17:34, 04 февраля 2022, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Maria ORLOVA
A network of public forest inspectors is being created in Kyrgyzstan. The Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision Dinara Kutmanova told at a press conference.
According to her, there are two types of forest destruction and they should be distinguished. «First, this is when the population cuts the trees, because they do not have firewood and money for it. According to regulatory documents, a citizen has the right to use two cubic meters of wood for his or her needs. But it is not always the dead wood that is cut down,» she said.
Dinara Kutmanova added that such felling will continue until the population is given an alternative. «One of them is planting of fast-growing poplars to provide the people with firewood,» she said.
The second type of felling is when the forest is cut down for sale, and this is precisely what the ministry is fighting against. «We cannot assign an inspector to every tree, of course, so we began to develop a network of public inspectors. We have already developed a regulation, opened hot lines in the regions. We are forming teams of eco-volunteers, they will have the right to record a violation, then inform us, and only then our inspectors will come and take action,» she added.
The 2022 has been declared the Year of Protection of Mountain Ecosystems and Climate Resilience in Kyrgyzstan. Earlier, Dinara Kutmanova said that it is planned that each Kyrgyzstani would plant 10 saplings.