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Table of content:
RUSSIAN FOREST ENTERPRISES WILL HOPEFULLY INTRODUCE CERTIFICATION SYSTEM IN SEVERAL REGIONS OF RUSSIA
In December MacArthur foundation conducted a seminar on volunteer
certification development in Russia. Auditors, representatives of academia,
forest industry and NGOs discussed some practical things about
FSC-certification process. The volunteer certification is what many big
Russian timber exports interested in now. They hope it will provide a good
market opportunities. Western market is very environmentally sensitive now
and consumers want to be sure that timber comes from ecologically
sustainable areas.
Russia has only one forest enterprise (in Altay, Siberia) that has already
been certified by FSC.
Several forest units in Nizhniy Novgorod (Volga region), Vologda and
Archangelsk regions (European North) have just passed first stage of FSC
certification procedure.
Biggest Russian private timber company Ilim Pulp Enterprise (IPE) is also
going to certify a part of its forest plots in Archangelsk and Irkutsk
region according to FSC standards. Next year the company will spend at least
700 thousand USD for this. This year IPE processed a biggest amount of raw
timber in Russia (7 mln m3) most of which it bought from smaller groups as
the company itself has harvested 2,6 mln m3 in 2000. Some enterprises in
Trans-Baikal region are willing to introduce FCS certification as well
because their partners in neighboring China demanded it.
According to NGOs, certification of the whole process from planting of
tree to its processing is the best way to develop and support legal,
economically, environmentally and socially sound forest industry. Russian
NGOs are drawing public attention now to the problem of criminal logging and
export practices and to clear-cuts in the areas of protected species
inhabitation.
According to the Russian Forest Code, certification of the forest management
should be introduced everywhere in the country. But after the abolishment of
Russian Forest Service no one knows which type of certification will be
promoted by the officials and whether it would keep Russian forests from
being used as a resource for getting quick money for Mister Putin economy.
Contact: Michael Karpachevskiy e-mail: forest@bcc.seu.ru
WHO BUYS RUSSIAN AND BALTIC TIMBER IN SWEDEN AND WHERE THE TIMBER COMES FROM?
Towards Sustainable Swedish Timber Trade? - A Survey of Actors and Origin
Of Timber from Russia and the Baltic States was conducted in 2000 by The
Taiga Rescue Network in cooperation with WWF Sweden and recently published.
It is looking at timber trade between Sweden and Russia and the Baltic
States.
The imports of timber to Sweden from Russia and the Baltic countries have
increased by 70% between 1995 and 1999. Total imports from Russia and the
Baltics in 1999 were more than 9 million m 3 . Which is more than 80 per
cent of total Swedish timber import.
The actors in the trade can be divided into four main categories: forest
industry corporations, independent sawmills, forest owners associations, and
import agents. Of these, the major actors are the import agents and the
forest industry corporations. The import agents responding to the study
reported imports of almost 4.1 million m 3 annually from Russia and the
Baltics. The forest industry companies responding reported imports of almost
7 million m 3 . The independent sawmills reported almost 1.1 million m 3
coming from Russia and the Baltics. The central and southern sawmills are
the predominant importers within the independent sawmill industry.
Many of the forest industry corporations have set up their own wood
procurement companies in the Baltic countries. Korsnas, Holmen, and
StoraEnso, in addition to wood procurement companies also have logging
companies in the Baltics. The independent sawmills are importing through
import agents and the forest industry corporations or SODRA. Increasingly in
Sweden many small independent sawmills are con-solidating their wood
procurement into single larger wood procurement companies. Some of these
companies are relatively large importers of timber from Russia and the
Baltics.
The number of actors, especially middlemen involved in the trade seems to
have decreased over the last three years. The nature of the involvement on
the ground in Russia and the Baltics has changed. Swedish companies, many of
which were setting up logging or forest industry operations on the ground in
Russia have almost entirely pulled out of Russia and now con-centrate on
imports of roundwood through the import agents. At the same time the Swedish
forest industry corporations along with SODRA and the import agent, Thomesto
Sverige AB have established themselves on the ground in the Baltics,
primarily in Estonia and Latvia.
Vologda and Leningrad Oblasts in Russia are the central source of timber
for the Swedish market. Smaller quantities of timber are also imported from
the Russian regions of Novgorod, Pskov, Komi, Archangelsk, Tver, and
Karelia. Of the Baltic States, Latvia is the largest supplier of timber and
wood products (3.4 million in m 3 in 1999 followed by Estonia, (2.2 million
m 3 in 1999). The trade with Lithuania was less than 500,000 m 3 in 1999.
The level of knowledge that the actors have about the timber and wood
products they purchase remains for the most part at the first level of
knowledge, that of geographic place names. This knowledge of geographical
origin seems to vary among the actors involved. The established import
agents and most forest corporations can provide information about the
specific harvesting area and this information is available to their
customers in Sweden. The large import agents responding to the inquiry have
different internal systems, which can track and verify origin. The smaller
companies appear to have less established systems for tracking and verifying
timber purchases. Some companies seem to have very limited or no knowledge
about the origin of their imports. They do however seem to represent a
relatively small proportion of the overall trade.
In the Swedish offices of the companies contacted there seemed to be very
little knowledge, if any about the qualities of the forests from which the
timber is coming and the ecological and social impact of the forest
practices, both in the Baltics and Russia. Companies, attempting to gain
knowledge about the origin and impact of their imports, are using a number
of mechanisms. Many rely on the trustworthiness of the standard and
enforcement of national forest management legislation and controls to ensure
responsible trade. This may be a successful strategy if forestry legislation
is appropriate and enforced. However, NGOs on the ground in both Russia and
the Baltic countries question the trustworthiness of the standard and
enforcement of state legislation and controls.
For further information look: http://www.taigarescue.org/publications/ and
http://www.forest.ru/eng/publications/illegal/ (Illegal logging in Russia);
http://www.forest.ru/eng/basics/timbertrade.html (Timber Trade analitical
Reports)
"THE SPRUCE" ALWAYS MEANS HOT DAYS IN WINTER
"The Spruce" is an annual action of Student Nature Guards against illegal
logging of the New Year trees. To clampdown the spruce poaching is the
responsibility of state forest rangers and militia, but the lack of
financing and people make all the efforts to solve the problem really
useless. The participation of young activists in patrolling helps the
officials to stop inappropriate "nature use" in some regions. Despite the
fact that there are special spruce plantations in Russia where trees for New
Year celebration are grown, it has always been a big problem to prevent
trees in wild forest from cutting. Such actions are conducted in the Far
East, in Volga region, in Moscow, in European North, at Black Sea coast. In
some big cities students stay days and nights at police stations and check
all trailers entering the place.
Student Nature Guards also have an educational program for children, they
explain to kids in schools and even kinder-gardens why it is so important to
protect forests.
KARELIA DOESN'T NEED TAXES
Karelian government issued a new decree on forests. According to it since
the beginning of the year loggers do not need any more to pay so called
extra fees (in addition to minimum federal ones) to the Karelian budget for
cutting trees. The head of Karelian government Sergey Katanandov believes
that the money that will not be paid to state will be used by the forest
enterprises for buying of modern equipment.
It is very likely that such a decision was taken by the regional
government because of their fear of loosing good money from selling raw
woods. The timber production costs have been increasing now because of the
higher energy and transportation tariffs so the raw timber trade is getting
less beneficial.
The decree will reduce the tax burden of the Karelian wood loggers for
more than 112 mln rubles (4 mln USD). In light of the last changes in
official Russian nature protection policy it is not that hard to predict
that this decree will not be the only pampering to loggers in 2001.
BELORUSSIA: NO ONE IS ABLE TO PROTECT ITS FORESTS
Russian Gasprom recently signed an agreement of cooperation with Gaz de
France, German companies Ruhrgaz è Wintershall in providing the research of
the opportunities to lay a gas pipe-line through Poland and Belorussia.
According to their plans the pipe-line will go through one Belorussian
national park and one nature reserve, through the valuable forests which
Belorussia has always been famous for. Ministry of Environment of Belorussia
approved the project.
At the same time Belorussian protected areas have been already put at
stake by the anti-ecological policy of national government.
The gas project might destroy the last of the last.
NEW ISSUE OF TAIGA NEWS
The new issue of Taiga News (#33) is now available on the web site of the
Taiga Rescue Network. Have a look at it at
http://www.taigarescue.org/TaigaNews/News33/index.shtml
Taiga News brings together news and views about boreal forest issues in
North America, Russia and Europe. The Autumn 2000 issue of Taiga News leads
with a report from the 5th International Conference of TRN - Living with the
Taiga. Held near Moscow, the event also featured an NTFP Trade Fair.
The issue focuses on technology and carries articles on 'Transgenic Trees', which explores the issue of genetically modified trees in the boreal, 'Fish
of the Forest' which explains an exciting project which aims to reintroduce
the Atlantic Salmon to the upper Tuloma river in the Komi Republic, and
several articles on both high and low technology in forest management for
timber and non-timber products.
Jutta Kill of FERN gives an insight into the issues surrounding the idea of 'carbon sinks' which was a hot topic at the Hague meeting of the 6th COP to the FCCC and Kevin Jones, lead assessor with Woodmark, an FSC accredited forest certifier, is in the hot seat.
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