‘Violations by builders were our major problem last year, which mainly has to do with large-scale construction in Yekaterinburg. Unfortunately, this has had some negative side effects, including more environmental offenses,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Environmental Prosecutor Kirill Ershov.

‘Developers would often begin building without a timely examination conducted by a committee of environmental experts, and only legalized all the papers at our demand in the course of construction. Sometimes they would ignore the need for getting consent of a number of regulatory bodies, and often cut down trees and bushes, which made the local dwellers quite unhappy. Yekaterinburg is developing, the city has to be using the woods, and it’s an inevitable process, but local authorities must handle the issue in a very clever and careful way. When one has a little reserve, it should be protected rather than cut down, since there are not too many of them in the city,’ Mr. Ershov said.

‘You naturally need to do away with the old trees that are no longer useful; only 40% of them are actually put away in Sverdlovsk Region, but you also must plant new trees instead. In the meantime, builders often eliminate trees in all the wrong places, that is, closer to built-up areas. Of course, this process must be controlled by the government.’