventing this happening.The WWF believes that this TV report confirms the organisation’s own assessment that a large part of the logging in the Amur region can be termed illegal. The harvested timber is transported through China and some of it reaches markets in Europe, the USA and Japan.