Govt to earmark 100 mln rubles in compensation for felled Khimki forest
MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources has drafted a government resolution stipulating compensation payments for parts of the Khimki forest that will be cut down to provide room for a high-speed Moscow-St. Petersburg highway.
Under the draft, 100 million rubles are to be allocated from the federal budget in the form of a subsidy to co-finance forest reproduction and forest cultivation.
The place for future forest areas will be determined by the Moscow city government. New woods more than 300 hectares in area may appear in the Northern Administrative District (Molzhaninovo, Levoberezhny, Khovrino).
Earlier, the Moscow region government set aside 300 million rubles for forestation work in the Losiny Ostrov National Park.
About 100 hectares of the Khimki forest are to be felled to make way for road construction.
"Under planned forestation projects, 700 hectares of forest will be planted, which will fully compensate for the destroyed parts of the Khimki forest," the Natural Resources Ministry said.
Strips of forest totaling 50 hectares will border the Leningradskoye highway and the new high-speed highway, the ministry said.
