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Forests of $300 bn value lost in Russia

26 August 2010 15:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Wildfires in Russia have burnt forests with an economic value of at least 300 billion dollars during the country’s worst ever heat wave, environmentalists say, Press TV reported.

Alexei Zimenko, general director of Moscow-based Biodiversity Conservation Center, said at a press conference on Thursday that based on the market value of timber and the cost of reforestation, Russia has lost 25,000 dollars per each burnt hectare of forest that makes a total of at least 300 billion dollars, AFP reported.

According to Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, nearly 29,500 fires covering a total area of 935,286 hectares have so far been registered in the country this year. This is while environmentalists estimate the figure to be bigger, saying that fires have covered an area of 10 million to 12 million hectares.

Several economists said earlier this month that the loss caused by the disaster might cost Russia between 0.5 percent and 1.0 percent of the country’s GDP, or roughly 7 to 15 billion dollars.

In the first official estimate of the cost of the disaster, Russia’s Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said the drought would cut at least 0.7 to 0.8 percentage points from 2010 growth.

Last month, Russia experienced the hottest July ever recorded. The intense heat and drought affecting central Russia dried out trees and peat marshes, which caught fire, burning forests, fields and houses across a massive region.