LA FORÊT INCONNUE

PRATIQUEMENT RIEN N'EST CONNU DES FORÊTS RUSSES. LEUR LISIBILITE EST A CONSTRUIRE, SUR TOUS LES PLANS (source : WWF Russia, ce jour).

Where and how much forest is left in Russia and in which they state?

   How much wood is chopped and many illegally - legal?

How many Russian forests burned?

  Reliable data on the Russian forests is simply not present.

 Russia does not apply to   "White spots" on the map of the planet. Unfortunately scientists in our territory will not make great discoveries, in its forests, not to find new kinds of trees, birds and mammals.  Nevertheless, it appears that about Russian forests we know very little. 

Virtually every citizen of our country is inextricably linked with the forest.  Each of us use wood products and paper, is breathing purified air and the woods drinking clean water.  For millions of people in Russia forest - a place of work, or the raw material resources, or place of rest, or a source of basic survival at the expense of collecting and selling mushrooms and berries, place of firewood for heating, or an inexhaustible source of spiritual enrichment. 

Is there enough reliable information on our forests in the Russian political leaders and ordinary public servants in   "Pillars" of business and "Ordinary" timber merchants, a non-governmental and educational organizations, the Sun ex lovers of nature?  But without actual data on the forests can not make informed decisions on the development of forest sector development, environmental sustainability and economic efficiency of forest for their conservation.

It is known that Russia - the richest forest country in the world.  There are more than 20% of the boreal, boreal forests of the planet, the forest area of ​​Russia is about 1.2 billion hectares, the reserve is estimated at 83 billion cubic meters.   However, this does not mean that forest resources are limitless Russia .

No information about the condition of the vast forest areas are - where there are affordable wood that can be cut without much damage to the environment, and where there are forests, which all forces must be maintained.  As shown in the rating of forest management regions of Russia, only in some regions have fresh lesotaksatsionnye materials describing the species and age composition of forests, the quality and quantity of timber.  In most regions of the forest inventory data is older than 15 to 20 years, and in some areas, the last forest assessment was carried out at all in the 60s of last century.  The actual collapse of a coherent and effective system of forest management is associated with the adoption of the new Forest Code in 2006. During the period of the last of the Forest Code (1997-2006) average annual forest inventory was about 40 million ha, and the action of the present - about 4 million hectares - about 10 times smaller.  The last card of the Russian forests based on forest inventory data of ground was composed in 1991, all that was created later constructed on the basis of aviation and space monitoring and has a much less accurate.

Allowance for the annual forest management in our country, officially estimated at nearly 600 million cubic meters of timber merchants believe that the potential of forests for wood production is used only by 20-30%.  However, these estimates do not consider that economically accessible forests in Russia are not so many and they are significantly depleted. About 40% of our forests are unproductive - it's forests, mountain forests, wetlands forest areas, forest on permafrost soils.  These forests are very important from an environmental standpoint, uninteresting to timber merchants. Many forests economically inaccessible due to their remoteness and lack of infrastructure.

The conclusions suggest themselves.  Can I make decisions about the development of the forestry sector, invest, grow your business without such information?  Partially fill this information gap is designed to project of WWF-Russia . As part of the project will create an interactive map of forests and isolated areas where the need for intensification of forest management, primarily due to thinning of competent and effective reforestation, to get wood from forests already developed, not past dorubat tracts of intact forests.

Last year, the smoke of forest and peat fires was shrouded in Moscow and much of the central regions of Russia in the Federal District. This year, choking, Bratsk, and some other localities, the situation in which paid attention to the media.  However, we do not even know how many actually burned forests in the past year and burns every year in Russia because of deficiencies in the forest legislation, the collapse of forest protection, the lack of systematic work with local communities to prevent forest fires. Even the official statistics on the number and area of ​​fires in the country in different state structures varies considerably, sometimes several times.  Thus, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, in 2010, wildfires passed about 1 million hectares, FFA estimates the area of fires in the country of 2.1 million hectares, researchers of the Russian Academy of Sciences believes that this value is much larger and is about 6 million hectares.

As it turns out, the authorities not only can not yet provide reliable protection of our forests, which are in the national property from fires and illegal logging, but not even able to determine how much wood voruetsya in our woods. The volume of illegally logged timber, according to official reports, the Federal Forestry Agency ranged from 1.4 to 1.8 million cubic meters. м), - in order to visualize this amount of wood - it's more than 20 thousand wagons loaded round timber!

However, these figures should only revealed the volume of illegal timber, and is usually harvested only when clear-cutting.  Illegal selective logging, where   "Black lumberjacks' seized the most valuable part of the trunks of the most expensive and often rare species are not visible in satellite images and are not considered, and yet, this is the way to the illegal harvesting is predominant. Experts estimate that about 20% of timber harvested illegally in Russia - but exactly how much wood they steal into our woods - is unknown.  Moreover, It is not known how much timber is harvested legally in our forests, for example, according to the Federal Forest Service in 2009 was harvested 134 million m3 of timber, and according to Rosgosstata - 151 400 000 000 m3 (a difference of 17.5 million cubic meters, even in these data government agencies!).

By many indicators, forest statistics generally closed to the citizens of Russia - neither the Federal Forestry Agency website, or on the website of regional administrations in fact there is no official data is not only to fires and harvesting of timber, but also about how much it is dying from pests and diseases, industrial emissions and construction various objects, etc.

Unknown forests: what do we DO NOT know about Russian forests

- Where and how much is left in Russia forests suitable for economic use? - No data

- Where and how inaccessible and uneconomic forests? - No data

- Where and how many hectares of forest is under protection or a high-value forests, which should be saved? - Data is available for protected areas, but no data on the valuable forest sites in industrial forests

- How much wood in our forests voruetsya and how much is harvested legally? - No data

- How much forest burned in recent years and how much is burned each year in Russia?  - The data are contradictory

- The condition of the vast forest areas in Russia?

How many of these patients forests, as well as healthy, as old and young, soft and hard - these are closed.

- How many forests are dying from pests and diseases, industrial emissions and construction of various facilities? - The data are closed