Russia: News 

New Push for Sustainable Forestry in Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia, October 5, 2005 - Over 30 leaders of the Russian forest sector met to form a Forest Information Forum. The meeting was a side event to the 7th Forest Industry Forum and was hosted by the Northwestern Forest Inventory and Planning Authority (Sevzaplesproekt) at the invitation of WRI.

The participants agreed that gaps in forest information and transparency are an obstacle to legal and sustainable forest management in Russia and agreed to form a Forest Information Forum to deal with these issues.

The Forum will promote legal and sustainable management of Russia's forests in two ways: by providing information and analyses, and by promoting communication and cooperation among stakeholders.

Participants included several major forest companies: Ilim Pulp, Segezha PPM, IKEA, Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene, Metsäliitto, and International Paper. The government forest inventory and planning agencies of St. Petersburg, Vologda, and Karelia, were represented along with the Federal Forest Information Department. On the NGO side, participants included Greenpeace, WWF, Socio-Ecological Union, Biodiversity Conservation Center, and others. The Forest Stewardship Council and the World Bank also participated.

A multi-stakeholder working group was formed and tasked with proposing an organization and a work plan to the next meeting.

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Created by two GFW Russia members in Moscow, the Socio-Ecological Union International and the Biodiversity Conservation Center, the map, entitled "Strict Nature Reserves, National Parks and Federal-Level Wildlife Refuges of Russia," collects the most precise cartographic information to date on the present status of Russian federal-level protected areas. The work on this map was supported by the Moscow City Department of Natural Resources. The accompanying cartographic Web site - located at http://oopt.info - features detailed information on Russia's 100 strict nature reserves, 35 national parks, and 69 federal-level wildlife refuges, as well as information on the types of wildlife and vegetation, the state of the ecosystem, and scientific activities. The site is currently only in Russian but English-language materials will soon be added.

Click here for map. Click here for the full-sized PDF (55 MB)
Click here for full Press Release.
Click here for the English PDF (3 MB)

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New Mapping Initiative Launched at World Summit

Johannesburg, South Africa, August 30, 2002 - At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Global Forest Watch launched the Pan-Boreal Mapping Initiative, a unique, groundbreaking effort to map the last remaining wildlands in the boreal, or northern, forest. This unique collaboration between non-governmental organizations and academic institutions in five countries is using high-resolution satellite images to establish how far into the boreal forest logging and other industrial developments have advanced.

To date, the international community has not tracked the rate and extent of ecological change in boreal forests, which comprise one-third of the world's forest area.  GFW presented a draft map of intact boreal forest landscapes at the Summit to bring international attention to the condition of these globally important forests.  Preliminary findings show that across the boreal, from Canada to Russia, the southern part of boreal forest has been substantially affected by industrial-scale land use.  This is especially true in Norway, Sweden, Finland, European Russia and the southern provinces of Canada. Almost no large intact forests remain here.

This map is a provisional draft is geared towards soliciting wide input; an extensive independent peer review is planned for this fall.  The preliminary results presented here are subject to change through the review process.  To read more about this Initiative and to view the draft map, click here.

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New Atlas Reveals Russian Taiga to Have Lost Much of Its Legendary Wilderness

Moscow, Russia and Washington, DC, April 3, 2002 - The legendary Russian taiga – the world’s largest forest– is not the virtually endless wilderness it is often thought to be. Only about a quarter remains in large road-less areas that are undisturbed by modern land use, says a new report released today in Moscow and Washington by Global Forest Watch (GFW).

The Atlas of Russia’s Intact Forest Landscapes was produced by GFW Russia, a country-wide non-governmental network of major environmental and research organizations. GFW Russia has carried out a systematic and detailed inventory of Russia’s entire forest zone, looking for disturbances such as logging, mining, and associated roads and fires.

Thousands of satellite images were used along with hundreds of ground observations to verify the result. Some field expeditions spent weeks in road-less territory in search of intact wilderness.

“Intactness can not be artificially restored,” says Alexey Yaroshenko of Greenpeace Russia, one of the authors of the atlas, “Disturbances are virtually irreversible. Most of the world’s forest is already either destroyed or disturbed. Responsible land users should be extra careful before entering any of the remaining intact landscapes.”

“If you don’t map it you can’t manage it”, says Dmitry Aksenov of the Socio-Ecological Union International, another author, “Governments and corporations don’t collect this information. This is why Global Forest Watch Russia has to do it.”

The result is a practical guide to precaution. The Atlas uses nearly a hundred maps to show the precise boundaries of Russia’s remaining intact forest landscapes (mostly in the scale of 1:1.5 million). Public authorities and industrial developers will finally have the information they need to adapt land use to an important conservation value.

A total of 289 million hectares (26 percent) of Russia’s forests remain in areas that have no signs of infrastructure or modern land use and are at least 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) in size (intact forest landscapes).

Approximately 5 percent of the intact forest landscapes have special protection at the Federal level. The system of protected areas in most administrative regions and ecological regions of Russia is inadequate in representation and size to reflect the conservation needs of intact forest landscapes.

Eastern Siberia is the most pristine with 39 percent of the forest zone in intact forest landscapes, followed by the Russian Far East (30 percent) and Western Siberia (25 percent). European Russia is by far the least pristine with only 9 percent intact. Anthropogenic fire regimes affect large areas in northern Siberia and the Far East.

A belt across southern Russia is the most affected by modern land use. Temperate broad-leafed and mixed conifer-broad-leafed forests are at special risk. Intact forest landscapes may disappear within whole ecological regions or even vegetation zones without decisive action during the next few years.

“This Atlas breaks new ground,” says author Alexander Isaev, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, forest minister of the USSR in the Gorbachev administration, “Russia is the first country to document its forest heritage in this way. Other countries must follow, so that we get a global picture.”

“It is also a great step forward for civil society and independent forest monitoring,” continues Isaev, “Advanced technology was used to great benefit. And through Transparent World, a function has been created in Russia to make satellite images broadly available at low cost. These are achievements of international significance.”

The organizations behind Global Forest Watch Russia include Greenpeace Russia, Socio-Ecological Union International, Biodiversity Conservation Center, International Forest Institute, R&D Center ScanEx, and Transparent World (all Moscow), the Fund for 21st Century Altai (Barnaul), the Friends of the Siberian Forests (Krasnoyarsk), the Bureau for Public Outreach Campaigns (Vladivostok), and the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC.

The work has been supported by the home furnishing company IKEA, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Turner Foundation, and the World Resources Institute. The work has benefited from software donated by Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. and ERDAS Inc.

Global Forest Watch Russia is an informal, country-wide network of civil society and research organizations from all corners of Russia. The goal of GFW Russia is to improve the conservation and use of Russia's forest landscapes by providing decision-makers and the general public with accurate, accessible and practically useful information. No advocacy work is allowed under the GFW Russia name, and all reports must undergo rigorous scientific review. GFW Russia was founded in 1999 in Krasnoyarsk. Global Forest Watch international is an initiative by the World Resources Institute.

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New Maps Indicate Little is Left of Europe’s Last Wilderness Forests

Helsinki, October 11, 2001 – Using satellite images and old-fashioned fieldwork, a team of Russian experts has created new maps of the Europe’s last remaining wilderness forests. What they saw was not pretty: Northern European Russia is not the endless sea of forest wilderness that many people imagine. Few forest areas remain undisturbed and all are in the remote far north.

The results of their five-year effort, “The Last Intact Forest Landscapes of Northern European Russia,” was presented today by Lars Laestadius of the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch and Dmitry Aksenov of the Socio-Ecological Union International, the latter on behalf of Greenpeace Russia.

Only 14 percent or 32 million hectares of the boreal or northern forests of European Russia remain in relatively undisturbed large blocks of at least 50,000 hectares each. Yet what little is left is at risk, since the most attractive parts for exploitation of these forests are unprotected by federal or local laws. The researchers say that the main threat is fragmentation by logging roads, geological survey lines, and fires that usually follow them. The environmental cost would be high if these remnants are logged.

“The significance of this work goes far beyond Russian forestry,” says Dr. Alexander Isaev, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a forest minister of the former Soviet Union, who reviewed the report together with scientists from Russia, Sweden and the U.S. “These are the last big forest wilderness areas of Europe and an important part of our common European heritage. We need to keep them wild and protected by law.”

The authors of the report argue that these remaining intact boreal forests are comparatively cheap to conserve. “No forest guards are needed. The same remoteness and low productivity which has protected them until now will continue to do so,” write A. Y. Yaroshenko, P. V. Potapov, and S. A. Turubanova, the authors of the report. “Our last remaining examples of wild nature can be protected even under the very restrictive Russian budget for nature conservation.”

These forests are unsuitable for sustainable wood production since they are poorly stocked and tree growth is slow. Timber revenues will not cover the cost of reforestation or silviculture and the cost of building forest roads.

Less than five percent of the volume logged in the Karelia, Komi, Arkhangelsk, and Perm regions come from the remaining intact boreal forests of European Russia. Most of this wood goes to countries in Western Europe. Several companies have now pledged to avoid buying wood from the remaining intact forests of the world.

“The maps of the intact forests of European Russia will be valuable to many parties involved in promoting responsible forestry,” said Susanne Bergstrand, environment manager at the home furnishings company, IKEA (www.ikea.com). It is one of the major supporters of the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch.

Mapping European Russia’s intact boreal forests took a lot of detective work on the part of several Russian environmental organizations. They first looked at regular maps and excluded all obviously disturbed areas near roads and towns. Then they examined detailed satellite images to look for additional signs of disturbances, such as logging clearcuts, mines and agricultural fields, and then eliminated these areas.

They used them to outline blocks of intact forests greater than 50,000 hectares (i.e. at least the size of a square with a 22-km. or 14-mile side). Only sufficiently large blocks of forests are deemed capable of remaining intact, i.e. conserving natural, undisturbed populations of large animals while at the same time letting natural processes such as storms and fires run their course.

To verify the maps, the research team inspected 67 areas in the field to make sure that the satellite images were correctly interpreted. The resulting maps largely confirm the outcome of previous, less precise mapping work by Greenpeace Russia and Taiga Rescue Network (www.taigarescue.org). The Russian government has yet to create a map of this kind.

Later this year, Global Forest Watch and its Russian partners will release a similar map of the entire forests of Russia. This is expected to be the first such map of Russia.

The project succeeded by using a combination of new technologies, unprecedented cooperation among local Russian environmental groups, and a desire for transparency in the management of the country’s natural resources. The maps and other information are made available to the public through the Internet.

The same approach is being used to produce reports on the intact forests of Chile, Venezuela and Indonesia, all of which will be released in the next six months. Similar mapping work is going on in Canada, U.S., and Brazil. This is all part of a global effort to map and monitor the remaining frontier forests of the world – of which only half are left.

During the next 5 years, the Global Forest Watch network will span 21 countries and cover 80 percent of the world’s remaining intact forests.