The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Federal Forest Service plan to develop a system to control the transportation and processing of timber during 2005.
In the first instance they aim to toughen up the penalty system and controls will include marking cut wood, creating an electronic price database and co-ordinating timber traffic.
In a press statement, the Ministry of Natural Resources said Russia has already joined the international effort to counter trafficking. It maintains that a comprehensive system of satellite monitoring of the forest has been established which will cover Russia’s felling territory.
During the first half of 2005, 26.5 million ha of forest in Siberia and the northern part of European Russia were monitored.
