Logging on the shores of Lake Baikal will be carried out for the sake of solving "long-standing problems"

Andrey Ivanov, director of the Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry SB RAS, is sure that people are being misled by criticizing the bill allowing continuous logging in the central ecological zone of Lake Baikal. And as an example, he told the story of solving the problem of discharge standards in Baikal, after which it finally became possible to start building the much-needed treatment facilities.

"They are manipulating the fact that the entire forest around Lake Baikal will be cut down. Meanwhile, the amendments to the law are not about that at all. It's about solving long-standing problems," he said.

"Recently, by the efforts of the scientific community, we managed to make changes to the 83rd order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation on discharge standards into Lake Baikal. And what was our surprise when, simply by bringing the standards into line with common sense, i.e. to what the devices can measure, we saw in the press accusations that now mercury can be dumped 600 times more. In fact, this suggests that some forces are manipulating specific facts," the scientist said. – But without the presence of a normal discharge standard, it is impossible to conduct any economic activity on Lake Baikal. <> Residents of villages and cities that are located near Lake Baikal should get normal sewage treatment plants, you can't build them without using some area of the forest. We don't have a lot of time for this, all the changes are valid only until 2030, then we won't be able to do anything again."

Irkutsk media note that many critics of the amendments to the Federal Law "On the Protection of Lake Baikal" cite phrases taken out of context as arguments, without having read the bill itself.

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill authorizing continuous logging in the central ecological zone of Lake Baikal. It is proposed to cut down the forest on Lake Baikal until 2030.