On December 2, the court will decide what will happen to the relict forests of the Moscow region

The tourist and recreational cluster "Zvenigorodsky vector" is the only territory in the Moscow region that has not yet been built up and can be preserved as a green-water frame of the Moscow region. The Lipkinsky forest in the Odintsovo district, which is part of it, has come under the threat of felling - they are going to build elite cottage villages in its place. For more than a year, Rosleskhoz has been fighting for territory with the Council of Deputies of the Odintsovo urban district, which has approved the general plan.

At the end of 2017, local residents accidentally learned that a public hearing was scheduled for the approval of the "Master Plan for the Ershovskoye Rural Settlement of the Odintsovo Municipal District of Moscow Region". At the same time, the district administration sold over 30 hectares of Lipkinsky forest to CJSC Agrocomplex Gorki-2.

First, local residents went to court. Then the Moscow Regional Court considered that this territory "never belonged to the lands of the State Forest Fund", since it was not sold as a forest. According to the papers, the forest was listed as agricultural land, later it was included in the composition of settlements. The basis for the transformation of the forest into a settlement was the "statement of CJSC "Agrocomplex Gorki-2"", - Novye Izvestia wrote.

Later, Rosleskhoz entered the struggle for land. While he was in litigation, the territory overlapping with the State Forest Fund increased to 726 hectares. In April 2019, Rosleskhoz filed a new lawsuit against the Council of Deputies of the Odintsovo urban district of the Moscow region, which signed the General Plan to please private owners. It also turned out that all 726 hectares of forest have passed the "forest amnesty" and there is already a project for the development of elite cottages.

Only a month ago the Ministry of Natural Resources joined Rosleskhoz in the trial. At the November 23 hearing, Judge Verdian retired to make a decision on the case. It is planned to be announced on December 2.

In addition, the offensive continues on another taiga-type forest area, which is primarily part of the Zvenigorodsky vector shopping and entertainment complex - Maslovsky forest. Despite the status of a specially protected natural area, perennial protests of local residents and lawsuits, areas of the Natural Reserve and forests, which make up a single ecosystem with it, continue to be allocated for rent, built up, cut down...

By the way, Lipkinsky and Maslovsky forests are famous for the fact that during the war with Napoleon the French troops got lost there, and in 1941 bloody battles for Moscow took place. Forests are now part of the historical landscape. On this territory there are ancient burial mounds, settlements, necropolises. In March 2020, the VOOPIK (All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments and Culture) branch won a presidential grant for the preservation of military-historical objects in the Zvenigorod area. Lipkinsky and Maslovsky forests are part of the Moscow Defense Line near Zvenigorod project.

In addition, the pilot territory for the development of ecological tourism at the Zvenigorodskiy Vector shopping and entertainment complex includes forests, meadows and fields of the Upper Moskva River valley, the main part of which is located in Odintsovo. There are more than 20 specially protected natural areas, as well as a lot of objects of cultural significance. It also includes 726 hectares of forest, the decision on which will be made on December 2 in court. In the event of their loss, "the green-water frame of the Moscow region and the pilot territory for the development of ecological tourism of the Zvenigorodsky vector shopping center will turn into a sieve".

The question of what awaits these natural areas - a return to the origins or development - is still open.