Forest Club model projects and sites

The Fifth Boreal Forests of the World Conference

Forests of the Russian Federation, which make up more than 20% of the world's forests, play a very important part in the conservation of biological diversity, as well as in the regulation of global climate.

Ancient old-growth taiga forests of Karelia, the Arkhangelsk Region, Komi, old-growth broad-leaf forests in Tula felled-tree barriers of oak forests of Chuvashiya represent the last remaining examples of biodiversity on the ecosystem level, and these forests are unique not only in Europe but for the whole world community as well. The forests growing on the shores of Lake Baikal keep this world's largest reservoir of fresh water clean. The ecosystems of the usury taiga in the Russian Far East are home for the largest wild cat in the world - the Amur tiger.

The ecosystems of Russian forests store billions of tons of carbon, which if these forests are destroyed by forest fires, diseases and pest outbreaks, will be emitted into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide which is a green-house gas contributing to the global climate change.

The universal importance of conservation of biodiversity and the need for joint action by the whole world community to address these issues is reflected in the Convention on Biological Diversity and ratified by 177 countries and the EU.

Unfortunately, the situation that has developed in Russian forestry complex and the tendency of its development in the future make us voice our concern about the way this Convention will be implemented.

Despite the protests of environmental organizations, extensive cutting of forest ecosystems, most important for the conservation of biodiversity, continues everywhere from Karelia in the west to Sakhalin in the east. Many identified unique ancient forests are not protected by the system of specially protected natural areas. Huge forest areas are degrading due to catastrophic forest fires, diseases and pest outbreaks. Millions of cubic meters of timber from degrading forests are not used at all. Decaying timber emits huge amount of carbon dioxide that aggravates the green-house effect. The rate of creation of new agro-forest-melioration plantations has dramatically decreased, although there are millions of hectares of former arable lands with degraded and low-fertility soils suitable for forest being abandoned.

The amount of information about multiple violations of laws in the forestry sector is getting smaller. The organizations that remain blind to it, are not only getting more influential in the field of wood logging, but also getting more and more strong in the field of wood reprocessing and trade in timber products both on Russian market and in foreign trade operations.

In response to the criticism, the authorities restrict access to information, disseminate false information about both the state of the forest fund and activities of the whole forestry complex. Recently, the mass media including official media of the Russian Government and Parliament, have launched an active campaign against non-governmental environmental protection organizations concerned about Russian forests.

The situation we have today has become even worse after the recent resolutions of the Russian Government that in May 2000 disbanded the Federal Forestry Service and State Environmental Protection Committee. The functions of these institutions were transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources, which resulted in establishment of a new bureaucratic monopoly that now both uses natural resources including forests and is responsible for ecological control including ecological assessment. The new agency will manage natural resources in the country simultaneously supervising the ecological consequences of its own activities.

Along with the liquidation of the remains of the previously existing, although extremely weak, system of independent environmental monitoring, the liquidation of government structures responsible for protecting forests from illegal logging, fires, pest infestations, and diseases is underway. The number of government civil servants dealing with Russian forests is being decreased dozens of times to a level that does not allow for providing control and gathering information about what is happening on the huge territory of Russian forests, much less providing the opportunities for any kind of effective protection and conservation.

This decrease is occurring alongside the sharp decrease (considering inflation) in the budget amounts provided for carrying out forest management. This is happening in the background of a previously unseen high surplus in the Russian state budget in 2000, which if current oil prices remain, will continue in 2001.

Neither the conception nor the specific plans of the Ministry of Natural Resources for reforming the forest sector in Russia is yet known. The authors of these plans remain anonymous. The extremely limited information that is appearing provides witness to the exasperation, full lack of definition, and the absence of any kind of serious open discussion about what is happening in managing, conserving and protecting a significant portion of forests on the planet.

In the current situation we appeal to the Russian Government, and Russian Parliament and the international community with a request to express its position about how the contemporary situation in the Russian forest sector and the recent tendencies in its development will impact the fulfillment of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

We also appeal with the request to express their opinion about the appropriateness of realizing the following first-priority measures in the Russian forest sector, proposed by the international community of public environmental organizations:

• Providing for protection of the most valuable forest ecosystem plots from the point of view of protecting biological diversity, including those officially recognized as well as those that public environmental non-governmental organizations have been speaking out about in recent years;

• The necessity of having, on a Russian-wide level, an effective system that is capable of enforcing scientifically based measures for conservation and protection of the country's forests from fires, pests, pathogens, and insects, and carrying out work on forest restoration.

• Developing a system of independent monitoring for forest conditions based on remote sensing methods. Furthermore, clarifying the reasons for the sometimes disparate results between remote sensing results and data from official statistics, and providing access to this information for all interested parties, including NGOs.

• Providing for a system of transparency of the actions of the Ministry of Natural Resources regarding Russian forests, including timely information in advance for all interested parties about the actions planned by this agency;

• Separating the functions of management and use of natural resources from monitoring and environmental impact reviews;

• Implementing a system of voluntary declaration of the sources for logged timber.

• Support initiatives for credible and independent voluntary forest certification, including creation of Russian certifiers for carrying out certification.

Back to the first Conference Announcement Page

Back to Workshops and Conferences Page