Content and genesis of the state forest policy of Russia

The aim of this work is studying of process of formation of the state forest policy and change of its contents depending on the political regime existing in the country and the directions of social and economic development of the state. The article was prepared with the attraction of a wide range of the researches devoted to various problems of the state forest policy. Works of Russian and foreign historians, legal experts and forestry specialists are used. In the article the theoretical characteristic of the state forest policy is considered from the point of view of the theory of public administration. As result of the work done the author came to the following conclusions. The maintenance of the state forest policy during the pre-revolutionary period was in close dependence on the identity of the monarch and his political views. The state forest policy of Russia began its formation in the XVIIIth century, which was directly connected with activities in formation of military and trade navy by Peter I. State's requirement of wood for ships has predetermined need of legislative regulation in the sphere of forest exploitation and forest conservation, and also has led to creation of specialized administrative agency. In the second half of the 18th century the state forest policy got new features: the rights of private forest owners were restored, noblemen were exempted from obligatory forest service, the legal status of the forests changed, forestry gradually became commercial. Benefit extraction from the state forest resources operation becomes the basic principle of forest policy at the beginning of the XIXth century. Realization of the state forest policy has been assigned on the Forest Department created in 1798. One of the problems of Russian forest policy was the variety of forms of ownership. After changing of a political regime in the country in 1917 the sole state ownership on all forest resources became the basic principle of forest policy. Nationalization of the lands and the forests has caused radical revision of system of forest management, the forest legislation and other elements of the forestry mechanism. However the Soviet forestry developed in the direction of the maximum wide use of natural resources therefore it was dependent on the forest industry. Theoretical research of the state forest policy during the Soviet period was not practically conducted. At the present day the forestry is in process of searching of optimum model of functioning. Rational forest exploitation, including preservation of forest resources, is impossible without purposeful state forest policy. At the process of the formation and the realization of the state forest policy it is necessary to consider the domestic historical experience.

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