From whence is the firewood? China has become a leader in the supply of timber to the USA and Europe

Novye Izvestia has repeatedly written about the dire situation with the felling of the Siberian taiga and the sale of timber to China. So Senator of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Anton Belyakov worried about this problem, writing in his blog:

“China tops the top in timber, sawnwood and timber products to the US and Europe. Here is just one caveat: it is impossible to cut down timber in China industrially in most of the territory.

So from where is this forest?"

And how he looked into the water! Just today, the governor of the Tomsk region, Sergey Zhvachkin, announced that he intends to appeal to the Russian government with a request not to limit the export of timber industry products to Asia:

“In connection with the rapid growth of construction in the country, high consumer demand for timber products, especially in Europe, hotheads propose to completely stop exports. But we cannot agree with this. Export restrictions need to be introduced, but pointwise and taking into account territories. According to economic logic and geographic logistics, the Tomsk Region does not transport timber industry products to European countries and even beyond the Urals. We export to Asia. And if the government completely blocks exports, we will simply lose the hard-won Asian markets, giving them to other countries..."

In a commentary on the senatorial post, expert Irina Gorozhankina writes:

“I have been dealing with this topic for a long time. Trying to figure out where it is easier to ship timber to China. The Tomsk region is far away, it loads to Uzbekistan, the Omsk region is far away, it loads to the north, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Evenkia, it is far and unprofitable, there is no railway, the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory remains, the Irkutsk Region (borders), Buryatia (close to the border). Method: local officials allocated forest plots for lease to local businesses. Local people cut their woods, take them out with KAMAZ trucks to the railway station, locals, our customs office gives the go-ahead for export across the border. Transportation by rail to the Russian-Chinese border - JSC Russian Railways. A good documentary "Lesovor" about this with analysts was shot by Eduard Petrov. Available on YouTube. I myself looked at him at "Russia 24". Who was punished in a criminal order and who was in custody was also shown. Purely corrupt schemes..."

Meanwhile, in China, they also actively cut wood, although in a completely different way than in Russia:

“The Chinese government has indeed banned industrial logging in wild forests, especially mountainous ones, because it realizes the importance of these areas for the preservation of the environment, biodiversity and human health. At the same time, China is investing enormous forces and resources in the cultivation of forests on the developed lands, including those retired from agriculture or even specially bought out from the peasants. The country supports plantation forestry, while Russia, on the contrary, actually prohibits it.

On the territory of China, approximately one and a half times more timber is harvested annually than on the territory of Russia. So, according to FAOSTAT, in Russia in 2017, 212.4 million m³ of timber were harvested, and in China - 329.3 million m³. Even if we calculate the maximum possible volumes of wood theft in Russia - several tens of millions of cubic meters - in China, they still cut much more.

That is why, for China, Russian timber is just a temporary additional source of inexpensive timber, which can be handled as carelessly as possible - as the existing Russian laws and traditions allow..."