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FSC Breaks Ground in the Komi Republic

by Yuri A. Pautov

Forests have always been the lifeblood of the Komi Republic, shaping the world outlook of those who live here. This outlook encouraged stewardship and careful use of the forests, whereas in the twentieth century people's relationship with the forests that sustain them has turned from one of careful, sensible use to total conquest and exploitation.

Today, forestry is the most important component of the economy in the Komi Republic, In the 1980s, this sector accounted for 30 percent of the total industrial production and supplied 40 percent of the jobs in Komi. The development of this sector has been marked by the full-fledged exploitation of forest resources, leading to the depletion of the most accessible and productive forest tracts. As a result, the forestry sector today has sunk into a severe crisis and now accounts for 12 percent of the Republic's economy. Such a sharp drop in this sector is the precursor to numerous problems in the towns and settlements throughout Komi that were built to support the once flourishing timber industry.

Nonetheless, the "exploitative-pioneer" approach, in which the forest frontier is constantly sought and settled, continues nearly unabated in Komi. This seems partly inevitable, as the majority of logging enterprises and local economies are dependent on the quantity of hectares and cubic meters of timber cut: thus, they continue to pursue full-scale logging and export of round wood instead of timber processing. Moreover, most of these logging enterprises are unprepared, either from a technical or organizational standpoint, to modify their forestry practices from clear-cutting to selective harvesting. Their equipment is typically designed for clear-cutting and effective only in mature forests, Consequently, logging today is primarily concentrated in sparsely settled, remote forest tracts. As the forestry frontier is pushed further into these isolated areas, the transport of logs to processing centers has become unprofitable. The exploited territories left in the wake of logging areas today are soon dominated by second-growth forests that are not yet suitable for commercial use.

It becomes more obvious with each passing year that the continued extensive development of the forestry sector is highly incongruent in the context of current market conditions. In 1996 the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) introduced a project in Komi for the protection and management of these northern forests. As a part of this project, a model forest, "Priluzh'e," was founded in accordance with principles of international sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation. Encompassing a territory of 800,000 ha, the model forest is primarily intended to serve as an example of sustainable forest use in the Republic. The establishment of this forest was ratified by the government of the Komi Republic in May 1997. The main objectives of this project are to:

• Promote new forest policies;
• Shatter traditional stereotypes in forestry management;
• Provide training for employees in the forestry sector;
• Ease the transition from exploitative practices to sustainable forest use and management;
• Facilitate the region's socio-economic development through sustainable forestry;
• Increase forest productivity while preserving biodiversity in forest ecosystems;
• Raise awareness of sustainable forest management as a key to a healthy environment and garner local people's participation in this management process.

In early 1998, the government drafted a legislative bill that sketches the primary framework of forestry policy in Komi. During a conference on sustainable forest use in May 1998 a special article was attached to this bill, granting citizens the right to voluntarily choose a forest certification system. This feat brought certification to the forefront of the Republic's legislature.

The first steps toward certification were taken in August 1998, when specialists from the Swedish consulting company SkandiaConsult evaluated the feasibility of certifying forests in the model forest project. They concluded that no insurmountable obstacles to FSC certification exist in this region. They also observed that the main expenses in laying the groundwork for certification would not be in complying with the nature protection and environmental principles outlined by FSC, as forest managers often find, but rather in meeting the socio-economic and technological FSC requirements.

With governmental support, the Komi WWF branch initiated a certification working group based on FSC Principles in September 1998 to develop regional certification standards and criteria. (Please refer to Diagram 1.) A five-person, democratically elected board of directors representing WWF, the Committee on Forests, the Department of Forest Industry, and Ezhvales-2, one of the major logging companies in the region, leads the working group. (Please refer to Diagram 2.)

In April 1999 representatives of the working group and leaders from the company Ezhvales-2 participated in an international symposium on FSC certification and the first exhibition of FSC-certified products in Germany. Demonstrating the dynamic nature and wide scale of FSC certification in Europe and throughout the world, these events were pivotal in furthering the FSC process in Komi. Now, both the working group members as well as forestry sector representatives are beginning to foster a genuine interest in certification. Currently, negotiations are underway with SkandiaConsult to conduct a trial run of certification in the model forest during the fall of 1999. In our opinion, an independent expert appraisal of forest use and management has many advantages. For instance, minor inconsistencies or problems may be clearly identified and regional standards may be fine-tuned.

Much work still lies ahead in making our existing forest management and use systems compliant with FSC Principles and Criteria. An integral part of this work is the dissemination of comprehensive information throughout Komi on FSC. In addition, one of the most crucial tasks of our working group will be to come up with a reliable mechanism for tracking the chain of custody, since it is in the Republic's best interest to trade finished timber goods instead of raw logs. Komi's distance from the European market, widened by its crumbling road infrastructure, makes the export of unprocessed timber unprofitable and does not promote socio-economic development in the region.

Despite the Republic's distance from western Europe, Western companies, such as IKEA, which is planning to join forces with the Swedish-Finnish timber giant, StoraEnso, are ready to cooperate with the regional working group. We hope that the growing momentum in the FSC process will provide a solid ground for attracting new, reliable investors to the region. Their participation in the organization and re-equipment of forestry enterprises may catalyze the formation of sustainable forest management in the Komi Republic, complementing the steps we have already taken in the FSC process.

Yuri A. Pautov is the coordinator of the Working Group on Forestry Certification in the Komi Republic

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