NEWS

On March 6, 2017, the Parliamentary hearings “On the Concept of the Land Laws Development  in the Russian Federation” were held in the State Duma.

The meeting was chaired by the Head of the Committee on Natural Resources, Property and Land Relations Nikolay Nikolaev. Also, the deputies of the State Duma, representatives of the relevant ministries and departments, the scientific community, public organizations and business took part in the event. The Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation - the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik and other representatives of the Federal Forestry Agency participated in the Parliamentary hearings as well.

Within the framework of the Parliamentary hearings, such topics as the current state and development of the land laws in the Russian Federation, the issue of harmonization of legal institutions and land laws standards and other branches: civil, town-planning, environmental laws, regulation of relations related to the use of land plots, and the need to develop a unified concept of the land laws taking into account the multidimensional nature of such relations.

In his speech, the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik proposed several amendments to the Forest Code – in particular, to legalize the making available for use not only the parcels of forested area but also their parts, to authorize the forestry relations executive authorities of the constituents of the Russian Federation to make Cadastre entry and state registration of ownership rights to land plots within the forest reserve lands, and invest the Federal Forestry Agency with authority to maintain the judicial defence in respect of the forest reserve.

According to the current general rule established in the land legislation, the double rent of a land plot is prohibited.

At the same time, one of the principles of the forestry laws is the provision for the multi-purpose forest use, that is, the possibility to rent out the same parcel of forested land to different people for different purposes. Upon implementation of this principle the problems that are not resolved at the legislative level arise.

In particular, in the current legislation there is no opportunity to make available for use the parts of parcels of forested area. This issue is particularly topical when using forests for construction, reconstruction, operation of linear objects, and for geological study of subsurface. This provision allows existing tenants to impact on further making available of parcels of forested area for use and does not allow ensuring compliance with the principle of multiple use of forests.

In addition, there are problems of state cadastral registration of such parcels due to the crossing of the boundaries of land plots being the part of the forest reserve lands made available for various uses of forests.

The Federal Forestry Agency proposes to amend the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, providing for the use of not only parcels of forested area but also their parts, which will simplify the procedure for making the parcels of forested land available for use moving beyond the procedures for dividing and consolidating the parcels of forested area, and enter into the Unified State Register of Immovable Property the data on the parts in the form of encumbrance of the original parcels of forested area.

Another problem upon making parcels of forested area available for use is the lack of powers of the state authorities of the constituents of the Russian Federation that perform the delegated powers in the field of forestry relations to apply for state registration of the right of federal property in respect of parcels of forested area. Only the Federal Agency for State Property Management may apply for state cadastral registration and state registration of rights to the parcels of forested area.

However, subject to the Article 83 of the Forest Code, the powers to arrange the use of forests are delegated to the state authorities of the constituents of the Russian Federation. The lack of appropriate powers results in the impossibility to register rights of the Russian Federation without participation of the territorial bodies of the Federal Agency for State Property Management, which has an impact on the terms for the formation and making available of parcels of forested area, as well as the registration of encumbrance of the right of federal property in the form of a lease.

In this regard, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Federal Forestry Agency proposed to invest the executive bodies of the constituents of the Russian Federation in the field of forestry relations with the powers to apply for making the Cadastre entry and the state registration of ownership rights for the land plots being in the part of the forest reserve lands.

Ivan Valentik also touched upon the issue of “forest amnesty” which will be considered in detail in the framework of the Parliamentary hearings on March 16, 2017.

One of the issues that is regulated by the said draft law is the provision of the judicial defence of the right of federal property to the forest reserve lands. Currently, the Federal Agency for State Property exercising the powers of the owner in respect of all federal property has such powers.

“Considering that the Federal Forestry Agency has a number of special powers in the field of forestry relations, such as the establishment of boundaries for forestries and forest parks, the compilation of documented information from the state forest inventory, cadastral registration with respect to the forest reserve, the investing of the Federal Forestry Agency on the legislative level with the powers to maintain the judicial defence of the forest reserve will increase the effectiveness of protecting the interests of the Russian Federation,” said theDeputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik.

Under the instruction of Rosleskhoz, the Department of Forestry for the Volga Federal District, represented by the interdepartmental working group, has organized an inspection to found out whether the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Tatarstan is ready for the fire season 2017. In accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Forestry of Tatarstan, the fire season starts on April 15.