Home – Home – Jornals – Siberian Journal of Forest Science 2016 number 4

Public administration of forests is one of the most important sectors of ecological public administration at the national and local levels. Forest legislation is the legal basis for management, whose quality and regulatory capacity ensure the effectiveness of state power activities aimed at sustainable use, protection and regeneration of forests. The need for reforming and properly updating forest legislation and law enforcement is long overdue, which is confirmed by scientific studies and actual facts. A basic problem of forest management is the absence of an official definition of «forest» and «urban forest». Problems of forest fire protection and management problems in the forest sector (e.g. related to the provision of forest plots and the sale and purchase of forest stands) are widespread. Management problems also cover a mismatch of legislative activity of the competent entities regarding the regulation of forestry relations, the one-time combination of regulatory and supervisory functions in the same bodies, as well as the lack of a single current and objective system of state cadastral registration. The paper mentions peculiarities of identifying legal responsibility for forest offenses. It is noted that office of public prosecutor, being a central supervisory agency of the state due to the nature of its job and position in a system of separation of powers, has vast (if compared with other subjects of administrative relations) opportunities to identify, overcome and eliminate the problems of management of forests. The paper considers separate case materials that show an active role of the national public prosecutor’s office in supporting law and order in the examined field. Generalized conclusions are drawn based on the results of the study.