Komi Model Forest is the Only Model Forest in Russia

Yury Pautov took part in the skype meeting of the European Model Forests (MF) representatives in December 2018. International MF Network Secretariat participated in the meeting as well. There are more than 60 MFs in the world nowadays, 12 of them are in Europe including Komi Model Forest – the only MF in Russia nowadays.

The first MF was created in Canada in the beginning of 90s of the last century. Later on other MFs appeared in different countries of the world. Depletion of forest resources, loss of biodiversity and high conservation value forests, conflicts between stakeholders and other issues were burning at that time. And so the aim of the MF was to create a sustainable forest management model, a platform for solving the forestry problems at the given territory and to disseminate the gained experience later on.

In 1998 a few tens of MFs joined in the International Network.  Each MF is unique but forest management in each of them should answer some necessary criteria – landscape approach, cooperation of all forest stakeholders, forest management innovations.

Komi MF is also a member of International MF Network since 2007 and so it is presented in all MF meetings and conferences. During the last meeting the MF representatives from Sweden, Poland, Croatia, Spain, Italy and other European countries exchanged the information about their activities and discussed urgent issues common for most of the forest areas.

Unfortunately, the MFs are not so active as they used to be due to the lack of financing first of all. Komi Mf is not an exception. In recent years only Silver Taiga Foundation support Komi MF under its projects. In particular, the MF demonstrational routes are being refreshed and used for educational purposes for Russian and international students.

According to Yury Pautov European MFs have better financial conditions than others as many of them get EU grants. It is not possible for Russia due to different penalties. Nevertheless, Komi MF is still a platform for many taiga forest innovations testing.

Photo from the International MF Network web site http://www.imfn.net