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In 2025, federal authorities announced a shortage of budgetary funds for forest management—the collection of up-to-date information on the condition and location of forests. Because of this, the state is unable to fully implement forest conservation and management policies. To address this issue, State Duma deputies proposed shift the costs of these works to the regional level and businesses—effectively delegating to them financial responsibility for solving problems that have worsened since 2022.

Information: Forest management is a state forest inventory that encompasses monitoring, regulation, and strategic planning. As part of its forest management policy, the state assesses forest conditions, defines their boundaries and protected zones, and develops a precise plan for forest management, protection, and sustainable use.

Came into force in 2022 law, which transferred authority for forest management and financing from the regions to the federal level. Another important innovation was the assignment of a monopoly on these activities to Roslesinforg, an organization established by Rosimushchestvo and Rosleskhoz.

According to the official According toAt the time the law was adopted, forest management on 80% of forest lands was more than 10 years old. The changes were intended to improve the quality of forest management planning and execution and reduce the age of forest management.

However, by 2025, authorities began to complain that the law was failing to achieve its goals. Thus, participants in the Federation Council's discussion of forest management issues recognizedthat the federal budget does not cover the necessary expenses: for 2022-2024, only half of the territories out of the planned 30 million hectares per year were assessed. evaluation According to the Accounts Chamber, during this period, 41-73% of the minimum funds required to fulfill the plan were allocated from the budget.

Abolish the monopoly of Roslesinforg requested Primorsky Krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako. In his address to Vladimir Putin, he noted that forest management work needs to be carried out on leased lands in Primorsky Krai alone, covering over 400 hectares: "There's simply no one to do it. This demand will only grow. This means that companies will reduce their timber harvesting volumes and will manage the forests to the point of exhaustion."

The governor proposed returning to the practice that was in effect before 2022, when forest management work could be financed by investors and market participants. He believed that Rosleskhoz and Roslesinforg should become regulatory agencies instead of monopolists.

In October 2025, members of the Ecology Committee introduced a bill that would place the responsibility for financing forest management on forest leaseholders and regional budgets. Roslesinforg, however, would retain a monopoly on the work. The new bill by the State Duma deputies has a high chance of passing: among its authors is Dmitry Kobylkin, Chairman of the Ecology Committee, whose participation is necessary for the approval of the environmental amendments, and the consent of several representatives of parliament, the government, and regional authorities.

The initiative also lifts the ban on leasing forest areas for logging where forest management was completed more than 10 years ago. If an agreement is signed, forest users will be required to undertake forest inventory and conservation measures at their own expense within two years of the agreement's conclusion.

Although the bill was introduced to the State Duma by deputies from the Ecology Committee, the document may originate with the Ministry of Natural Resources. In the summer of 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev reportedthat the agency is developing an initiative that will provide the right to finance forest management from regional budgets.

If the law is passed, its main beneficiaries will be the Federal Forestry Agency and its subsidiary, Roslesinforg. The organization will receive the missing funds for forest management from regional budgets and land leaseholders.

The agency's lobbying efforts are evidenced by the involvement of Vladimir Sysoyev, a member of the State Duma's Environmental Committee, in the bill. Sysoyev was elected to the lower house of the Russian parliament in the spring of 2025, replacing his LDPR colleague and business partner, Yevgeny Markov, who resigned from his parliamentary seat upon his appointment to the Ministry of Natural Resources. Within the ministry, he now oversees the Forestry Department and coordinates the Federal Forestry Agency, a position he holds in this capacity. offered return funding for forest management to the regional level.

Markov had already promoted the interests of the Rosleskhoz structures through the State Duma when he became a co-author law, which empowered the agency to enter into agreements with businesses to provide forest plots for priority investment projects in forest development.

The former deputy himself previously owned a number of businesses in the trade and logging sectors in the Tyumen region and headed industry associations in the region. largest Markov headed strategic development at Partikom, a construction and woodworking company in the Tyumen region owned by Sysoev and former Sverdlovsk Region Vice Governor Oleg Chemezov. Chemezov is currently is in pretrial detention on fraud charges.

Despite Sysoev and Markov's past ties to business, the new bill could hit forest users. According to According to Alexey Yaroshenko, a specialist with the "Earth Concerns Everyone" project, the document shifts financial responsibility for solving problems that have worsened since 2022 onto them: "Most likely, this will significantly worsen the situation of most forest leaseholders, trigger a wave of bankruptcies and/or refusals to lease forests, and accelerate the decline and abandonment of forest settlements."