| FOREST FUND | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This data set contains data of official statistics on Forest Fund of all federal agencies of state management as well as on forests which are not included in Forest Fund (Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Defence, city forests, and agricultural forests), state by January 2003. Data are presented by administrative regions (subjects of the Russian Federation) . Information on Forest Fund of the Ministry of Natural Resources are presented by land categories, groups of forests and protective categories of forests of the first group, by groups of species, and by major forest forming species. For forests managed by state forest authorities, the structure of forest management, information on forest regeneration and other data are presented. © Roslesinforg, 2003 © VNIILM, 2003. The Forest Fund is organized into the following spatial units: In addition, data is represented by forest species: | Map | GIS | The following datasets are provided, and described below:
Aggregated information has been prepared by State Enterprise “Roslesinforg” (author team V.F. Fomchenkov, V.V. Sdobnova, N.K. Danilov, S.V. Danilova, G.V. Kurdina, and T.F. Beljakova) based on data of State Forest Account, presented by regional agency of state forest management. Data have been published in V.F. Fomchenkov et al., Forest Fund of Russia (data of State Forest Account, state by January 1, 2003), Reference Book, Moscow, VNIILM (All-Russia Research Institute of Forestry and Mechanization), 640 pp. [in Russian]. The State Forest Account (SFA) contains aggregated data for the entire country by a definite data (as a rule by January 1st) and is an only source of official data on Russian forests by a definite date. FSA presents data for all forests based on information supplied by regions. Currently, for forests which are managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, FSA data are presented at the yearly basis. However, for other agencies which have forests in their jurisdiction (about 4% of the total area), data are updated with 5 year interval. Thus, complete information on Russian forests as a whole is available with a 5 year interval. Data of the last FSA were published in 2003 (state by January 1st 2003). Russia has a specific classification of forest land cover territories. All lands which are allocated for forest management purposes (1179.0 million ha in 2003 or 69% of the total area of Russia) are divided in Forest Fund and lands which are not included in Forest Fund. Forest Fund includes forests managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources (1132.3 million ha, or 96.0%), agriculture forests (i.e., forests which previously belonged to the Ministry of Agriculture and have been transferred to different regional agricultural enterprises and associations in 2002) -3.4%, and forests of the Ministry of Education and Science – 0.03%. Forests which are not included in Forest Fund (5.9 million ha) are managed by the Ministry of Defence (4.7 million ha, or 0.4%), and small areas are accounted for city forests (0.1% of the total). Territories which are allocated for forest purposes are divided in two large categories – Forest Land (areas, which are destined for forest growth) and Non-Forest Land. Forest Land is divided in Forested Areas (i.e., areas which are covered by closed forests at the moment of inventory) and Unforested Areas – areas destined for forest growth but which are temporarily not covered by forests (burnt areas, unregenerated clear cuts, sparse forests etc.). Non-Forest Land is represented by areas of special destination (roads, cut lines - boundaries between forest compartments, farms of forest guard etc.) and unproductive areas where under current condition forest is not able to grow (numerous land cover categories including treeless bogs, water bodies, sands, rocks etc.). Technical definitions of all terms used in State Forest Account are given in Glossary. Data of SFA are summarized from primary inventory units (PIU) which are aggregated in forest management enterprises (leshoz), national parks, some other forest management units. This information serves as initial information source for the aggregation by administrative regions (which are called subjects of the Russian Federation) and some other administrative and territorial entity (named below as Zones). Territorial entity for which aggregated data are presented are: 1.1. Forest management units (FMUs – leskhozes, national parks etc.). Distribution of Subjects of Russian Federation by Federal Okrugs and Zones are presented in Table 1. The first SFA which presented results of forest inventory for the entire country was presented in 1961. After that, the SFA were performed in 1966, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. Data of three major types of forest inventory are used in SFA: on-ground forest inventory and planning - FIP (Russian term - lesoustristvo), which cover about two third of the Russian forests, and simplified inventory of remote sparsely populated territories by remote sensing methods (one fourth of the territory). By now, there are relatively small areas in extreme north which has been inventoried by very approximate methods several decades ago. Forest inventory in Russia is provided by regional Forest Inventory and Planning Enterprises (FIPE). In 2006, there were 13 FIPEs, of which four are situated in the Asian Russia and the others - in European-Urals Russia. Each forest management unit (FMU - leskhoz) in Russia is traditionally subdivided on forest districts (lesnichestvo). Each forest district is subdivided in compartments (kvartal), and each compartment – in primary inventory units - PIUs (taksazionniy videl). FIP provides evaluation of major biometric characteristics of each PIU – species composition, age, average height and diameter, site index, relative stocking, growing stock, indicators of quality of wood etc. Besides of a stand, lower layers of forest ecosystems (understorey, green forest floor), as well as soil, relief etc. are described. Substantial part of these information is aggregated in the framework of State Forest Account. Table 2 contains general information about all forests of Russia distributed by federal agencies which provide forest management. Total areas of Forest Estate (Forest Fund and Lands which are not included in Forests Fund) are divided in Forest Land and Forested Area (areas covered by forest vegetation). Difference between Total areas and Forest Land (which are presented in the Table) gives Non-Forest Land. Difference between Forest Land and Forested Area represents Unforested Land. There are three groups of forests in Russia due to their value and destination: first, second and third. The first group is presented by protective forests, the second one – mostly protective forests with substantial restrictions for industrial exploitation, and the third one – forests destined for industrial use. The new Forest Code, which was approved in 2006, provided some changes in this classification. Growing stock in Russia is defined as total volume of all stems of live trees in a stand. Mature stands are defined as stands of two age classes: the age class starting from which final felling is permitted, and the following one. Forests of the next age classes are accounted for as overmature ones. Forest percentage cover is defined as ratio between forested area and the total land area of the corresponding region (included internal water reservoirs). Total average increment is defined as a quotient of the area weighted growing stock divided by age. Table 3 contains the distribution of forests managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the RF by most important land classes, groups of forests and protective categories (of forests of the 1st group). Protective categories are indicated due to the Forest Code (1997). According to this Code, forest of the 1st group are divided in 15 protective categories in which final felling is prohibited (state natural reserves; national parks; natural parks; state shelter belts; forests which have scientific or historical meaning; natural monuments; forests of 1st and 2nd belts of the zones of sanitary protection of sources of water supply; forests of 1st, 2nd and 3rd zones of sanitary protection of resorts; specifically valuable forests; anti-erosion forests; fruit forests; nut harvesting zones; subtundra forests; restricted belts which protect spawning water reservoirs of valuable food-fish; and reserved forest plots) and 5 protective categories where final felling (with some restrictions) are allowed (protective belts along railroads and highways; forests of green zones (including forest parks); dry pine belts; other forests in desert, semi-desert, steppe, forest steppe and areas with small forest cover in mountainous territories, which have large importance for environment protection; restricted belts along river, lakes, artificial water reservoirs and other water objects). Forests of 2nd group includes special zones and belts, and forests of the 3rd group includes special zones and belts, and reserved forests. The latter are accounted for in remote territories where industrial harvest is not planned during the next 20 years after the forest inventory. A special land category which is presented in Table is Forests available for exploitation. This category excludes protective forests in which final felling is prohibited and area of unproductive forests (with growing stock less than 40 m3 in European and 50 m3 in Asian Russia). For the above land classes, it is indicated During the period between two last successive SFAs (1988-2003) the following most important changes took place:
Forest Fund of the Russian Federation includes 329.8 million ha of forests available for exploitation (29.7% of the total area of Forest Fund and 44.9% forested area). Table 4 presents distribution of forested area and growing stock by groups of age and groups of major forest forming species. Data are reported for forests of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Russian forest inventory manuals indicate forests of major forest forming species (the area in 2003 was 658.8 million ha or 89.9% of the total forested area) which is divided in three groups: coniferous, hard wood deciduous, and soft wood deciduous. Forests with dominance of five coniferous species (pine, spruce, larch, fir, and Russian cedar – stone pine) cover about 78% of the total area of major forest forming species. Hard wood deciduous stands are formed by such valuable species as oak, ash, maple, hornbeam and by a number of hard wood birches (stone birch, iron birch etc.). The area covered by these species is relatively small – 3%. Soft wood deciduous are mostly presented by birch and aspen forests (19% of the areas of major forest forming species). The rest is presented by very small areas of other species (1.1 million ha in 2003 – mostly introduced species) and by shrubs (73.2 million ha) which are accounted for forested areas only in territories where “high” forests cannot grow due to severe climatic conditions. The latter is mostly presented by dwarf pine (Pinus pumila) -52.6% and by shrub birches -35.1% of the area of accounted shrubs. With respect to age, there are five age groups: young forests, middle-aged, immature, mature and overmature ones. The division is provided due to a special algorithm dependently upon the age of maturity (final felling) which is defined legislatively in Russia. Some examples of such a distribution are presented in the following table:
Total growing stock of forests dominated by major forest forming species is estimated at 74.5 billion m3, other tree species and shrubs – 1.6 billion m3. Stock of mature and overmature forests comprise 42 billion m3 of which 8.9 billion m3 in European Russia. Growing stock of mature and overmature forests available for exploitation is estimated at 23.1 billion m3 (decreased by 1.3% in 1998-2003), of which in European Russia 6.1 billion m3 (- 1.6%) included coniferous 4.0 billion m3 (-5.0%). Table 5 contains distribution of forested areas by major tree species of Russia. Pine is almost exclusively presented by Pinus silvestris; Spruce – by Picea abies (European Russia), P. obovata (mostly in Siberia) and P. ajanensis (Russian Far East); Larch – by Larix sibirica (West and Central Siberia), L. gmelinii (Central Siberia to the east from the Yenisey river) and L. kajanderi (Russian Far East); Fir – by Abies sibirica (to Baikal lake in the east) and number of species in the Russian Far East (A. nephrolepis in Sikhte-Alin, A. sachalinensis – in Sakhalin island, A. holophilla – in the south of Primorsky kray etc.); Russian cedar – mostly Pinus sibirica over all Siberia and P. koraiensis – only in the Far East Administrative Okrug. Data for Stone birch (Betula ermani) also include stands of three other Far Eastern hard wood birches – B. costata, B. davurica and B. schmidtii. Data for Alder include forests dominated by Alnus incana (56.9% of the total area) and A. incana (43.1%). Table 9. Distribution of stands by relative stocking and site indexes | Copyright |Foreword | Acknowledgements | |
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