1. Russian Coniferous Forestry Management

2. Coniferous (Taiga) Forest This type of forest is found in the Northern hemisphere. It is absent from the Southern hemisphere because there are no large landmasses at appropriate latitudes. The areas which these forests are situated have cold continental climates with temperatures ranging from -25 degrees Celsius in the winter to 18 degrees Celsius in the summer. These areas experience high winds, winter snowfalls and around 400-500mm of rain per year. 4 types of conifer predominate Coniferous forests, these include Spruce, Pine Fur and Larch. These trees adapt to this climate by having waxy needles to reduce transpiration, they have a pyramid shape to withstand snow and wind, thick bark to protect them from cold and they produce cones to protect the seeds. There are common threats which have a negative influence on Coniferous forests across the globe, these include deforestation, intensive forest management, land used for agriculture and tree death caused by acid rain.

3. Russia which is located in Eastern Europe is considered to be the largest forest country in the world as it houses around 22% of world forests. Russia which borders countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Kazakhstan and China is the largest country in the world. Russia has a population of around 142 million. This country is also quite a wealthy country with a GDP of $2.285 trillion and a developed country with a high HDI of 0.806.

4. Threats There are many threats which face the Russian Coniferous Forests. These threats come mainly human influences such as: Logging Forest fires Intensive and regular application of chemicals such as pesticides, herbicide, fertilizers, etc. Industrial pollution Intensive recreation

5. illegal Logging There are 3 main situations involving illegal logging: Pure criminal activities (logging without official permissions, timber theft, falsification of documents, financial crimes, usage of the violence against local peoples, outrageous law violation by authorities and corruption). Mass public illegal activity in forest by poor peoples, looking for satisfaction of their basic needs – food and fuel (forest encroachment and forest land conversion for agriculture usage, poaching). Lack of law enforcement. In 1999 Russia exported around 29 million m3 of raw timber, around half of this timber was logged illegally or with violations of the existing laws.

6. Forest Fires Forest fires are another way which the Russian Forests are threatened. They are mainly caused by humans, examples include small fires which lose or control and burn down very large areas of forest or from intentional fires which are used to clear land which is then used for things such as farming or infrastructure. Fires are also caused naturally from things such as lightning however this is very rare. 1998 was a bad year for forest fires in Russia. In this abnormally dry year the Sakhalin region suffered more than 350 forest fires burning around 80.8 thousand ha. It is believed that 233 of these fires were human induced. Many people were killed and hundredths of thousands of people were left homeless.

7. Management and Sustainability Within Russia there are many legislations and NGO’s which are in place in order to try and protect the forests in Russia. An example of this is the Russian Federation Forest Code. This code was put in place in 1997 to lay down the legal principles of rational use, conservation, protection and reproduction of forests, and enhancement of their ecological and resource potential.

8. NGO The Russian NGOs` Forest Club is an informal working group, which consists of representatives from the largest NGOs working actively for Russian forest conservation. The basis of the club comes from the necessity to unite and coordinate NGO forest related activities. The Club's major activities are: Improvement of Russian forest legislation, forestry regulations and technical standards. Inventory of natural old growth forests and other valuable forest areas. Monitoring of protected territories for illegal logging and poaching. Promoting of ecologically and socially responsible forestry, independent forest certification. The forest club members include the Socio-Ecological Union Forest Campaign, the Biodiversity Conservation Centre, a student corporation for Nature Conservation Movement and Greenpeace Russia.

9. Present and Future Management At the moment there are many small campaigns and workshops in place to try and protect the forest. An example of this is the replanting of trees by the NGO’s however these efforts are far too small to cope with the rapid deforestation. Therefore the Russian NGO’s are appealing to the Russian Government, the Russian Parliament and international community for help. The NGO’s request the following: Providing for protection of the most valuable forest ecosystem plots from the point of view of protecting biological diversity, including those officially recognized as well as those that public environmental non-governmental organizations have been speaking out about in recent years; The necessity of having, on a Russian-wide level, an effective system that is capable of enforcing scientifically based measures for conservation and protection of the country's forests from fires, pests, pathogens, and insects, and carrying out work on forest restoration. Developing a system of independent monitoring for forest conditions based on remote sensing methods. Furthermore, clarifying the reasons for the sometimes disparate results between remote sensing results and data from official statistics, and providing access to this information for all interested parties, including NGOs. Providing for a system of transparency of the actions of the Ministry of Natural Resources regarding Russian forests, including timely information in advance for all interested parties about the actions planned by this agency; Separating the functions of management and use of natural resources from monitoring and environmental impact reviews; Implementing a system of voluntary declaration of the sources for logged timber. Support initiatives for credible and independent voluntary forest certification, including creation of Russian certifiers for carrying out certification.

10. FSC Certification in Russia Forest Stewardship Council certifications are a globally recognized, market-based system that is the “gold standard” for ecoforestry. As of February 12 2008, there were 59 FSC forest management certificates on 19.85 million hectares in Russia 61 companies have chain of custody certificates 5 million hectares are in process of FSC certification

11. This graph shows the increasing amount of FSC Certification in Russia. This picture shows the distribution of issued certificates and pending certificates in Russia.