Overview
- Lawmakers approved the measure in second and third readings, preserving the ban on clear-cutting in the central ecological zone while permitting sanitary removal of dead or dying stands.
- Construction and reconstruction on the Baikal Natural Territory will require state environmental expertise of project documentation before work can proceed.
- Housing is barred within special economic zones located in the central zone, and the creation of any new SEZs there is prohibited.
- A federal commission comprising deputies, senators, the Presidential Administration, the government, the FSB, and leaders of Irkutsk Oblast and Buryatia will review land transfers and lists for sanitary logging only after a favorable RAS assessment.
- The final text narrows broad exceptions proposed at first reading; the Duma also urged the government to maintain the ban in future forestry updates, and Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Forest Code amendments redefining clear-cutting are planned for consideration by March 2026.