IPA CIS Council Secretariat took part in the environmental action "Russian National Forest Planting Day"

The Russian National Forest Planting Day has been held since 2011 on the initiative of the Federal Agency for Forestry. The action covers all regions of the Russian Federation and is aimed at fostering respect for the forest, increasing interest in forestry professions, and drawing public attention to the problems of conservation, restoration and expansion of forests.

The tree-planting initiative the Druzhinoye Lake in Komarovsky District Forestry, organized by the Committee on Landscape Management of St. Petersburg, brought together Members of the Government of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Committee on Landscape Management Vladimir Rublevsky, Head of Department of Forest Management and Forest Reclamation of the Federal Agency for Forestry Mikhail Doronin, Deputy Head of the Forestry Department in the North-Western Federal District Sergey Erdyakov, Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Sergei Kurdin and IPA CIS Council Secretariat staff, representatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in St. Petersburg, volunteers of the Russian National Society of Natural Protection. The participants planted 25 young pines. In total, volunteers, schoolchildren, students, with the help of professional forest rangers, planted about 900 trees and shrubs in six forest districts of St. Petersburg.

Secretary General – Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Alexey Sergeev took part in the Forest Planting Day in the Leningrad Region. Employees of federal and regional government bodies, forestry workers, public, scientific and forestry organizations, residents of the Leningrad Region in the Sosnovsky Forest District of the Priozersky District planted more than a thousand pine seedlings. The choice of the Priozersky district for the National Russian Forest Planting Day is due to the hurricane which destroyed century old pines in this area a few years ago and to the removal of trees during the construction of a modern motorway.

Governor of the Leningrad region Alexander Drozdenko and Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation – Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik took part in the planting of seedlings and stressed that the national forest planting campaign was becoming increasingly popular attracting more people every year.

The national forest-planting initiative is held by the Federal Agency for Forestry for the seventh time. Since the first such occasion almost 13 million people took part in the initiative and more than 212 million trees were planted.

By the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, 2017 has been declared in Russia the Year of Ecology and the Year of Natural Conservation Areas. On 25-26 May, the VIII Nevsky International Ecological Congress themed Environmental education – a Clean Country will be held in St. Petersburg.