Pavel Pashkov: We need urgent environmental protection reforms in the country!

I want to talk to readers today about how to protect nature in general. Here we are — ordinary people who see problems and want real changes. We identify the "pain points" and send signals to the government, informing them of the need to solve these issues. With our own efforts, we try to do something good, including enlightening and involving people who are still far from realizing the seriousness of global environmental problems.

But today we find ourselves in the following situation:

• The business vertical, from transnational giants to small commercial structures, strives to make a profit and thinks only about competition and increasing revenue every day.
• Society, in its overwhelming majority, ignores environmental problems and does not want to hear anything about them. There is no real need for people to protect nature, and they do not want to admit the problems either!
• And the systems of state governance… let me demonstrate this with a real-life example.

Right now, we are actively speaking out in defense of tigers, which come to people hungry in search of food! Their habitat has been divided among people for large-scale logging and “sport hunting.” Across the whole country, there are no more than 750 tigers, but even this number is not actually confirmed anywhere! There are only reports on paper.

For the first time, we managed to provoke a reaction within the state system when the federal government officially recognized the hunger among tigers and the need for urgent measures to protect them!

But before that moment, we received formal replies from officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources stating that there were no problems with the tigers. Moreover, “pro-government experts” in the public space claimed that tigers come to people not because of hunger and that there is plenty of food in the Russian Taiga!

Such “formal replies and smoothing over” continued for several years! And for several years, we demanded a solution to the problem of tigers coming to people. In addition, we offer real solutions to these issues—specific and understandable steps.

And now in February 2025, the federal government holds a meeting where they unanimously confirm everything we have been saying all along!

Here, I think I should quote.

I will take the data from the publication “Moskovsky Komsomolets” dated February 13, 2025.

“Let us remind you that, according to the State Duma, the outbreak of African swine fever in the Amur tiger’s habitat led to the extermination of more than 90% of wild boar—the main food base for these big cats. In addition, the populations of red deer and sika deer, as well as roe deer, have decreased. These animals are also part of the tiger’s diet, but due to the decline in their numbers, they ended up on the ‘stop list,’ forcing the predator to leave its territory and not only compete for prey with bears and wolves but also seek food in human-inhabited areas.”

Further:

“The deputies were shocked by the lack of a unified approach to counting the populations of both predators and those they feed on.

— We have questions about how to count the population and, most importantly, who counts and who is responsible for it, — said Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Ecology Georgy Arapov.”

“It would make the most sense to look for answers to all these questions at the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, but they decided not to attend the parliamentary meeting in person and delegated two of their representatives at the level of deputy directors of the Department of Specially Protected Natural Territories to participate via video link. The deputies were disheartened by this attitude.

— We have no vertical at all, — came from the monitor on the Ministry of Natural Resources’ side.”

That’s it, there’s no need to read any further. This is enough for us!

Here is what we see happening.

For several years, we have been voicing the problem and demanding its solution! All this time, they send us official replies and “evade” us in every possible way, claiming there is no problem. They send “specialists” to give interviews in the media, stating that there are no issues with the food supply in the Russian Taiga and that tigers do not come out due to hunger. Therefore, there is no need to introduce a moratorium (ban) on recreational hunting, nor is it necessary to slow down the flow of money into the budget from the paid hunting industry!

Then the situation escalates to real casualties on the part of the tigers; several individuals have already died. There are human fatalities! Dozens of dogs on chains have been killed and eaten by hungry predators. People are afraid to go to work and send their children to school, which has led to calls from actual local residents to kill the tigers.

Moreover, many tigers have bullet wounds, including fresh festering ones! They are simply being shot at to drive them away from populated areas.

And only now, after incredible public efforts, officials gather for a meeting where they publicly confirm… EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS!

Furthermore, the same Ministry of Natural Resources, which previously sent us only official denials, did not even consider it necessary to attend the meeting where they were obliged to be present! Instead, they sent their representatives via “video link,” who came out with the statement:

“WE HAVE NO VERTICAL AT ALL.”

Do you understand, comrades, what is actually going on?

In general, the practice of appearing via “video link” is very popular among officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources. I recall going to a meeting of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on the situation with forest fires in Russia—where the head of Rosleskhoz was supposed to be present. But he, without warning anyone in advance, appeared via video link, said a couple of words about being too busy, and disappeared.

That’s all you need to know about today’s Ministry of Natural Resources. It’s enough to look at their new legislative initiatives, including those we actively oppose: the law on continuous cutting of protective forests in mountainous refuges across the country and the law on killing Red Book animals “in exceptional cases.”

I will provide another quote from the meeting (from the “MK” material):

“The absence of representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and law enforcement agencies at the committee meeting renders it meaningless, and its resolutions toothless. That is the verdict pronounced on everything happening within the walls of the State Duma by Deputy Anatoly Greshnevikov (SRZP). According to him, officials responsible for flora and fauna generally prefer to avoid the building on Okhotny Ryad, 1.

— There was a proposal to find out why the minister did not come to report on the ‘Ecology’ national project. [Dmitry] Grigorenko, Deputy [Mikhail] Mishustin, was instructed to investigate. So we are waiting. The committee should somehow influence the ministry so that they are present at the discussion of at least such important issues, — the parliamentarian said.”

And now I will return to my thoughts and once again ask the readers: how do we protect nature if our system of governance “has no vertical at all”?

Right now, we are only considering the issue of protecting tigers! But I am worried that at the same time wolves—sanitarians of the wild—are being exterminated. Only for 2025 (the hunting season), the authorities in the regions have issued more than 42 thousand quotas to shoot bears, which also come to people hungry! And initially, officials also said that “they are not hungry, there is enough food,” but later hunters in Siberia began to complain en masse that bears have half the amount of fat they should! Small “dealers” cannot supply bear fat to China for dietary supplements… “this is a disaster, indeed.”

Also, I recently wrote material about “reforestation.” Not only has the state delegated reforestation tasks to logging companies (which are generally only interested in profit), but they have also led to a situation where up to 95% of all seedlings die! According to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, this figure reaches 90%, and according to specialists, up to 95%.

But what is “plus or minus” 5%—if one thing is clear: WE DO NOT HAVE ANY REFORESTATION IN THE COUNTRY. Not to mention that planting trees in “beds,” plantation forestry, can pose a real threat to the last remnants of true ancient forests! Just as in the USSR in the 1970s/80s, “plantation forestry” was introduced specifically for future logging, we have simply “frozen” this practice—except now it is used as a substitute for real forest ecosystems with the complexity they require.

And today scientists say: numerous forest fires start with forest plantations. Pests, diseases, and fires easily move through the “beds!” And monocultures draw moisture from the soil, drying out ecosystems during heat waves and further provoking the degradation of biogeocenoses. Moreover, “rows” of trees create a “chimney effect” during forest fires, where the wind blows through “corridors” toward truly ancient forests!

Hence the millions of hectares of forests burned to the ground in recent years!

I will definitely write a separate book about this! I promise you, comrades. I will create a large, detailed book with all the assessments and conclusions.

But today’s question is how we can protect nature under such conditions.

We live in some archaic mosaic, where there is no unified understanding of the number of animals or the destruction of ecosystems, and “nature restoration” has turned into a distorted mirror—allowing huge sums of money to be made on the illusion of “saving nature.”

And now, at the meeting on tigers—our red-listed beauties—a representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources spoke via video link. All he could say was: “We have no vertical at all.”

CHANGES ARE NEEDED.

I suggest our government pursue cooperation and consolidation with society! I propose starting large-scale environmental reforms, changing the entire system of wildlife management in our country.

And we are ready to help in every possible way! Building the very vertical that, according to officials today, is nonexistent. We need new people in management; I can even point a finger at those who can really pull the environmental sector out of the swamp in a short time!

Is it really just me who sees that we are at an impasse?

I’m not even asking who will be held accountable for the tigers and people who have died. By whose fault did they perish? Although each one must be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law! So that others do not follow suit.

I’m not asking whom to hold accountable for the tens of millions of hectares of forests burned to ashes!

I am now talking about the URGENT NEED FOR CHANGE. And we, the public, are fully prepared to help the state move toward such changes free of charge, making our country, our homeland, better.

Our nature urgently needs help! And we have less and less time. And some “defective administrators” in the management system, who do not consider it necessary even to attend federal meetings on tiger protection, are hindering progress and discrediting our state.

© PAVEL PASHKOV