Market Based Forest Conservation Opportunities
https://doi.org/10.31857/S2587-55662019697-106
Abstract
Forests of Russia have global ecological significance. They include huge massive of boreal forests, almost a quarter of global area of intact forest landscapes. The global role of Russian forests in inhibition of aridization and land degradation is well known. Development of representative system of forest protection is one of the main tasks of Russian Federation in implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity obligations. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Strategic Goals plan protection of no less than 17% of terrestrial ecosystems’ area to the 2020, especially the sites of high significance for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The main forest protection mechanisms are protected natural areas (PNA), forests with protective functions, and protective sites (PS). PNA contains around 7% of forest covered area. Forests with protective functions make up around 16% of forest covered areas, but the management regimes of many types of such forests are not conforming to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Many of forests with protective functions are under lease for forest management. Since recently the significance of voluntary Forest Stewardship council (FSC) certification for biodiversity conservation is increasing. The standards of FSC certification require from forest companies to implement protection and appropriate use of high conservation value forests (HCVF). Totally there are 46 mln ha of FSC certified forests in Russia, from them around 5–6 mln ha of HCVF received additional protection from certification. One of the most important categories of HCVF are intact forest landscapes (IFL’s). Around 1 mln ha of IFL’s are protected as the result of forest certification, providing significant input into Convention on Biological Diversity. For 35 FSC certified companies the share of identified HCVF’s with nature conservation regimes in their leased forests is comparable with the average share of PNA’s (without certification) on the regional or district level. The main output of the research is that the role of voluntary forest certification for enhancing the system of forest protection in Russia is increasing, which receives worldwide recognition.
Supporting agencies: The study was fulfilled within the framework of the state-ordered research theme of the Institute of Geography RAS, no. 0148-2019-0007 (“Assessment of physical-geographical, hydrological and biotic changes of the environment and their consequences for creating foundations for sustainable environmental management”).
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- Of the 45 million hectares of FSC certified forests in Russia, about 6 million hectares of high conservation value forests (HCVF) were voluntarily set aside from forest management as part of certification obligations. Officially protected areas were established on 0.15 million hectares of certified forests.
- Within the framework of FSC certification in Russia, companies voluntarily protect about 1 million ha of intact forest areas (IFL), that is about 30% of all IFL leased from certified companies.
- In the Northwestern Federal District of Russia, the share of HCVF of categories 1–3 with a management regime close to protected areas is 7.2% of the certified leased area, which roughly corresponds to the share of protected areas of the total land area (7.8%).
- FSC certification almost doubles the area of protected forests in the North-West of Russia.
- FSC forest certification is becoming the main mechanism for the conservation of forests in regions of intensive forest management of Russia.
Review
For citations:
Ptichnikov A.V. Market Based Forest Conservation Opportunities. Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Geograficheskaya. 2019;(6):97-106. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31857/S2587-55662019697-106
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