Russian Forestry and Wood Supply Operations Analysis
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Where Can Accessible Forest Resources
Be Found for Investment in Russia's
Forest Sector?
Fig. 2. Allowable cut in commercial forests by Russian region, according
to forest plans and regulations. Large cities are shown by dots
0
0,1-0,5
0,5-1,0
1,0 10,0
10,0 -30,0
30,0-67,0
Allowable cut, min m³
20
29
30
66
56
35
16
10
Fig. 3. Utilization of the allowable cut in 2013. The figures show
potential abilities to increase timber harvesting in commercial forests
in millions of m³, given investment in road construction
According to the forecast of the Russian Federation's forest sector development through to 2030 prepared
by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the potential of the Russian forest sector is far from being
fully exploited. Moreover, according to the moderate scenario, the timber harvesting and processing level
can be increased several-fold.
A comparison of the forecast scenarios with the
actual statistic data for 2010-2014 prepared by
the Natural Resources Institute of Finland shows
that even the moderate scenario of the forecast
showing a timber harvesting increase to 240
million m3 per year is too optimistic (Fig. 1).
According to Rosstat (2014), the timber reserves in
the forests of the Russian Federation are 83 billion
m³. On the other hand, the timber harvesting
in 2013 was 193 million m³ (0.23 percent of
the reserve). Transport accessibility is the only
restraint in the development of timber harvesting.
Some priority investment projects have faced the
problem of raw timber procurement. As many forest
sites are unaccessible for transport, the allowable
cut cannot be utilized in full all over the country.
The mapping of harvested timber quantities done
by the service www.forestrycloud.com confirms
that the primary reason for harvesting reduction
in some regions in 2001-2015 is the transport
infrastructure restraints.
The timber volume that can be harvested on a
forest site in Russia for one year without breaking
the law is called the allowable cut (Fig. 2). The
figures for commercial forest allowable cut by
Russian region were obtained from published
forest plans of the regions. Allowable cuts are
defined at the level of regions, forest districts, and
leased sites. Still, allowable cut is just an indicator
of potential maximum quantity harvested, since it
does not consider the sites' transport accessibility.
In 2013, Russia's allowable cut was utilized by
27.7% (Fig. 3), and in 2014, by 29.2%. To estimate
the existing potential for investment in Russia's
forest sector at the regional level we assessed
the transport accessible allowable cut.
Using the abilities of the forest resource
assessment service, www.forestrycloud.com a
map of the scale 1:50000 was prepared for the
entire area of Russia using space photos. The
map contains all the changes in the forests
from 1974 to 2015 including cuts, wildfires, and
forest reclamation; it is available upon request.
#6 (2015) RUSSIAN
FORESTRY
Fig. 1. Comparison of the actual data of timber harvesting
and processing in Russia to the forecast
million m3
300
Roundwood
240
180
120
60
60
0
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
million m³
60
Plywood
50
40
30
20
10
10
2030
million m³
60
Sawnwood
50
Grey line: National statistics
40
Green line: Faostat
800
30
20
20
10
0
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
million m3
12
12
10
8
6
4
Particle board
2
✓ ✓
0
3
0
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
5
million m3
4
Market pulp
3
2
1
million m3
20
16
12
8
4
Paper and paperboard
0
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
Production
Export
FAO Forest Sector Outlook 2030
Estimate <<Moderate>>
Production
× Export
Source: S. Karvinen, 2015: Forest industry production and export in Russia
22
0-20
21-40
41-60
61-80
Allowable cut utilization, %
81-100
21
15
12
26
2
53
33
29
14
17
16
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RUSSIAN #6 (2015) 23
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