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7. NGO Demands

In response to the continued threat to the old-growth forests of Fennoscandia and Northern European Russia environmental NGOs of the region make the following demands.

7.1 NGO demands concerning old-growth forests in
Northern European Russia

Forests of European Russia have a long history of exploitation. However, the intensive industrial development came to northern European Russia only in the late 19th century. Destructive clearcutting became the main harvesting method in the 1930s. The intensive logging of the Soviet times was never sustainable, even in purely economical terms. The official limits of maximum allowable cutting levels were aimed to satisfy only demands of the forest industry and, in reality, had nothing to do with scientifically justified values. However, in many regions, even these weak limits were often considerably exceeded. Excessive careless exploitation of forest resources in many regions resulted in exhaustion of economically accessible timber resources and completely ruined the life of the local people. Today's social problems of temporary logging settlements are often not due to the current economic crisis in Russia but due to unsustainable forestry practices of previous time.

The industrial logging of the 20th century systematically destroyed the old-growth forests. Today less than 12-15% of old-growth forests are left in the north of European Russia (forests transitional to tundra are not included). In terms of whole European Russia, they occupy less than 6-7% of the total forested land. At the same time, Russia has saved more old-growth forests than all other European countries together. Therefore, the remaining Russian old-growth forests are the unique natural heritage, representing the main receptacles of biological diversity in European forests as a whole. The Russian forests are still inhabited by many species of plants and animals, which are extinct or endangered in other European countries. Also large tracts of European old-growth forests - more than 50 thousand hectares in size - remain today only in Russia making them sites of international importance.

The current economic model of forest use is oriented mainly towards the export of raw materials and cannot provide long term economic growth for the region. This model, although it may be represented as including ecological considerations, in reality, destroys the last old-growth forests in Russia, which have now become the most threatened natural ecosystems. If the current situation does not change, we will loose the most valuable old-growth areas in next 5-10 years. Logging the last European old-growth forests will not solve any social or economical problem in Russia. In its best light it will only postpone the social and economic crash in the forest industry and logging settlements by a matter of several years.

Based on this, Russian environmental NGOs demand:

1. Areas of old-growth forests greater than 50 thousand hectares - nature sites of international importance - and smaller areas of old-growth forests with proved high conservation value identified in European Russia should be immediately protected against any forestry operation, road construction, and mining activities.
   The aforementioned categories of old-growth forest areas should be protected through:
   • establishment of state protected areas (specially protected nature areas in Russian terminology) at regional or federal levels with a protection regime that directly prohibits all kinds of forestry operations, road construction, mining activities and, land reclamation and other activities that could change the hydrological regime;
   • implementation of other legal protection mechanisms, which provide the same degree of protection;
   • voluntary exemption of forestry operations and road construction on old-growth forest areas leased by private business.
2. The protection level of transitional to tundra forests (including both officially recognized subtundra forests and low productive forests adjacent to them), which are critically important for maintaining regional and global ecological balance, against forestry operations, road construction, and mining and prospecting of mineral resources shall be enhanced.
3. The Federal Forest Service of the Russian Federation shall adopt special regulations considering areas of old-growth forests as a special category of forest lands, where forestry operations and road construction should be prohibited through routine official procedures of forest surveys.

Most of the timber currently harvested in old-growth forests and even in the subtundra forest belt of European Russia is exported to Western Europe, particularly to the Nordic countries. The foreign importers and consumers share with Russian loggers and authorities the responsibility for destruction in Russia of the last European old-growth forest. Therefore, the protection of the remaining old-growth forest areas in European Russia also should become their shared responsibility.

Therefore, Russian environmental NGOs appeal to both Russian and Western European businesses and consumers using timber from Russia:

• Do not harvest timber in the aforementioned forests.
• Do not participate directly or indirectly in forestry operations, road construction or development of other kinds of transport infrastructure and other activities that threaten these forests.
• Do not use the timber and the products of its processing originated from these forests.

It is important to note:

Areas of old-growth forests shown on the map, except those listed in Items 1 and 2, are mostly located in areas long used by humans; however, they may have high conservation value. Therefore, they shall be surveyed for their conservation value on the basis of reliable on-site verification conducted with participation of all interested parties before taking decision on their protection or sustainable use. This decision should be made jointly by all involved stakeholders, including environmental NGOs.

The appropriate measures should be undertaken to identify other forest areas in European Russia, which may have high conservation value, while not meeting the definition of old-growth forest. Particularly, this includes smaller forest areas not covered by this report and forests important for protection of rivers and streams and key habitats. Surveys and decisions on such forests should be made with participation of all interested parties.

The information on old-growth forests and other valuable forest areas in whole European Russia is still incomplete:

• Some areas of old-growth forests located in European Russia are not included in this report.
• There are also other areas of high conservation value in regions under consideration, which may have been missed by the maps with this report.

This statement is supported by:

Biodiversity Conservation Center
Greenpeace Russia
Druzhina Movement for Nature Conservation
Karelian Students Environmental Organization
Kola Wild Nature Conservation Center
Socio-Ecological Union
To Save the Pechora Committee

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