Forest Club model projects and sites

Issue 28, June 2005

Summary

Editorial. Events of the Year
By Vladimir Zakharov
Ministerial Conference on FLEG process scheduled for November 2005 promises to become one of the main forest related events of the year. However, current situation within the forestry branch in Russia – the Conference host country – makes experts to foresee growth of illegal logging, corruption and rights abuse. Shameful backstage for FLEG conference host!

Forest Legislation Enforcement and Governance in Europe and North Asia at start
By V. Teplyakov, K. Saint-Laurent, V. Stucki
Ministerial processes and FLEG conferences had already taken place in East Asia and Africa. There are lessons to be learned from these regions experiences to speed up governance reforms in ENA region.

• ENA-FLEG Process from the Perspective of Russian Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations (ZIP)

Informal Forest Economy in Irkutsk Region: the Sociology Prospect
By S. Karnaukhov, T. Malkevich, I. Olimpieva, O. Pachenkov, Z. Soloviova, K. Titaev, V. Titov, N. Cheremnykh
The article focuses on the problem of the informal forest economy within the prospect of the new Forest Code adoption. Authers discuss the possibility of informal economy influence on the new Code efficiency. They also investigate prospectives of private property on forests introduction and changes of regional and local adminstration role in forest governance.

Russian forest and Russian people: attitudes and perception of rights and legal issues
By O.Zakharova
The article brings up social and psyhlogical issue of forest and forest relations in Russia. People’s attitudes and perceptions form the atmospere in which the FLEG process will occur. Russian population has specific forest traditions and forest-based lifestyle. This fact has been neglected quite often, however, significant number of people still depend on forest.

Address to the Russian Foresters
On April 9 – 11 Russian NGOs forest experts gathered near Petrozavosk, Karelia, to discuss current situation. The new Forest Code was in the center of discussion. The NGO experts came to the conclusion that shortly after the new Code would come into force it would prove to be inefficient, as its developers were based on wrong concepts and ideas. This is why they came up with idea of elaborating Russian Forest Program and a new, alternative Forest Code concept.

Recommendations on Public Hearings
By V. Semyashkina, Y. Pautov, L. Punegova, E. Osipova
Public hearigs is a form of public participation in nature resources use decision making. In hearings process project inititators explain their intentions, their project and give an opportunity to stakeholders to bring up their concerns and suggestions.

Citizen hearings – what’s that?
By A. Karpov
Citizen hearings embody the idea of “direct democracy” – it is a procedure during which the decision is made by “plain citizens” and not by buearocrats, experts or even elected politicians.

The Use of Leaving Low Timber Value Trees on Clearcuts
By A. Yaroshenko
Clearcut is the most common kind of loggings practiced in Russia, this is why discussion of ways minimizing harm from them is still up to date. The article deals with clearcuts in Russian taiga and discusses the idea of leaving on stand low commercial value tree species, mainly birch and aspen.

Full text Russian version: http://www.forest.ru/rus/bulletin/