Officials launch reforestation drive after boasting high timber exports

March 19, Pozirk. The Belarusian forest management ministry has announced a tree-planting public campaign from March 23 to April 20 to promote reforestation.

Anyone interested can apply to a local forestry department, which will provide seedlings and share information on sites to plant, it noted.

The announcement comes a week after Leanid Dziamjanik, CEO at Biełlesekspart, boasted that the wood export company sold $118 million worth of timber despite Western sanctions.

After the European Union banned wood imports from Belarus in March 2022, woodworking companies redirected exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, from where relabeled Belarusian products are delivered to Europe and sold using forged documents, investigative journalists reported.

In late January 2023, Ukraine sanctioned 23 Belarusian companies, Biełlesekspart among them.

Kyiv froze their assets, halted trade, transactions, agreements and revoked licenses.