Before introduction of the new Forest Code (December, 2006) Russia had
a centralized system of forest management. The Federal Service
of Forest Management as part of the Ministry of Natural Resources
of the Russian Federation had a hierarchical structure of forest
management that corresponded to the structure of state (administrative)
management in Russia. The top regional management level comprises
7 Federal Okrugs. These okrugs have
been developed by a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation
dated May 13th, 2000 and have Departments of Natural Resources
including forests. The next level (indicated in the Constitution
of the Russian Federation) includes (as of 2006) 88 subjects
of the
Russian Federation which are represented by 21 Republics, 7 krays, 48 oblasts,
1 autonomous oblasts, 10 autonomous okrugs and 2 cities
of federal jurisdiction (Moscow and Saint Petersburg). All the
subjects (besides the cities) had regional forest management bodies.
The latter were divided into forest enterprises (leshoz) - 1788
in 2003. In turn, leshozes were divided into forest districts (lesnichestvo) – 7743,
technical sections (uchastok) – 14172, and ranger compartments
(obkhod) – 69498.
The following sections describe forest management in Russia:
Regional structure of forest management
Major indicators of forest management in 2005
Reforestation
Aforestation
Intermediate harvest in 1998-2003
Annual Allowable Cut
Harvest
Non-wood forest products
Regional structure of forest management
The regional structure of forest management that existed until 2007 and
the quantitative characteristics of forest management staff of
different management levels (as of 2003) are presented in
the dataset:
The structure of forest management
and fire protection in the Russian Federation (SFA)
The new Forest Code delegated management of regional forests to the regional
level. The future regional structure of forest management in Russia
was not known at the time this was written
(May, 2007).
Up to now, the Federal Forest Service provided all forestry and forest
management operations including forest inventory and planning,
reforestation, aforestation, thinning, all types of forest protection,
organizing the multi-functional use of forests (including
harvest of wood) and other uses of forests, etc.
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Major indicators of forest management in 2005
Major Land Categories
and Forest Management Activities in Forest Fund of the MNR contains
major indicators relevant to forest management of forests that are managed
by the Ministry of Natural Resources (96% of all Russian forests). The
data are derived from official statistics and presented for the entire
country, by Federal Okrugs and subjects of the Russian Federation. In
spite of the official character, reliability of the data is low, particularly,
of those which describe negative tendencies and impacts (e.g., extent
of disturbances, violation of forest legislation and regulations).
Annual Allowable Cut presents a norm of unexhausted final felling.
Currently it is estimated to be
for Russia about 560 – 570 million m3, and for forests of the Federal
Forest Service 520-530 million m3. During recent years, the AAC
was used in Russia for about 20-25%. Both AAC and actual harvest
are accounted for in units of commercial (merchantable) wood that
includes wood for industrial use and fuel wood. The usually used norm of
recalculation of growing stock volume into commercial wood (in aggregated
assessment and planning) is on average 0.88. See also dataset Annual
Allowable Cut.
There are two major types of intermediate harvest: thinning and
selective sanitary cut. Thinning includes two types of precommercial
thinning (so called care of young forests) and two types of commercial
thinning. Across the country thinning is provided in ~25% of forests
which require thinning due to forest management manuals. Selective
sanitary cut is provided in stands affected by different pathogens.
See also dataset Intermediate
harvest in 1998-2003 (SFA).
Major types of violation of forest management rules, manuals and
regulations related to harvest includes undercut (i.e., volume of trees
in stands destined for harvest and transferred to loggers but left on harvested
areas); insufficient clearing of harvested areas; destruction of undergrowth
on areas where young generations of trees had to be kept during the logging
due to silvicultural rules; amount of wood harvested but left on harvested
areas. The data reported do not include illegal harvest.
Measures of regeneration of forest includes reforestation, i.e.
planting and sawing of forests on previously forested areas (e.g., after
fire), aforestation (development of forests on land that previously was
not used for forest purposes) and support of natural regeneration of forests.
Boreal forests have a high capacity of natural regeneration after stand-replacing
disturbances (clear cuts, fire, etc.). Due to forest management regulations,
the ratio between areas of natural regeneration and these of planted by
bioclimatic zones in Russia are: in northern and middle taiga – 70:30%,
southern taiga – 50:50, zone of mixed forests - 30:70, forest steppe – 5:95
and steppe zone – 0:100%.
In 2005, the total area of forest regeneration activities in Forest Fund
area comprised of 771.0 thousand ha, of which forest has been planted on
166.7 thousand ha. These areas comprise, respectively, 93.3% and 87.6% of
the total areas of forest regeneration in Russia in 2005. An important indicator
for assessing sufficiency of forest regeneration is area of forest transferred
in forested area – it means that young stands on this area have
biometric indicators exceeded the requirements which forest inventory manuals
formulate to stand that are accounted for as forested area. Such an area
comprised in 2005 1.14 million ha.
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Reforestation
There is a long tradition and great experience regarding reforestation
in Russia. For almost three centuries, reforestation has been practiced
on significant areas, particularly in southern regions of the forest
zone – e.g. southern
taiga, temperate forests, forest steppe, and in the steppe. During
the last one and a half centuries (1844-1990), about 42 million
ha of forests have been planted and sowed in territories of the
Russian Empire and former Soviet Union. The peak in reforestation
was reached between 1960-1990, when approximately 1-1.2 million
ha of forests have been established annually.
By 2005, unforested areas of the Russian Forest Fund comprised 104.5 million
ha. The areas planned for reforestation were estimated at 33.02
million ha. These areas are mostly represented by burns which are
situated in Asian Russia.
Between 1986-1990, reforestation in Russia was implemented over an area
of 1.8 to 1.9 million ha annually. During recent decades, areas
of reforestation decreased substantially. Planting is a major method
of reforestation (81% by area for the entire country during recent
decades). For dominant tree species, coniferous trees comprise
79-80% of all planted forests (basically pine and spruce), with
deciduous between 18-19% and
shrubs between 0.5-1%.
Area
of reforestation in 1988-2005
Area
of Planted and Sowed forests in 1988-2005
Reforestation
in 1998-2003 and distribution of unforested areas by type of reforestation
(SFA t.7)
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Aforestation
Currently 129 million ha of agricultural land in Russia are affected by
or are vulnerable to soil erosion. Due to scientific norms of sustainable
land management, Russia needs about 14 million ha of protective
forests on agricultural lands (mostly shelter belts). In 2005,
the country had approximately 3 million ha (or 22% of required).
Historically, the Forest Service was responsible for aforestation
on agricultural and other land. In the 1970s, annual areas of planted
protective forests on agricultural lands comprised 120 thousand
ha. During recent decades, a permanent decline in aforestation
was observed: practically aforestation is almost non-existent in
Russia. Aforestation on agricultural lands (thousand ha/
year). Source: statistical data of the Federal Forest Service.
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Intermediate harvest
in 1998-2003
The dataset contains information about intermediate harvest by administrative
regions between 1998-2002, including the annual amount of harvest
that should be provided according to forest manual requirements
and actual harvest for the 5 year period between two consecutive
State Forest Accounts. Data are presented by thinning type,
selective clear cut and cut of reconstruction of stands.
Source: Forest Fund of Russia, Federal Forest Service, Moscow, 2003. Intermediate
harvest in 1998-2003 (SFA).
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Annual Allowable Cut
Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of Russian forests by Federal Okrugs between
1988-2008.
Source: data of Russian Federal Forest Service.
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Harvest
The total amount of wood harvested in Russian forests between 1946-1992
is presented by administrative regions. The administrative division
of the country corresponds to that which existed during this period
(see Code of regions). These data includes final felling,
thinning and other cuts. These represent official data that
do not account for illegal harvest. The data are expressed in thousand
cubic meter of commercial wood. Logging
in the Russian Federation in1946-1992. Source:1996. Federal Service
of Forest Management of the Russian Federation. Moscow, 313 pp.
[in Russian].
Information about amount of harvested
wood by final felling between 1988-2005. The data are presented by
Federal Okrugs and years. Amount of harvested wood is expressed in
m3 of commercial wood. Data on intermediate
and other harvest for 2003-2005 are also presented in the dataset.
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Non-wood forest products
According to forest legislation, forest non-wood products and services
include: pasturage of livestock and domesticated animals; harvest
of hay; placing apiaries and beehives in the forest; harvest of wild fruits,
berries, nuts, mushrooms and other food products; collection
of medicine and plants; use of forest plots for cultivation of
agricultural cultivars; establishment of plantations of fruits, nuts
and medicinal plants; collection of seedlings for planting on other land
use categories; etc. Historically, harvest of non-wood products were high
in Russia, particularly in the forest zone. However, information on amount
of harvested non-wood products is poor and incomplete. Expert estimates show
that the amount of non-wood forest products collected for private use in
taiga regions exceeds the amount of industrial harvest by 50-100 times. The
officially reported amounts of non-wood products harvested by forest enterprises
has declined dramatically in recent years. Amount
of some types of harvested non-wood forest products by forest enterprises
of the Federal Forest Service. Source: State Report, 2005.
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