Forest Club model projects and sites

RUSSIA

A more thorough description of the methodology and criteria used for Russia can be obtained from the Biodiversity Conservation Center, the Greenpeace Russia, and the Socio-Ecological Union.

Criteria

Boundaries of the investigation
The mapping covers the territories of four Russian administrative units (so-called subjects of the Russian Federation): Murmansk Oblast, the Karelia Republic, Arkhangelsk Oblast, and the Komi Republic. To complete the picture some forested areas in the southwestern part of Nenets Autonomous Okrug (the fifth administrative unit) have been also included in the analysis. The covered area presents practically the whole north of European Russia (roughly northern than 60 degrees north latitude). It includes the northern limit of the taiga up to its transition to tundra. Preliminary data from more southern regions show that most large tracts of old-growth forests in European Russia remain in this area.

The analysis covers all types of landowners.

Both high and low productive forest areas have been covered (including mountain areas). Within the boundaries of the mapped areas natural non-forest ecosystems (such as bogs, rocks or lakes) occur. These areas were shown separately from forested areas.

Definition used
The definition of the old-growth forests used was the following:

"Old-growth forests are forests originated through natural successions, unaffected by destructive human impact over a significant period of time, and having the area sufficient for self-maintenance in the absence of catastrophic disturbances."

The following human-induced impacts were considered as significant:

• clearcutting (including land clearance for agricultural purposes) or highly intensive selective logging;
• large scale human-induced fires;
• land reclamation in forests or other changes of hydrological regime due to human activities;
• chemical tapping of coniferous forests;
• intensive and regular application of chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc.;
• severe industrial pollution;
• intensive grazing in the forests that resulted in degradation of forest understory and the grass cover;
• intensive recreation that resulted in degradation of forest understory and the grass cover, etc.

Under the significant period of time we understand the time sufficient for restoring the forest ecosystem characteristics corresponding to those of the primeval forests for a particular forest type under particular climate and soil conditions.

The old-growth forest area criteria
In practice, the old-growth forest is not simply a stand but a certain area consisting of intermingled natural ecosystems representing a unified natural complex. To delineate the area of the old-growth forests, the following criteria were used:

I. Due to peculiarities of vegetation and history of development, the total minimum size of the old-growth forest area referred to in this study varies by administrative regions and within their limits, being not less than the following:

• 3,000 hectares for Murmansk Oblast and most of the Karelia Republic (excluding its southwestern part);
• 2,000 hectares for the southwestern part of the Karelia Republic (approximately southwards of the 64 degree north latitude and westwards of the lakes Onega and Vygozero);
• 5,000 hectares for Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic, as far as for the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

II. At least 90% of the particular area should be covered by natural ecosystems (including both forested and non-forested) slightly if ever affected by human agency, on which there is no reliable records or which do not have apparent evidences of disturbances by humans during the 20th century according to the criteria of old-growth forests (see above).

III. The patches of old-growth forests (stands) within a defined area should occupy at least 50% of the total area of old-growth forests (or 30% for subtundra forests and forests north of the official northern limit of subtundra forests).

IV. The area does not have any permanent settlements or transport infrastructure. Some temporary trails, winter roads and hunting cabins have been regarded as exclusions.

The criteria above do not cover the complete variety of valuable forests but only those, which meet the old-growth forest definition. Particularly, smaller areas of natural forests stay outside of our analysis due to their insufficient size. But, this does not mean that forests of smaller size and other natural ecosystems within the area under study are non-valuable and do not need adequate measures for their conservation. Their identification and protection is critically important for conserving the biological diversity, especially in the southern part of the regions, where there are no large tracts of natural forests left.

Protected areas
The map shows protected forests, which have adequate protection against logging and other types of destructive human impact. This includes forests in the legally protected areas under the authority of the federal agencies - State Committee of the Russian Federation for Environment Protection (zapovedniks) and Federal Forest Service of the Russian Federation (national parks) - as well as permanent zakazniks, which do provide sufficient level of forest protection. The borders of the subtundra forest belt are also marked in the map.

Limitations
There is a lack of on-ground information on most of areas of old-growth forests shown on the map. Some areas are poorly accessible, especially those under the authority of the Ministry of Defense and the Border Service.

Sources

The main sources of information were medium resolution satellite images and field surveys. Official forest survey data, high resolution satellite images, and topographic maps were used as supplementary information.

Official forest survey data

• maps by the Federal Forest Service of the Russian Federation (FFS) at 1:200,000 scale generalized at the level of leskhoz (local unit of the FFS) and showing dominant tree species and stand age. These maps have been used for four regions: the republics of Karelia and Komi and Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasts. Although some gaps remained. The information on these maps was relevant to various years, from the 1980s to the 1990s. Being important supplementary information, these maps required verification and updating.
• maps by FFS at 1:50,000 scale on the level of lesnichestvo (common name for a subdivision of the leskhoz) and showing dominant tree species and stand age. These maps are usually not generalized, therefore, show particular forest plots with a degree of detaility they were mapped during official surveys. These relatively out-of-date maps were used only for Murmansk Oblast and few areas in northern Karelia. For Murmansk Oblast, they were updated by visiting all leskhoz offices in 1995. Being a very important source of preliminary information for Murmansk Oblast, these maps were later verified and updated by satellite images.

Satellites images

• Medium resolution (about 150 meter per pixel) images with four or two spectral Russian satellites Resurs-O1-3 and Resurs-O1-4. The images almost completely covered the whole target area and were the main source of the information for the map. The images were of from 1997 to 1999. For all key areas, at least one image not older then summer of 1999 was used.
• High resolution (about 35 x 45 meter per pixel) images in three spectral bands from the Resurs-O1-3. These images were used for several key areas in Arkhangelsk Oblast and the republics of Komi and Karelia.
• High resolution (20 meters per pixel) images in three spectral bands from SPOT satellite on August 1996. These images were available for some key areas in western part of the Karelia Republic and Murmansk Oblast.

Topographic maps

1:200,000 scale Russian topographic maps for the whole target area. The information from these maps was used mainly to identify settlements and the infrastructure as well as a supplementary material for recognition of satellite images. Besides that, they were used to show non-forest natural ecosystems inside areas of old-growth forests and the northern limits of forests.

Field data

The identified old-growth forest areas have been selectively checked through on-site field survey. A large set of criteria has been used in this field survey (can be ordered from the Biodiversity Conservation Center).

Based on the results of the surveys some areas have been excluded from the old-growth forest category. At the time of the production of this report the field survey is not completed. However, the preliminary results show that practically all large areas (larger than 50 000 ha) fulfill the old-growth forests criteria described above. The conservation value of smaller areas (2 000 to 50 000 ha) may be different and requires in the most cases field visits before the final decision.

Field data have been collected by different NGOs and research organizations.

Practically all large preliminary identified areas of old-growth forests in Murmansk Oblast were surveyed during 1991-1999 by Druzhina Movement for Nature Conservation of Moscow State University, Biodiversity Conservation Center, Kola Wild Nature Conservation Center and the Institute for Industrial Ecology Problems of the North (Kola Research Center, the Russian Academy of Science).

During 1996-1999 Greenpeace Russia, Pushchino State University, Biodiversity Conservation Center, Socio-Ecological Union and the Institute of Soil Science of Moscow State University and Russian Academy of Sciences surveyed most areas of old-growth forests identified in the Karelia Republic. Data from the Finnish Nature League, Karelian Student Nature Conservation Organization (SPOK), and some specialists from the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Science were also used.

In Arkhangelsk Oblast and Komi Republic, the identified areas of old-growth forests were surveyed during 1998-1999 by Greenpeace Russia and Pushchino State University with assistance of Biodiversity Conservation Center. The surveys in these regions are not completed.

Time

The information and data included in the map was last updated December 1999.

Map coordination

Dmitry Aksenov (Socio-Ecological Union) and Mikhail Karpachevskiy (Biodiversity Conservation Center and Institute of Soil Science of Moscow State University and Russian Academy of Sciences)

Mappers

Mappers are listed by their organizations in alphabetical order; the organizations are also listed in alphabetical order:

A. Egorov, E. Esipova, M. Karpachevskiy,
E. Krasilnikov, and A. Purekhovsky
Biodiversity Conservation Center
Ul. Vavilova 41, Apt. 2
117312 Moscow
tel. +7 095 124 7178
email: forest@bcc.seu.ru

E. Kirichok, S. Mikhailov, P. Potapov, N. Sudzilovskaya,
S. Turubanova, Yu. Volovodova, and A. Yaroshenko
Greenpeace Russia:
Ul. Novaya Bashilovka, 6
101428 Moscow, GSP-4
tel. +7 095 257 4116 +7 095 257 4116
email: alexy@ru.greenpeace.org

D. Aksenov
Socio-Ecological Union
121019 P.O. Box 211 Moscow
Russia tel. +7 095 124 7934
email: picea@online.ru

K. Kobyakov, V. Petrov, and I. Zaitseva
Kola Wild Nature Conservation Center
email: lepores@aprec.ru

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