Slaughter for Cedar Nuts: Are Migrants Ransacking the Siberian Taiga?

While we are getting ready to save wintering birds, talking about massive forest fires, and the lack of food sources for animals, which could lead to them dying from hunger and cold, a real battle for cedar nuts has begun in the regions!

People are taking the LAST means of survival from wild animals, depriving them of food for the winter. And for what? Yes, for export to China, which then sells us these very cedar nuts at a 'three-story' price and successfully exports them worldwide.

The news is genuinely horrifying: migrants in the Russian Taiga have clashed with local residents over who can haul more cedar nuts out of the taiga and make money by selling them to resellers.

And I'm not exaggerating – people are now waging actual battles in some regions over cedar nuts!

Example from Surgut District in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, also known as Yugra, part of the Tyumen Region of Russia.

The publication 'Surgut District Messenger' writes that in the village of Tundrino, a fight broke out between visiting nut gatherers and local residents. As a result, State Nature Inspector Nikolai Maga sustained a concussion.

He personally recounted this to the 'Messenger':

'The incident occurred on the shore of Lake Tundrinskaya Kurya. Last week in Tundrino, six visitors from Surgut and Nefteyugansk made a fire in an unauthorized location. Although the area is not my responsibility, I went there to give them a warning. When I arrived, I saw that the people were drunk. They began to act aggressively. Locals approached. Word after word, and a fight broke out between them. I got hit as well and ended up in the hospital with a concussion. Both sides filed police reports against each other; I did not go to law enforcement.'

The 'Messenger' checked the information with the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Surgut District. The police confirmed that an administrative case had been initiated under the article 'Battery.'

The situation seems a bit strange if you don't understand that the real cause of the fierce conflicts between locals and visitors is the cedar nut.

Also in Tundrino, foreign citizens recently robbed local residents. A group of 60 people stole several bags of cedar nuts from the locals.

The same injured inspector notes that migrant nut gatherers work in a coordinated manner, and after their raids, no cones are left in the forest. Foreign citizens manage not only to collect cedar nuts but also to steal those already gathered by local residents.

'We had an incident where 60 people arrived in our forest. The group entered in a chain and simply cleaned the area. At the time, locals were also collecting cones, leaving the gathered nuts unattended and continuing to collect more. Foreign citizens didn’t hesitate and stole about eight bags.'

And such conflicts over cedar nuts are not news!

More so, they are widespread!

Here is another situation from a different region.

In Altai at the end of August, four men attacked a 68-year-old local who was collecting cones in the forest. They weren’t interested in his wallet with his pension! The robbers (as such an attack is precisely robbery) stole 41 sacks of cones and sold them at the nearest collection point for 61,500 rubles. Each sack was evaluated at exactly 1,500 rubles.

But let's get back to Yugra once more.

84.RU provides additional information on how the collection of cedar nuts is going. Understanding how it all works makes it easier to comprehend the reasons for the local-level wars over the nuts.

Here's what a Chinese nut dealer says:

'I can buy any amount. I purchase a kilogram for 350 rubles. But the quality and source of the cone need to be checked. In the Nizhnevartovsk district, it's not very good, so it needs to be checked. But near Solnechny, the cones are good. No documents are required; you can bring as much as you have. We first send them to a processing plant in Irkutsk, and then the cedar nuts are transported to China, so I can buy any amount.'

The warehouse rented by the Chinese businessman is near the village of Solnechny. The rent is a million rubles, which indirectly speaks to the income level from cedar nut procurement.

Currently, forests are not protected, anyone can enter the cedar grove and collect cones. The forest edge is trodden down and trampled. As locals report, occasionally there are show raids involving police and local forest inspectors. Otherwise, there is complete chaos in the forest. Nut dealers take advantage of this by bringing in large teams of migrant gatherers. The nut collection season is short! And, literally like locusts, they destroy everything in their path.

Here’s what a local resident says:

'If you hear a sound in the forest like a chainsaw... When I heard it for the first time, I thought someone was cutting down the forest. But these are nut shakers. They use lawnmower motors attached to trunks; everything vibrates, and the cones fall. But this is prohibited, and fines can be imposed. The tree then breaks down, and that's it. There is already little cedar left.'

There are many such 'black' methods in nut collection. All these methods are illegal.

Local residents claim that only 'fly-in' nut hunters – non-locals – resort to such methods. Those who want to collect as many nuts as possible in a few days using these barbaric methods and then sell them at a profitable price. They don't care about the future, as they don't live here.

For reference:

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, collecting cones using physical impact on tree trunks and crowns is prohibited. The only permissible method is nut collection by shaking the fruits from branches with hooks on poles.

The volume of cedar nut, berry, and mushroom collection for personal needs is not limited.

If violations are detected during nut harvesting, including the use of unauthorized methods, citizens face an administrative fine (part 3, article 8.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) from five hundred to one thousand rubles with confiscation of the 'tool of the committed offense' and all harvested products.

Officials face a fine of one to two thousand rubles, while legal entities face ten to twenty thousand rubles.

As you can see, the fines are simply laughable!

For comparison:

The actual nut collectors earn from 300 thousand rubles per season and more;

The nut dealers on site earn several million rubles per season.

HOW CAN THE ISSUE OF UNCONTROLLED NUT COLLECTION AND THE DESTRUCTION OF CEDAR TREES DURING SUCH COLLECTION BE SOLVED?

It is clear that appropriate legislation is indispensable!

This has been discussed for many years by regional heads, primarily in our country's Far East.

And now senators have introduced amendments to the State Duma to the Forest Code regarding the legal regulation of the collection of edible forest resources.

Specifically - cedar nuts first and foremost.

To understand what kind of law is planned to be adopted, I will quote excerpts from the explanatory note to the bill:

'... to the draft federal law 'On Amendments to the Forest Code of the Russian Federation regarding the Legal Regulation of the Harvesting of Edible Forest Resources';

— Currently, the processing industry for edible forest resources in the Russian Federation practically does not exist, and products are exported to Asian countries in an unprocessed form almost in full volume.

— Of particular importance among the diverse edible forest resources is the cedar nut, which is highly significant for wildlife, occupying an important place in the food chain of wild animals and birds, and simultaneously being a product with an extremely high market value, leading to considerable anthropogenic pressure.

— On August 1, 2023, by decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, the cedar nut was included in the list of strategically important goods and resources for Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

This measure aims to eliminate the illegal collection and export of cedar nuts.

— To enhance the effectiveness of combating the illegal harvesting and export of cedar nuts, a comprehensive set of measures aimed at changing the legal regulation of its collection is required.

Currently, illegal cedar nut collection is conducted under the guise of 'personal needs' collection, when unscrupulous entrepreneurs either direct organized teams of gatherers into the forests, who remain in the forests throughout the cedar nut collection period (from September to December) and harvest the nuts on an industrial scale, or by purchasing cedar nuts from residents of remote taiga villages, who also engage in massive uncontrolled harvesting.

— During cedar nut harvesting, barbaric methods are often employed: unripe cones are harvested, tree tops are broken, metal claws are used to climb trees, and other predatory methods and devices that cause damage and cessation of growth of cedar trees. Since the current forest legislation of the Russian Federation grants citizens the right to freely and unrestrictedly stay in forests and harvest edible forest resources for their own needs without limiting the volumes of extraction, the authorized bodies lack legal mechanisms to prevent this activity.

— The bill proposes amendments to Articles 35 and 82 of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, providing the constituent entities of the Russian Federation with the authority to establish places for the collection of cedar nuts by citizens for personal needs, terms, and permitted volumes of its collection.

This provision will allow the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, based on the results of annual phenological observations and depending on the natural and climatic characteristics of the regions, to set collection periods (start and end dates), the list of collection places where citizens will be allowed to collect cedar nuts for personal needs, and establish a reasonable individual nut collection norm for each citizen, minimizing the risks of involving cedar nuts collected under the guise of 'personal needs' in illegal commercial circulation.

— The bill also proposes clarifying the procedure for organizing and conducting auctions for the right to lease forest plots for the purpose of collecting edible forest resources and medicinal plants, establishing the requirement that auction participants for the right to lease forest plots for the collection of edible forest resources and medicinal plants can only be business entities that own infrastructure facilities intended for the production of products from edible forest resources.'

It is clear that there is a long way from adopting a bill to its practical application.

But at least there will be legislation on the basis of which something can be done on legal grounds!

For now, we see an uncontrolled collection of cedar nuts using barbaric methods and massive conflicts between local populations and migrant gatherers!

As a consequence, we will soon see hunger in the Russian Taiga, a lack of food for wild animals and birds. Soon, the cold winters will come! And there is no food. And will not be.

© PAVEL PASHKOV