Ministerial Decree No. 78 on approval of the Charter for conservation of state forest fund and forest restoration.

This Decree sets forth principles and procedures of the protection of forests and forest restoration. This Decree states that protection of forests is a system consists of organizational, legal and other measures to ensure efficient use of forest fund and to protect forests from fire, illegal logging, pollution, deforestation, environmental damage, pests, diseases and other negative impacts. The forest protection measures are indicated as (a) carrying out state control, (b) preventing infringement of the established order of forests, (c) bringing responsible legal and real persons to justice in the manner specified in the legislation, (d) limiting, suspending or prohibiting the activities of enterprises causing damage to forest fund, and (e) implementing other measures stipulated by the legislation. The purpose of forest restoration is the timely forest restoration on forest land not covered with vegetation, improvement of forests’ composition, increasing productivity and ensuring the efficient use of lands of forest fund. This Decree sets forth fundamental duties of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in the field of forest restoration as (i) registration of forest restoration works, (ii) determining the size, location, duration and methods of forest restoration in separate categories of land, (iii) providing the selection of forest tree species and forestry seeds, (iv) carrying out reforestation activities by planting high yield, protective and valuable trees, (v) taking measures for increasing the productivity of forest fund and for protecting forests from erosion, (vi) suspending or limiting the activities of forest users in case of affecting the forest development adversely, and (vii) monitoring the activities related to the restoration and development of forests.