Boreal Forest Platform

Boreal forest platform will contribute to the proper transition to the intensive forestry in Russia.

Silver Taiga director Yury Pautov participated in the round-table discussion held on May 19 in Moscow by WWF Russia. The discussion was devoted to the development of the boreal forest platform with the focus on intensive forestry.

According to Nikolay Shmatkov, WWF Russia forest program manager, WWF Russia has initiated the creation of the Boreal Forest Platform, as the organization is extremely worried about the excessive speed of the virgin forest clearance. He spoke about it during the round-table discussion and the issue-related Forest dialogue held earlier by Silver Taiga Foundation and Mondi Syktyvkar. The research revealed that 21 mln ha of virgin forests had been lost for 14 years (2000 – 2013). The main reasons are forest felling, fires and mining operations. Moreover, as the raw material resources on the timberland holdings tend to exhaust, virgin forests will continue to be subject to a pressure from business.

The foregoing initiative was discussed and accepted by the participants of the discussion. In particular, there was an idea of making the Boreal forest platform an expert platform for elaboration of a legal base that is necessary for the intensive forestry development.

According to Yuriy Pautov the key point of the Boreal forest platform is to guarantee the correct shift-over to the intensive forestry. However, this “correct shift-over” is impossible without considering the landscape peculiarities. Silver Taiga Foundation is experienced in the landscape planning of forest use. That is why the Foundation took part in the creation of the Boreal forest platform. It will be possible to conduct educational courses, seminars and excursions in the demonstration routes arranged by Silver Taiga Foundation under the Boreal forest platform.

On shifting to the intensive forestry, it is necessary to consider the experience of Pskov and Komi Model Forests. This idea was mentioned both by Boris Romanyuk, chief of the forestry department of SPb Forestry Research Institute and Peter Gardiner, representative of Mondi company interested in implementation of the intensive forestry principles in Russia that have been working for a long time already in the other countries.

Note: Boreal forests occupy a 1,2 bn ha territory, that means 30% of all the forests in the world. Nearly 2/3 of this territory belongs to Russia, the other part belongs to Canada, Alaska and Scandinavia. According to climate scientists, from 10 to 17 percent of the global carbon reserves is located in these forests.

Translated by Denis Popov (student)