Battling such entrenched interests can also be risky. During the 2008-09 winter, the summer house of Yuriy Bersenev, one of Smirnov’s WWF colleagues, was burnt to the ground by unknown perpetrators. A day before the fire, which followed a Russian TV story about the organisation’s work, Smirnov said he was also the indirect victim of a ‘traffic accident’ in the countryside. ‘The son of one of our colleagues died in quite a strange traffic accident, and it has still not been investigated,’ Smirnov says.
In particular danger of retribution are the local informants that apprise activists of the situation on the ground. Smirnov says residents in one Primorsky settlement who sent a series of letters to the region’s governor requesting action against illegal logging had the windows of their cars and houses shot out. Local police, he said, then ‘discouraged’ the residents from lodging any further complaints.
In spite of the obstacles, activists say some progress is being made. In 2007, WWF succeeded in getting two forest management officials fired and arrested for their complicity in helping loggers to operate in the Tayozhniy wildlife refuge, a key tiger breeding ground in the Khabarovsk region.
The following year, the US Congress passed an amendment to the Lacey Act, an existing anti-wildlife trafficking law, extending its prohibitions to the import of illegally-sourced wood and wood products. Given the amount of the timber that ends up in US markets – the US diplomatic cable cites estimates that up to 90 percent of hardwoods from the Russian Far East reach the United States – campaigners say large-scale retailers such as Walmart could deal a blow to the timber trade by dumping rogue Chinese suppliers. At the time of its passage, Alexander von Bismarck, the executive director of the EIA, which spearheaded the coalition supporting the ban, said the amendment marked ‘a new phase in the global effort to improve forest governance’.
Whether the US legislation will make any difference remains an open question – due to the lack of monitoring capacity in China, some are sceptical – but the Siberian tiger also has a powerful friend in Russia’s prime minister (and avid outdoorsman) Vladimir Putin. After the international Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg in November, Putin signed into law a ban on the logging of Korean pine, a nut-bearing species vital to the tiger’s survival.
Next year’s APEC Summit, when the world’s eyes will be on the host city Vladivostok, could also provide a spur for the government to investigate forestry crimes, with Moscow keen to transform the image of the Far East as a ‘wild east’ plagued by corruption and neglect. For environmentalists, however, promises of ‘comprehensive’ investigations have a familiar hollow ring.
‘The question is’, says Smirnov, ‘will it be photo campaign, or will it make real changes to the structure?’
Sebastian Strangio is a journalist based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He can be reached at sebastian.strangio@gmail.com.
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Eric
Yawn. Another sob story?
stupid101
Great, Boring, boring boring! Another sob story I agree! Rubbish!
John Chan
The inconvenient truth is that Russia is the wrong custodian to be entrusted for safe guarding the vast natural heritage in Siberia for the mankind. Russia simply does not have the population and other resources to prevent the plundering of the precious natural resources by the Far East Forest Mafia in Siberia. The international laws reflect the truth of Mother Nature, i.e. it is not yours if you can’t keep it.
The Russia population is declining, with its current population size Russian would be doing very well by just governing Russia’s European portion properly. Russians in Siberia know that if they don’t plunder the Siberia now, it would be a missed opportunity when they are eased out by natural process. Meanwhile other nations are happy for the wood supplies from a place that is not under their ecological jurisdiction. That’s unfortunate and sad situation for the Siberian tigers described in the article.
The solution to the root of Far East Forest Mafia in Siberia is to get someone that actually has the population and resources to safe guard the natural heritage in Siberia for the globe, mankind and all other living creatures instead of holding superficial political activities that merely for the participants to grab news spot lights.
Thoughts
Population density would only increase the rapidity with which timber is cut down. Ergo in China all those forests are gone because more people can participate in the economic benefits from their cut down. Legally or illegally is irrelevant its all based on profitability one way or another. The problem is ownership where people lease land cut down and move on where as in the states and Canada timber companies own and farm vast land parcels continuously making it feasible to have a continuous flow of economic good.
I used to think that China would encroach on Siberia as population permeate and populate the border lands but the reality is somewhat different. It seems the lack of infrastructure and costs of existence have a lot of impact on what actually happens. I doubt the two or three thousand dollar cost of keeping warm through the prolonged winter with a higher density and a higher marginal price per every good would be possible if population increased. This plays into Canada and USA as well where most goods in Canada are about 20% more expensive controlled for currency due to infrastructure differences and dealing with colder environment.
Politically it is highly unlikely for vast reasons for Russia to give up Far-East some of them are due to there being vast resources, actual stabilization of population growth and economic growth in Siberia, etc. Far East will begin to stabilize as well in time.
You seem to be under the notion that loosing 10 to 20% of territory is OK if you have enough and the majority of population will simply ignore the plight of the minority in those border regions for fear of their own well being, I think you are sadly mistaken. Russia has nukes I am certain some of them work.
John Chan
Russia has thousands of nukes, sure some of them work. The issue comes back to the same basic problem; it is the size and distribution of population. More than 90% of Russia population lives in less than 10 cities. It is a hard decision to make whether to keep a vast empty land or to preserve the race of Russian.
War mongering mindset is not going to help Siberian tigers nor Siberian forest and environment. When China tries to defend it territories, the West and its lackey are blaming China expansionist and aggressor. It seems to the West and it lackeys that China’s land is free for everybody to grab, and yet their territories cannot even be mentioned by the Chinese bloggers, the West and its lackey will even threaten nuclear holocaust if their lands are discussed by the Chinese bloggers. What kind of twisting reasoning and logic the West and its lackeys have.
John Chan
Majority of Siberia was grabbed from China’s Qing Dynasty under the unequal treaties. So please do not be so self-righteous to view Chinese as expansionist when Chinese discuss about the ownership of Siberia.
JAques
John Chan, you are right territory was taken from the Qing, but let’s not forget, the Qing dynasty was an EMPIRE, and it was not even Chinese. The Qing took China’s borders much further than any Dynasty other than the Yuan (another non-Chinese dynasty). China is still having trouble dealing with the fact that it inherited colonies from the Qing Empire in its West and South West, the CCP was fundamentally anti-imperialist, but has failed to recognise that it itself has colonies – as defined in the classic sense.
Thoughts
Very little area came from the Qing in the Far East. The majority was taken from Tungusic, Mongolic, and other native peoples. The Chinese territory that you mention was Tungusic tribes that were fairly autonomous and not amalgamated under the empire thus not even Chinese and far closer to the Mongol in respect of ethnicity.
Perhaps if China gives Inner Mongolia back to Mongolia and Tibet goes forth as an independent state you could quip about the minute amount of area in the Far East that you as a successor state to those tribes could request back…
Cyrus
Here I see John Chan actually saying China has dreams of expanding in Siberia. I thought your precious commies have no inclination to expansion. Yet you are indirectly saying that China should take over Siberia.