Forest areas which have been ravaged in wildfires across central Russia will return within 15 years, but will take some 300 years to make a full recovery, an ecologist said on Wednesday.

"It will take 15 years for the fire-ravaged sites to be covered with forests," Alexander Isayev, head of the Moscow-based Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity, said at a news conference.

"Usually birch forests cover burn sites first because deciduous trees recover more rapidly than others," Isayev said.

But it will take some 300 years the forests to recover completely, the expert added.

Russia has no special structures or organizations to take on reforestation measures because businessmen who own plots of land are not interested in this, he said.

Russia is suffering the worst heat wave in the 130 years since records began. Wildfires continue to rage across much of the central part of European Russia as the country experiences temperatures of up to and above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took part in extinguishing forest fires in Ryazan Province on board an amphibious firefighting airplane.

The Russian head of government was the co-pilot for half an hour aboard a Be-200 plane scooping up water from the nearby Oka River and dumping it on raging forest fires some 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

He dumped approximately 12 tons of water on each of two fires, extinguishing both completely.

The area affected by wildfires raging across central Russia fell by half to 90,000 hectares compared to Tuesday's 180,000 hectares, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.

Wildfires, sparked by weeks of abnormally high temperatures in central Russia, have severely damaged the Russian economy, with the estimated short-term loss of $15 billion.

MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti)