Реализация государственной политики по охране лесов на Алтае в период революций и гражданской войны(1917-1919 гг.)

Implementation of the state forest protection policy in the Altai Territory in the period of the revolutions and Civil war (1917-1919)

Forest conservation is an essential element of sustainable forestry. The main directions of the state forest conservation policy in Russia were the fight against unauthorized felling and fires. These two problems caused enormous damage to forest areas. The Altai District had rich forest resources, but they were unevenly distributed over its territory. There was tension about the use of forest resources between the administration and the population, which from time to time turned into confrontation. The February revolution in1917 resulted in a revision of the management system of the Altai District and the transfer of its forests from the ownership of the Emperor to state. Conversion of forests to public property caused a surge of violence against the representatives of the forest administration who tried to defend the interests of forestry. There was a large number of unauthorized fellings, the destruction of forestry offices, the dismissal of forest rangers and forest guards in the period of 1917-1919. Fighting fires was extremely difficult, since the forest guards couldn’t cope and the population refused to take part in extinguishing the fire. The political regimes on the territory of the Altai District in 1917 –1919 considered protection of forests as the most important task and paid much attention to it. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the division of the country into two opposing camps, a new state forest policy was launched in Siberia and the Altai territory. Its main task was increase in the rates of forest exploitation. There were strict measures to protect the forests such as the organization of special mobile units for the prosecution of unauthorized cutters (forest militia), the imposition of capital punishment for the perpetrators of deliberate forest fires, etc. In the conditions of a deep political crisis, the effectiveness of measures to protect forests was low. After the end of the Civil war, the forestry was in decline. Urgent measures were required to restore it and form a new system of forest protection.