How officials are trying to seize nature reserves: a list of bills

We call on the world to urgently create wildlife refuges in order to prevent the sixth mass extinction of species and to protect the remaining unfragmented pristine ecosystems from humans. In fact, all our work must be directed toward this: there are no more opportunities to protect individual links in order to impact global problems! Today, there is only one real solution left— the forced creation of wildlife refuges.

But officials in Russia think otherwise. Instead of protecting untouched corners of nature, they propose to destroy them once and for all.

Now it’s the spring of 2025. As a rule, various bills are passed in the spring sessions of the State Duma! That is why it is extremely important to keep track of attempts by officials to push through blatantly criminal laws and to stand against them in a timely manner— as a whole society.

Let’s remind people right now what officials are trying to legalize in favor of short-term profits by destroying wildlife in our country!

1 — Liquidation of Protected Areas.

Since 2024, there have already been several attempts by regional officials to effectively seize Russia’s nature reserves. First, the State Council of the Chuvash Republic proposed amending federal legislation to “facilitate changing the boundaries and abolishing specially protected natural areas.” Moreover, they suggested doing this with both regional reserves and those of federal significance!

Through the efforts of society, we managed to stop this madness, and on July 16, 2024, the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy refused to support the initiative.

A similar law was pushed by officials of the Stavropol Regional Duma, meaning they tried to cut up and seize the country’s reserve resources in entirely different regions. Like the Chuvash officials, the Stavropol initiators were also “cooled down” in time.

But already at the beginning of 2025, we received information from our allies in power: they want to make yet another attempt to seize the country’s reserves! This time, they plan to push the initiative through the Federation Council directly. If they succeed, officials will be able to “slice up” and abolish all the country’s reserves, making huge profits in the process.

We are keeping our finger on the pulse and closely monitoring the developments! There’s no doubt we will soon see yet another official initiative from the officials.

2 — Destruction of Baikal’s Forests

There has long been an uncompromising battle for the Sacred Baikal! We have launched initiatives, flash mobs, and demands to the government. Our long-standing allies know how extensive our efforts have been to at least slow down this outrageous bill.

In 2023, a group of 21 deputies and senators (including S. Ten, S. Yakubovsky, S. Brilka) introduced extensive amendments to the federal law “On the Protection of Lake Baikal.” They propose allowing clear-cutting of ancient forests in Baikal’s central ecological zone.

The cleared lands are planned to be used for the construction of roads, engineering communications, tourism facilities (hotels, campgrounds, cafes), and infrastructure for local settlements. The bill also simplifies the reclassification of protected forest lands for capital construction.

Their “vested interests” will inevitably lead to soil erosion— soil and organic matter will wash into Baikal, worsening water quality. Small rivers will become shallower, and the lake’s water regime will change. Turning these ancient forest refuges into a fragmented mosaic will increase the risk of fires and disrupt animal migration routes, as well as deprive animals of their habitat.

The law HAS NOT DISAPPEARED, officials have just taken a “pause,” waiting for society to fall silent, tire of the fight, and for people simply to go home.

Therefore, the struggle continues, and we, comrades, need to stand side by side, carefully tracking each legislative decision so that we can instantly stand against the criminal destruction of Baikal’s ecosystems.

It’s not just about a lake! We’re talking about the most unique lake on the planet with the largest reserves of fresh water.

3 — Bill No. 145734 on Clear-Cutting Protective Forests for the Construction of Ski Resorts Across the Country

In 2023, officials attempted to pass a bill permitting the clear-cutting of ancient forests of the PROTECTIVE CATEGORY in the mountain refuges of our country. All for the sake of exploiting huge sums of money: over 300 billion rubles at the start of the project for building 260 resort facilities. 

With their bill, they proposed allowing the clear-cutting of first-group (protective) forests and reclassifying lands of the forest fund into other categories for recreational and construction projects.

Protective forests are the most ecologically valuable (first-group). They perform water-regulating functions, protect soils from erosion, avalanches, and mudflows, and serve as refuges for rare species. This project opens the door to their mass logging, which would threaten the extinction of Red Book plants and animals that live only in these habitats. Losing forest cover on mountain slopes will increase the risks of floods and landslides, and degrade sources of clean water downstream. Forests around cities filter the air and protect against pollution, and their felling will worsen the quality of the environment for people.

The bill has not yet been passed, and officials are still waiting for things to “settle down,” hoping people will just give up. We monitor the situation literally every day, every move! And we will continue to fight for changes, not allowing officials to appropriate the country’s natural resources.

4 — Extermination of Animals Listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation

Amid the commotion, influential hunters in power— the so-called “VIP trophy hunters,” which include deputies and senators— decided to allow themselves to kill rare animals.

On August 13, 2024, in the midst of the “Kursk events,” they published a draft through the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation proposing amendments to the “On the Animal World” law, lifting the absolute ban on shooting animals listed in the Red Book.

They propose permitting the taking of rare animals and birds “in exceptional cases”— supposedly for population monitoring, “species conservation,” eliminating threats to humans, or helping sick animals. In fact, these provisions could also include trophy hunting by VIPs, although the Ministry of Natural Resources explicitly excluded hunting from the list of goals. In other words, the agency wanted to legalize a mechanism for issuing permits to shoot Red Book animals under various pretexts.

For instance, one of the authors of the draft is deputy-hunter Vladislav Reznik, who is a member of the “elite community” of VIP-hunters known as the “Mountain Hunters’ Club.” He had previously actively promoted and successfully pushed other bills in the interests of VIP-hunters within the government.

In order to pass the bill as quickly as possible, officials allocated only 5 days for collecting comments instead of the usual 15. We raised public outcry and, together with Russia’s nature conservation community, categorically opposed this insanity!

In just a few days, thousands of people voted against the bill on the state initiatives website.

Previously, officials tried to adopt a similar law in 2023, so these are not their first attempts! Back then, we also managed to stall it.

And now they are once again claiming ownership of the last wild animals in the Russian Taiga. But this time, they clearly do not intend to give up!

The public discussion period ended on August 19, 2024, yet the Ministry of Natural Resources has not withdrawn the bill. Instead, they are waiting for society to retreat and forget about the problem. As of 2025, the bill has not been passed, but it has not been canceled either.

We are monitoring every move by the officials and are ready to respond sharply as soon as they try to push the bill further!

NO RIGHT TO A REFUGE

These are just a few of the completely dangerous and, in my personal opinion, blatantly criminal bills aimed at destroying Russia’s reserves specifically. In other words, they are attempts to seize and appropriate the country’s protected resources! Some want to log ancient forests, others demand the right to shoot rare animals.

We see extremely dangerous legislative initiatives that reveal a serious flaw in the management system! It’s time for the federal government to put a stop to such actions by regional authorities and lobbying bureaucratic circles that not only undermine citizens’ trust but also discredit the entire power structure.

How is it possible that in broad daylight we are openly being offered to destroy wildlife refuges and shoot the last remaining animals there? What even is this?!

I remind all comrades that there is a global destruction of all biological systems underway. And nature urgently needs refuges from humans. We are offering concrete steps to resolve the crisis and prevent the sixth mass extinction of species on the planet— creating territories of complete ecological tranquility!

Study our plan, support our struggle, and help fight for Life!

© PAVEL PASHKOV