Archive of Information

“Core” Agreement Made in Komi Forestry Sector

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A moratorium agreement on preservation of intact forest landscapes and intact forest areas between Mondi Group and non-governmental environmental organizations was signed by Klaus Peller, Mondi Syktyvkar Managing Director, Gladys Naylor, Mondi Group Head of Sustainable Development, Nikolay Shmatkov, Head of WWF Russia’s Forest Program, and Yury Pautov, Director of the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development.

The agreement was authenticated by the stakeholders as early as during the preparation for the FSC General Assembly in Vancouver (Canada) and is dated 1 October 2017. However, the final check and alignment of the document with all cartographic materials attached was implemented at the beginning of December 2017.

Signing of the moratorium agreement became the result of the 10-year-long joint efforts of the Silver Taiga Foundation, Mondi Group and WWF Russia with regard to preservation of intact forest landscapes (IFL) and intact forest areas (IFA) in the Komi Republic, and near its borders with Arkhangelsk and Kirov Regions and Perm Krai. During the many years of work a number of IFLs with an area over 50 thousand ha and most valuable IFAs were mapped. The most significant parts (cores) were determined, and conservation measures were suggested and discussed.

The agreement became the final compromise between Mondi Group, its structural subdivision in the Komi Republic Mondi Syktyvkar, and non-governmental environmental organizations to preserve the last remaining intact forest landscapes in the European North that are most valuable on the national and international levels and recognized by the global community as high conservation value forests (HCVF).

Preservation of these territories is largely predetermined by the FSC certification process development, with Mondi Syktyvkar having been part of it since 2005 through performing certification requirements on identification and conservation of HCVF and taking higher liabilities to preserve environmentally valuable areas.

Environmental organizations, in their turn, undertake to continue their work on determination of environmental and nature protection value of these territories and provision them with the official status of protected natural areas.

For some of the areas listed a significant part of the job has been already done. For instance, the Uftyuga-Ilesha landscape reserve was founded in the Verkhnyaya Vashka IFL in Arkhangelsk Region in 2015, and in the part located in the Komi Republic there are activities to found the Osa reserve. Most part of the Koygorodok IFL is reserved for the national park to be arranged. The Silver Taiga Foundation started preparation of the technical and economic feasibility study for the park, while regional reserves are planned to be arranged at other IFLs listed in the agreement according to the Strategic Plan for Development of the System of Specially protected Natural Areas of the Komi Republic (before 2030).

It should be noted that all this work would be impossible without the financial support Mondi Group provided for the HCVF project of the Silver Taiga Foundation which primarily aims at preservation and sustainable development of IFLs in the Komi Republic and adjacent regions.

The agreement will serve as a guide for other certified companies of the North-West of Russia and motivate non-certified companies to preserve last intact areas of Europe. The explanation is that it is not possible to purchase wood harvested at such areas for Mondi Group according to the FSC Controlled Wood standard. It increases the chance to conserve IFLs and IFAs in the long-term perspective significantly.

“For the Silver Taiga Foundation the agreement is a great achievement. Actually, it is the recognition of the many years of our efforts, and we consider the document a kind of a New Year present for the whole environmental community of Europe,” Yury Pautov summed up.

General map attached to the agreement

Is Full Conservation of Mapped HCVF Possible in Foreseeable Future?

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This question among others related to sustainable forest management and FSC certification was raised by the participants of the workshop Preservation of High Conservation Value Forests in Russia’s Part of the Barents Region: Perspectives and Limitations held in St. Petersburg on 21 December 2017. Yury Pautov, director of the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development, and Nikolay Shuktomov, Silver Taiga’s forestry coordinator, took part in the forum.

The workshop was attended by a respectable audience from the Komi Republic, Karelia, Arkhangelsk and Leningrad Regions. It is notable that representatives of the regions’ forestry companies also participated in the event together with representatives of NGOs and FSC certification expert community.

According to Silver Taiga’s director Yury Pautov, the participants of the workshop tried to match the initiatives on preservation of HCVFs mapped under the international BPAN project on the system of protected natural areas of the Barents Region, as well as the ones identified by forest leaseholders in the FSC certification process, with the initiatives on HCVF preservation and intensive forest management integration under the Boreal Forest Platform (http://borealforestplatform.org/en/). It was necessary to evaluate the way these parallel processes influence each other and expand the cumulative effect of each project.

The Komi Republic presented two reports at the forum – Yury Pautov and Nikolay Shuktomov showed the presentation entitled Evolution of Silver Taiga’s Relations with FSC Certificate Holders with Regard to HCVF Preservation in Komi 2002-2017, and Mondi Syktyvkar’s representative Denis Popov spoke about development of the HCVF system in the company’s leased area. The reports demonstrated the emergence and development of the HCVF system in the region, its up-to-date achievements and handling the challenges.

As the expert community sees it, the Komi republic is the most advanced region in terms of certification and HCVF preservation owing to Silver Taiga’s active cooperation with certified companies and regional authorities. The Komi Republic’s experience in this field is widely shared and used in neighbouring regions.

Meanwhile, the Republic still has some unresolved issues that were largely discussed at the workshop. One of the hottest issues was if mapping and preservation of HCVF in the leased areas of certified companies could ensure reliable and long-term conservation of high value protected natural areas in the foreseeable future.

According to Yury Pautov, it is only possible to ensure integrity of IFL and IFA through creation of reserves, SPNAs of federal, regional or municipal levels, in other words, through providing an official status of a protected natural area to the sites. However, this requires cooperation of not only NGOs and certified companies, but also regional authorities and federal bodies managing the forest fund and the SPNA system.

Another hot regional problem emerged in the middle of 2017 in connection with mapping of the so called regional HCVF, Rare Ecosystems of the Komi Republic, based on the BPAN project method. Mapping and identification of rare ecosystems – fir and spruce forests and dry pine forests – was performed by NGO Transparent World with the help of space images, and it turned out that such rare ecosystems were not that rare in the southern and central parts of the Komi Republic (see the map attached).

Map of high value forest areas in the Komi Republic

“It is mandatory for certified companies to identify such HCVFs, and the best available information about them now is the cartographic material shared at www.hcvf.ru. Some certificate holders have already identified some of such rare ecosystems and they take efforts to preserve them, but most certified companies of the Komi Republic will need clarifications of the information on forest surveying or scientific materials, which is time consuming, costly, and requires involvement of experts. For the companies under the certification process or those that are just planning to get certificates it is also necessary to become aware of the information and use it as a basis to build the HCVF system at their leased areas,’ Yury Pautov underlined.

According to his words, what remains unclear is what to do with remote mapping of HCVF-3 Rare Ecosystems as part of the FSC Controlled Wood standard. Based on the new version of the standard, the use of wood harvested in HCVF is unacceptable. However, experts are far from being absolutely sure that all areas mapped with the help of space images are actually rare ecosystems. The participants of the workshop have agreed that in the near future it is necessary to clarify the borders of HCVF-3 Rare Ecosystems in the Komi Republic in order to provide the optimal option to FSC certificate holders and FSC Controlled Wood auditors.

What Does It Cost to Build a House of FSC Certified Wood?

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This unexpected, but meaningful question was raised by the participants of the round table meeting held on 29 November 2017 in the office of the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development. The topic for the conversation was relations with uncertified forestry companies that have undertaken an obligation to follow the Standard for the so-called controlled wood. The round table meeting was entitled respectively – Local Residents and Uncertified Forestry Business (Mechanism for FSC Controlled Wood Standard, Public Access to Logging Information Following Forest Auctions). The event was arranged with the support of WWF as part of the Barents-Baltic Program Nature and Man.

Vadim Krasnopolsky, WWF Russia project coordinator, and Nadezhda Iniyeva, WWF Russia expert

Representatives of Mondi Syktyvkar and local communities of some of the Komi forestry areas got together to discuss possible options for the public participation in the forest management process. The Silver Taiga Foundation has conducted consultations on sustainable forest management for several years, so public activists are now well informed about the FSC certification, however, they know little of the Controlled Wood Standard, as the meeting revealed.

All attention to the screen

The round table meeting was attended by public activists of Kortkeros, Syktyvdin, Priluzye and Udora districts of the Komi Republic who represent public forest councils of rural areas and the Komi Voytyr Interregional Public Movement. Silver Taiga’s Valentina Semyashkina, Nikolay Shuktomov and Olga Sazhina reported to the participants on the FSC Controlled Wood Standard mechanism and the procedure of forestry auctions in the Republic.

Nikolay Shuktomov, Silver Taiga Foundation Forestry Coordinator

A lot of logging companies operate in the Komi Republic, however, it was Mondi Syktyvkar that was invited to the meeting, as it is one of the biggest FSC certificate holders and one of the key consumers of wood in the region. The mill has its own harvesting division, in addition, it purchases wood from other non-certified companies, as the amount of own certified wood is not enough to cover the demand. Interaction with external suppliers imposes additional liabilities for the company. The company meets the FSC Certification Standard and FSC Controlled Wood Standard requirements through setting certain requirements for the suppliers and checking their compliance.

‘The controlled wood standard was introduced in 2004, and it is quite difficult to be fulfilled. Some of the companies haven’t yet started operating under the new standard, even though the transition period was prolonged twice. The debates are still ongoing regarding what to do with the standard’, Marina Korolyova, head of certification and environment department, Forestry, Mondi Syktyvkar, said at the meeting.

One of the causes that triggered the Controlled Wood Standard was the need to provide processing companies with the opportunity to use non-certified wood in the production process by mixing it with certified material in order to mark the finished goods with the FSC Mix label. Nevertheless, to make it possible the company has to do a lot to meet complex FSC requirements.

Tatyana Dyukova from Mondi Syktyvkar’s certification and environment department shared the experience of how the FSC Controlled Wood Standard operates.

Tatyana Dyukova, expert of the certification and environment department, Mondi Syktyvkar

To exclude raw material from inacceptable sources to meet the Controlled Wood Standard requirements the company makes planned and unplanned audits of contracting and subcontracting organizations. Unplanned checks are conducted in case of any claims with regard to suppliers’ or subsuppliers’ failure to meet the requirements for controlled wood. The checks are held by the company’s employees, but as the voluntary forest certification is based on the principle of transparency for the public, representatives of stakeholders, as well as public activists, are also invited to participate.

A special focus is given by the company to settling of heated conflicts related to traditional rights of the locals, including the ones for resource management, and resolution of disputes arising from observing cultural interests of indigenous peoples and their traditional and cultural self-identification.

‘To take risk mitigating measures the company studies public opinion, checks if there are any heated conflicts, consults with district and rural administrations, talks to specialists from district forestries and representatives of NGOs like Komi Voytyr and the Komi Republic Association of Hunters and Fishers. Any interested party may take part in the auditing process, the company considers all complaints in line with the established procedure and takes appropriate measures, as it decides whether it will cooperate with the violating supplier or not’, Tatyana Dyukova said in her report.

The company gets the information via requests. All mail correspondence is being currently replaced by e-mailing. However, many public activists have no access to the Internet, so consultations are arranged with them by phone. The survey shows if there are any complaints or conflicts arising from the activity of this or that supplier.

Exchanging opinions

The participants of the meeting wondered if it was possible to track the source of wood designated for housing construction. How can individuals find out if the house they are building will be made of certified wood? According to Tatyana Dyukova, information about FSC certified companies is in public access, the list of FSC certificate holders can be found at the website of the Russian FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) office https://ru.fsc.org/ru-ru/cert/fsc_companii. But the information on companies meeting the controlled wood standard is a commercial secret, as Tatyana reported. ‘It is confidential information, but stakeholders, including public activists, are entitled for this information, and we are ready to provide you with the lists of companies supplying wood to Mondi Syktyvkar from various districts’, Tatyana said.

The issue regarding “integrity” of the sources of wood for individual housing construction raised at the meeting was quite significant. It has been thought up to the present time that only big companies supplying goods to the environmentally sensitive European market have to get certification. But if consumers at the Komi Republic market will pay that much attention to product labelling as foreign buyers, small companies will also have to obtain certificates, otherwise their wood will not ne demanded. At the moment small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs dealing with logging and wood processing in Komi find it impossible to get FSC certificates due to high cost of the above, services of auditors are unaffordable for small companies.

To summarize the results of the round table meeting facilitated by Silver Taiga head of the administration of the Spasorub village, Priluzye district, noted that she had finally built the system with all the FSC information coming from different sources. It turned out that she, just like many others, missed the only information “puzzle” – the one regarding controlled wood. Therefore, according to her, it will be easier for the interested parties to build relations with all forest management process participants, as now each of the parties understands its objective.

Natalia Vetoshkina, representative of the public forest council of Keres, Kortkeros district, and Oksana Pomysova, head of Spasorub administration, Priluzye district

‘Some time ago we managed to protect the interests of the local population in the conflict with a certified company. The locals were provided with 4 quartiles of forest for traditional use. At this meeting we learnt how to build relations with a non-certified company fulfilling the Controlled Wood Standard. Informed means protected. Today we got some guidance for action. I can’t help waiting, I want to bring some of the violations to light’, Vasily Mikhailov, representative of the public forest council of Keres, Kortkeros district, joked.

Vasily Mikhailov, representative of the public forest council of Keres, Kortkeros district

Most of the round table participants were happy to note young activists at the meeting. The young people showed their readiness to participate in the events under the international Barents-Baltic Program Nature and Man spoken about by Vadim Krasnopolsky, project coordinator of World Wildlife Fund (WWF Russia, Barents Sea office). In particular, he said that Murmansk region is conducting forest regeneration activities under this project. Near the Pomor village of Kuzomen a desert is emerging – more and more sand can be found in the area. Therefore, regeneration activities have been launched as part of the project. It is notable that all the activities involve school children and school forestries. Teachers Ivan Tugolukov (Priluzye district) and Mikhail Gabov (Kortkeros district), who were present at the meeting as well, said they were ready to start work on revival and activation of school forestries in their villages.

Ivan Tugolukov, representative of the public forest council of Priluzye district

Preserving Old Cemeteries and Sites for Traditional Natural Resource Use from Logging Activities

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The idea was suggested by participants of the training workshop “FSC Certification as a Mechanism to involve Local Communities in Forest Management” arranged by the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development for the group of public activists of Syktyvdin district. The workshop was held in the Foundation’s office on 31 October 2017. The workshop was attended by residents of the villages of Pazhga, Sludka, Zelenets, and the settlements of Yasneg and Mandach.

Foundation’s deputy director Valentina Semyashkina spoke about the FSC certification mechanism with the focus on social aspects.

“FSC certification is of special significance for the residents of Komi and many other forestry regions of Russia. It is explained by the fact that the Russian forestry legislation declares that the population has to participate in forest management, however the Forestry Code and other legal acts fail to describe the mechanisms making such declarations possible.  In addition, Russia does not support the rights of the local population for traditional use of natural resources. In particular, traditional hunting grounds, the rights for use of which were inherited from generation to generation, are not envisaged legally. One can surely say that Russia implements the mechanism protecting the rights of small-numbered indigenous peoples, but as you might know, the Komi people is not part of them. So, under such conditions the FSC certification tool seems to be the only real mechanism in Russia that enables the population to protect their rights and interests in the field of traditional use of natural resources,” Valentina Semyashkina explained.

Valentina Semyashkina

In fact, allocation of HCVF – high conservation value forests – becomes the tool to exercise the traditional rights of the local population. Olga Sazhina, public relations expert of the Foundation, spoke about potential types of social HCVF. The list includes places for collection of mushrooms, berries and wild-growing herb, harvesting of traditional craft materials (birchbark, osier), fishing spots, hunting grounds, areas for harvesting of firewood and construction material for the needs of the locals, sources of potable water (springs, wells), recreational areas, archeological monuments, burying grounds (cemeteries), war monuments,  areas of decimation in the repression era, and other sites.

Identification of social HCVF is part of duties of certified logging companies, however, the companies often treat this responsibility formally, and they just send written requests to local self-government authorities, which do not possess any detailed information. As a result, social HCVF are usually established in the areas populated with the people who are interested in their rights and ready to protect them, where both the locals and the enterprise are eager to cooperate.

Albert Loginov, head of the Udorachi indigenous people community shared the social HCVF experience in Udora district at the workshop.

Valentina Smalii and Albert Loginov

“When the certification mechanism started developing, we established the indigenous people community. Even though the idea was initiated by 6 peoples only, today the organization represents the whole district. The community operates based on the declarative principle, it has a charter, but it is not a legal entity. It took us long to convince Mondi Syktyvkar that we are a legitimate body. We had a long correspondence having generated a heavy pile of letters. Eventually, the Udorachi community and Mondi Syktyvkar concluded an Agreement on cooperation with regard to managing forest sites. The agreement is still valid. The agreement is prolonged each year, unless there are any disputes. There were some conflicts, of course, but the company always met our demands. What is most important is local residents have to be proactive,” A.Loginov highlighted.

As the public activist said, a map of traditional hunting grounds with trappers’ trails was created based on the results of the survey and interviews held in Bolshaya Pyssa. The map shows 84 hunting huts, while the total population of the village is below 400 people. Some villagers have up to 4 huts. Many of them spend up to 1.5 months in the forest, as hunting is one of means of sustenance for them.

The Udorachi indigenous people community is not the only public organization participating in the FSC certification process. Today, there are Public Forest Councils established through the support of the Silver Taiga Foundation in Priluzye, Kortkeros and Udora districts.

The workshop participants, in their turn, shared the information about the conflicts they faced in residential areas. A lot of complaints were given with regard to a logging company operating at the leased forest area near Sludka. According to Tatyana Zhuravlyova, representative of the local administration, no forest is left along the 30 km road from the village of Bolshaya Parma to Shilador. Residents of Sludka, Shilador, Ipatovo, Prokopyevka, Bolshaya Parma, Ust-Pozhega, and Pozyalem have to harvest wood for own needs at the logging plot adjacent to Ust-Vym district border 50 km away from the villages. Even though the company is an FSC certificate holder, it has not coordinated its harvesting plan with the local population.

The population of Sludka is intended to struggle for a more accessible area for the site where they can harvest firewood and construction materials for the needs of the locals. In addition, they suggest creating HCVF at the burying ground of political prisoners who were exiled to the area included in the rural settlement of Sludka. Such grounds were also found in Yasneg.

Today, as was summed up by the workshop participants, it is absence or shortage of information that prevents successful implementation of social aspects of FSC certification. Local residents have no information about a company, while the company lacks information about the locals. There are also certain challenges in determining legitimate public officials in villages. Meanwhile, the efforts of local administrations are not always enough.

During the discussion

 

Residents of Priluzye District Ambitious to Embrace GIS Technologies

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The Silver Taiga Foundation supported by WWF held a working session on Alternatives of Forest Resources and Forest Management Data Acquisition through Earth Remote Sensing in the village of Obyachevo, Priluzye district, at the Priluzye Forestry, on 16-17 October 2017.

Nikolay Shuktomov, forestry projects coordinator, and Alexander Borovlyov, GIS expert, informed the participants of the workshop about the basics of geographic information systems, acquisition and processing of Landsat and Sentinel space images with SAS.Planet, they spoke about practical application of ERS data and how one can use the commonly accessible QGIS geoinformation system, they also showed some functions of the modern cartographic WEB services. A special focus was placed on legal aspects of GIS and ERS data application.

Nikolay Shuktomov is lecturing on ERS data application

All the participants brought their laptops to the workshop. They were provided with the necessary software, and moreover each of them received a workbook developed by the Foundation’s staff for this purpose.

Among 13 participants there were district foresters and engineers of Priluzye Forestry, as well as representatives of the Public Forest Council of Priluzye district. All of them shared the opinion that the facilitators managed to raise the true interest of the audience to up-to-date GIS technologies. It had seemed at first that foresters, who use cartographic data in their work every day, could hardly be impressed with anything, but even they learned a lot for those 2 days. For example, they were trained to convert hard copies of cartographic data to a digital format. At the classes they compared the borderline of logging plots against space image data with the help of GPS navigators, as a result the coordinates matched successfully. Later on, foresters and engineers are planning to use the obtained skills to detect forest fires, identify illegal forest cutting and perform other forest surveying activities.

Social activists dealing with tourist route development and participating in allocation of high conservation value forest areas, such as, for instance, mushroom and berry collection sites, also got some extra skills useful for their work.

“The classes were structured in such a way that theory matched practice, and many of us lacked time to develop the skill. It would be better if more hours were devoted to practical tasks. As soon as I get an opportunity, I’ll sit at my computer to reproduce the whole sequence of actions by myself, but I am not sure that I’ll manage to recall all of them, even though I tried hard to make thorough notes like all other participants. It is great that the workshop was organized within two days; otherwise it would be difficult for the people to find more time to be out of work. Nevertheless, I would like the Foundation’s experts to keep on providing consulting support to the trainees after the session,” Konstantin Serditov, member of the Public Forest Council of Priluzye district, expressed his views.

Workshop participants

“We surely understand that it is impossible to train people to conduct even basic operations within such a short period. To master the technique of GIS application you need much more time. It should be also noted that the audience was very diverse, with different competence levels. We need to be more scrupulous, when we put groups together, they really need to be more homogeneous. Later, we will adjust the curriculum based on the qualification and professions of the participants,” said Nikolay Shuktomov, forestry projects coordinator.     

The public activists of Priluzye district suggest conducting similar courses with a similar agenda for activists and foresters of the Letka cluster. The residents of the district center are sure they will also be interested in GIS technologies.

How to Make Money from Aspen

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Silver Taiga Foundation’s director Yury Pautov took part in the field tour entitled “Sustainable Forestry – a Dialogue between Canada and other Countries” where experts from Russia and other forested regions learned about the experience of forestry landscape planning at Alberta’s lowland landscapes.

The workshop was held as part of the preparation for the FSC General Assembly that took place from 8 to 13 October in Vancouver, Canada. It was facilitated by FSC Canada and one of the leading North American forestry companies Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac), as well as by Boreal Forest Platform, an independent platform for free discussion in the field of sustainable forestry, one of initiators of which was the Silver Taiga Foundation.

“To my mind, the workshop was useful both for Russian participants and for representatives of other countries”, Yury Pautov says. “Through observing the way a real FSC certified company operates we saw how you can combine a profitable business with environmental protection and community support in very similar economic and climatic conditions. Аl-Pac leases 7.5 m ha of forested land, with two thirds of it being wetlands and low productive areas. In such conditions there are also no roads, so 75 percent of wood is harvested and hauled in winter, as construction of earth roads at swamps is of no economic benefit. In addition, the biggest part of the leased area is located in the transition zone between boreal softwood forest and prairie dominated by hardwood species, particularly by aspen. And it is aspen that serves as the target species the company focuses on. It is the same aspen as in Russia – low quality, rotten aspen! The average transportation distance is over 200 km. Nevertheless, the company is profitable, it uses up-to-date cutting and road construction technologies. The key product is pulp and ethanol. While softwood species are sold to sawmills…

Young aspen forest at the area which was burnt by the fire 9 years ago   

Tigercat harvester can cut and pile several trees at once to facilitate subsequent skidding

Pile of aspen logs ready to be loaded onto trucks  

Average transportation distance to the pulp mill is 250 km

According to Yury Pautov, what is known in Russia to be clear cutting isn’t practiced there. Precisely detailed laser ground survey able to register all properties of the landscape is used for forestry planning. Natural history-based “turnover” of forest fires is 60-80 years, according to the company managers. Cutting imitates natural fire dynamics. It is clear that fire doesn’t burn everything, but only the most well drained parts of landscape, so harvesting is planned with this regard. The average size of one logging plot may amount to 2 thousand ha, but only 20-30 percent of the area may be cut. Specially trained teams of delineation experts use space images, aerial photography and laser survey data to draw the borders of the natural fire. Within these borders they mark the boundaries of clear cutting area, plan forest roads and cutting areas adjacent to them, logways, etc. This is necessary, because the mature forest at the area which burnt 60 years ago is similar age. Thus they imitate fire impact by means of logging. At the same time, they preserve biotopes and old trees which remained intact during the last fire for some reasons.

Boundaries of clear cutting areas and their exact GPS coordinates are marked on process sheets and indicated by coloured tape in kind

Workshop participants at the area cut 8 years ago

The landscape in this area is flat and swampy, and even minor lowlands are covered with wetlands, which on the one hand are significant from the biological and environmental points of view, and on the other hand are inefficient for harvesting, so the company takes this feature in account and maintains the hydrological network of the area by building bridge crossings over minor streams and hollows and conserving water protection zones along streams and wetlands.

Temporary bridge crossings over streams and hollows is a mandatory condition for forest cutting

Why is harvesting still cost effective with such an approach to logging planning (when only 20-30 percent of the area is cut and mostly unmarketable aspen is obtained)?

“Canada’s advantage in this case is that the natural use rules, as well as forest use regulations, are defined not on the federal level as in our country, but on the province level,” Yury Pautov answers. “It allows taking all social, economic and landscape properties of the region into account. Moreover, the rent is paid not to the federal center, but to the province government, so it is the local government that defines the rules of lease and cutting. In our country, as is known, the rules of the game are defined by federal officials who fail to understand regional peculiarities, or distinctive features of landscapes of different areas… A forest user is left with no options to apply any justified or rational approach to cutting, which should be different in different situations.

Storage of logs and processed aspen chips at Al Pac pulp mill. Behind you can see endless aspen and birch forests surrounding the mill

Bleached pulp is one of the finished goods of Al-Pac

Al-Pac finished goods – packaging cardboard

Another interesting detail of the field tour for the Russian participants was that the main contractors of Al-Pac in this area (Lac La Biche municipality 200 km to the North-East of Edmonton, capital of Alberta) are Russians – people from the Russian Old Believers’ community, who came to Alberta in 1974. To make it happen the members of the community (including previous generations) travelled almost half the globe. Their motherland is Primorye. The ancestors of these people escaped from that place and the Bolsheviks during the Civil War to Brazil via China, and then to the USA (Oregon), and their descendants finally settled in Canada having founded the Berezovka village in Lac La Biche. The community has around 300 people. Some of the community members own equipment, such as harvesters, forwarders, wood trucks, and they operate it with their relatives. Members of the Russian community lead harvesting, hauling and other related operations. The company’s management is satisfied with the cooperation with the Russian community, they value efficiency, honesty and entrepreneurial spirit of those people. Another advantage mentioned by the managers is no alcohol abuse. And the community members in their turn are grateful to the company management for the respect of Old Believers’ traditions and rules, as the company allows them to celebrate all their religious holidays, keep the fast, etc.

Workshop participants on behalf of Mondi Syktyvkar A. Zaytsev and D.Popov talk to Fedor Martyushev, one of Al Pac’s contractors

Members of the Russian delegation met Old Believers from Berezovka, Lac La Biche, Alberta

Family traditions are strictly observed in the Old Believers’ community  

Although the member of the community have lived for a century away from their motherland and been to different countries surrounded by other cultures and languages, they managed to preserve their language, customs and traditions, culture and faith. In the community settlement Russian is taught together with the official English and French languages.

The menu of the festive dinner in the Old Believers’ community: typical Russian dishes – haladets (aspic), salanina (corned beef), perok (pie) — are unusual to be spelled in English

“Even though none of the community members were born in Russia, they all spoke Russia to us,” Yury Pautov says. “And they speak Russian with each other, while English is used to talk to the others. What makes them look differently from other municipality residents is that all men have beards and women wear sarafans. In addition, families of Russian Old Believers are large with many children…

Participants of the field tour at the reception by the Russian Old Believers’ community of Lac La Biche

Al Pac’s souvenir for the Russian community. The writing says, “In recognition of the multi-generational relationships between the Russian Community and Al Pac. Your commitment and quality of service is greatly appreciated. 03.10.2017»

According to Yury Pautov, the thorough study of the successful practice of sustainable forestry in Canadian boreal forest, the new information obtained during the trip, and discussions of everything that was seen and heard will help the Russian participants – representatives of FSC certificate holders, international FSC members, environmental NGO representatives and FSC Russia staff – in their sustainable forestry promoting activity.

SILVER TAIGA FOUNDATION HAS TAKEN PART IN FSC GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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The Silver Taiga Foundation joined the international FSC membership in February 2017. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit non-governmental organization aiming at promotion of a responsible forest management all over the world. Silver Taiga Director Yury Pautov took part in FSC General Assembly, held in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) on October 8-13.

FSC General Assembly is a supreme body of the given international NGO, which determines the area of FSC-certification development for the nearest three years.

– More than 800 people from almost all over the world took part in the event, – says Yury Pautov. – During 5 days the delegates discussed the FSC development strategy for the period of 20 years, its implementation plans for the nearest three years and the organization management system. During the last two days the participants listened to the board of directors and the FSC secretariat reports, discussed the draft Resolutions prepared by the participants from different countries and voted for them. As the result 15 draft Resolutions were approved out of 70 ones, which mostly specify and enlarge the previously approved by the members the FSC strategic development plan.

Members of FSC Board of Directors

Only 1 out of approved 15 Resolutions can be regarded as a new one and it cannot be related to the Russian certificate holders as it deals with the certification of the plantations in case if they are planted in the wooded lands after 1994 and in compliance with a set of conditions.

Andrey Ptichnikov is being awarded for FSC certification development in the CIS states

All other Resolutions approved by the General Assembly 2017 clarify or enlarge already existing principles, criteria or previous FSC documents. They are, for example, the Resolution concerning the implementation of FPIC (free preliminary informed consent) strategy in cooperation with the indigenous and local communities or the Resolution focused on the stepped-up contribution to the food and non-wood forest resources certification and some others…

The report of the FSC Director General Kim Carstensen

According to Yury Pautov the Russain delegation took an active part in all sections of the given forum. In particular the Russian participants presented 5 draft Resolutions (the use of a landscape approach to the intact forests zoning, the mapping of the certified companies borders and others), but neither of them won the majority of votes.

The Russian delegation in the FSC General Assembly 2017

It should be noted, that participation in the General Assembly is important not only for Resolutions approval. It also gives an opportunity to discuss different problematic points, to make new contacts, to consult the colleagues from other regions and countries, to get an interesting and useful information. The Russian participants of the FSC General Assembly 2017 used these opportunities as much as possible.

Welcome to the FSC General Assembly 2017 from the local Indians 

Following the Mezen Salmon

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This autumn once again the Silver Taiga representatives together with the specialists of Udora branch of Komirubvod State Budgetary Institution and Protected Areas Republican Center have carried out an expedition to the upper reaches of the Mezen River (including its tributaries Upper and Lower Puzla), Elva Mezenskaya and Pyssa. The aim of a week-long tour (October 1 – 8) was to monitor the Atlantic salmon spawning grounds under Model River Mezen project. The monitoring at the given area is being conducted since 2011.

The total route distance is about 200 km long. The expeditions are usually held in the beginning of October as the salmon spawning season starts in autumn from the middle of September and lasts until the freezing up of rivers.

The total route distance is about 200 km long

The spawning usually happens on the shallows with a sand-and-shingle and nonsilted up bottom. New salmon redds counting data got during the expedition compared with the data of the previous years will help to conclude about the changes in the state of the commercially important fish population. The monitoring of the spawning ground state and fullness is one of the population dynamics estimation methods. According to the data of the previous years, the salmon stock in the Mezen River is tragically decreasing from one year to another. The data recorded during the expedition will be clarified and analyzed, though, according to the leader of the expedition the Model River Mezen project coordinator Nikolay Shilov, the situation has not changed in comparison to the previous year.

– According to preliminary calculations, the number of redds in the headwater of Mezen River has decreased and in Pyssa and Elva Rivers has insignificantly increased. Notwithstanding that the water is colder than usual and the water level is comparatively high (these factors quicken and facilitate the spawning), the redds are met very seldom, – highlights N. Shilov.

At the bottom

Drift samples collection

The drift samples (the main ration ingredient of young salmon) were also selected during the expedition in one of the remote parts of Puzla River. The data got during the expedition will be processed during the laboratory examination and then included into the justification of a purpose-oriented interregional program on Mezen salmon conservation and reproduction in Komi and Arkhangelsk regions. The program is being elaborated under Model River Mezen project at the initiative of Silver Taiga Foundation.

Bearded stone loach lair

Udora golden autumn

Photos by Nikolay Shilov

Syktyvdin Schoolchildren Took on Roles of FSC Certification Participants

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According to the well-established tradition initiated by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) educational actions aimed at forest preservation and regeneration, as well as sustainable forest management, are held each year on the last Friday of September in many countries of the world. On that day experts share their knowledge on the way forest certification contributes to responsible forest management and supports the rights of the future generations to use forest resources. People from different corners of the world are reminded that forest is more than just a source of wood for people’s needs; it is also the basis for social and cultural uniqueness of local forest communities. The day saturated with responsible forestry promotion events is known as FSC Friday. This year, Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development also joined the celebration of responsible forestry.

The FSC Friday was combined with the tour of the health improvement Pine Forest path near Krasnozatonsky, so it wasn’t held on the last Friday of September, but on October 13. The informational tour was arranged by the Association of Foresters of the Komi Republic. Senior schoolchildren told the youngsters from Syktyvkar school forestry (Vylgort secondary school) and Syktyvdin school forestry (Pazhga secondary school) about the character of the pine forest ecosystem.

At the beginning of the tour

Schoolchildren are speaking about pine forest ecosystem

At one of the ecological tour stations

Deputy director of the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development Valentina Semyashkina spoke with the students about multifunctional nature of forests and a great variety of stakeholders. Thus, the kids were brought to the conclusion that it was necessary to consider different, even contradictory at times interests to ensure sustainable and responsible forest management. Then, Silver Taiga’s staff moved on to the objectives of FSC forest certification, and after the children were briefly informed on its principles, they were invited to take part in a role game.

Silver Taiga Deputy Director Valentina Semyashkina

The role game introducing social aspects of the FSC certification to the kids and facilitated by Ms. Semyashkina became the most entertaining part of the day.

The game was based on a real case with a conflict in Keres, Kortkeros district, in 2012. At that time residents of the village were dissatisfied with one of the logging companies which managed some leased area in the south of Keres. Local residents were against cutting in the forest area which had always served as a place for collecting mushrooms and berries and laying hunting trails.

The participants of the role game were divided into seven groups representing a logging company, environmentalists, scientists, local residents, hunters and fishers, tourists interested in the region, and municipal authorities… After a short discussion within the group each of them had to announce and defend their interests with a purpose to convince other stakeholders. It was notable that the game revealed the same arguments and demonstrated the same situation as occurred in the real situation. Finally, the parties came to a compromise and managed to meet the interests of the business and locals – they decided to conduct selective cutting and preserve the most valuable for people parts of the forest.

“The hunters” are intent on defending their “trails”

“The scientists” are preparing their arguments against clear cutting

“We are cutting legally”, – “the logging operators” are saying

“The logging companies” are promising to plant the trees after cutting

When the game was over, the schoolchildren were offered sweets, while the most active participants were awarded with some prizes. To memorize the occasion, the students of Krasny Zaton secondary school put the stone of friendship near the campfire place of the health improvement path, and invited kids from other schools to do the same.

Participants of International Conference Appreciated Experience of Mezen Salmon Spawning Grounds Monitoring

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The international conference “Salmonids: Biology, Preservation and Restoration” held in Petrozavodsk at the end of September was attended by Nikolay Shilov, coordinator of the Model River Mezen project.

“It was a scientific conference with most of reporters presenting the data and results of their fundamental studies to the participants”, Nikolay says. “However, there were quite a lot of reports focusing on various practical methods of managing such a valuable resource as the salmonids. Not only academicians participated in that important event, some practical experts and representatives of NGOs dealing with preservation and restoration of the salmonid fishes also did. For example, Valery Irkashev, who represented the recently founded Murmansk Salmon foundation, presented a report on the strategy of preservation of the Atlantic Salmon populations in Russia, where he provided some clear suggestions on amending the legislation, recommendations on preservation activities, etc. Now, the foundation’s experts are testing various salmon population monitoring methods and trying to develop public protection and control.

According to Nikolay Shilov, most authors of salmon monitoring reports used the data related to marine and industrial fishing, very few of them conducted their research on rivers. For example, monitoring of spawning grounds was highlighted in the report by Aleksey Veselov, Doctor of Science from the Institute of Biology, Karelia Scientific Center, RAS, who studies distinctive features of location of redds at spawning grounds.

Nikolay Shilov’s presentation on the first results of the method of Atlantic Salmon nests accounting in the Mezen river raised a lot of interest in the audience, especially among fishery experts and application scientists. The method was also attractive due to its low cost and no need for any special permits. However, different participants of the conference saw the method and experience under the Model River Mezen project differently. There were quite a few questions mostly about estimation of the method error.

“We do understand ourselves that it is wrong to use this method as the core one without the method error being assessed”, Nikolay Shilov highlights. “And I managed to make some preliminary agreements for some Karelia experts to participate in our project to fine-tune the method with the help of other methods (by means of fish counting fences or hydroacoustic devices). Actually, the biggest advantage of our participation in the conference is new contacts with specialists which will be good for our further work under the project. And of course, presentation of our method and experience to the wide professional public and receiving of feedback and assessment. In the coming year we will fine-tune and estimate the method error and next year we will be able to submit the method for approval to the Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO).

The photo is taken from veterinary.gov-murman.ru

14 June 2017 – The Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development was entered to the register of “non-profit organizations exercising functions of a foreign agent” by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation


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