Russian forests
Fore word
Russia is the richest country in the world when You count the
forest resource. More than one billion hectares of forest land. Let it be that a lot of these forests are class 1 forests and
a lot of these forests needs to be protected by environmental
reasons.
The environmentalists, regardless from which environmental organization
they come, wants to save about 10 % of the natural old forests
like natural habitats for the protection of endangered spices
in nature. That is good and necessary, but we can do more than
this with Russian forests.
- Protection of the area beside small rivers. Protection of environment,
connection with round standing forest, special zones between wind
fallen areas and so on.
- Leaving of undangerous dead and broken trees in the areas. (All
loggers are instructed to control if the stags are dangerous.
If they are, they must cut them for their own safety during work.)
These stags are the home of good insects which help us to grow
both environment and forestry at the same time. Dangerous insects does not live in dead wood
The more important question is to start working together with
logging activities and to understand that we must start to cut
more forest to save the worlds environment. There is no other
product which is better for the environment than wood.
We must learn not to dig for, but to use raw material, which grows
above ground level and use the photosynteses princip, and are
there fore a part of the ecosystem. These forests can be regenerated
if we use the right techniques.
The article Sustainable forest management
So if 20 % are class 1 forest,( still we can make beautiful thinnings
here) and we give about 15 %, but not less than 10 % for natural
habitats for the protection of endangered spices.
This leaves for Sustainable Forest Management more than 600 000
000 hectares of forest land. This forest land area is maybe 50 % of the worlds usable forest. In Russia they calculate that it grows about 3 m3 per hectar
and year. (The forest land in many of the areas where we have
been working grows not less than 6 m3 per year. (my remark))
This gives an annual growth of 1,8 billion m3 .
Saw timber and paper products have a great value and of course
we must strive towards producing the end product within the borders
of the country, which will double or even triple the value of
the forest production. This is difficult today when the machine
and industrial park is old and not so efficient.
- When forest companies starts to utilize this resource, how can
this volume effect the world market of wooden products ?
- Are there any risks for Russia or the world forest economy,
by letting foreign companies investing in large scale into this
huge forest massive ?
- Does Russia have any alternative, but giving advantages to those
investors whom want to invest into the forest industries ?
Tecniqual issues:
Clear cutting have been the main method to collect the largest
volumes in Russia, and this leaves a tremendous big area where
the leaf trees have taken the command over the soft wood spices.
This is also a large problem today because if we do not lighten
these areas it can never produce any soft wood. Today the leschozes
have no money to perform this important work.
The technique that were used and are still used in Russia is mainly
the whole tree length system, which is possible to use in clear
cuttings only. Unfortunately they use this technique in thinnings
as well but the result for the future in these forests are of
a quality which does not help the country in the future. This
has been verified by most of Russian leschoz personnel that i
met, whom loves their forests.
A large input must be done in the forests that are in a great
need of thinning and here we must start to work with the short
wood technique. Maybe 30 % or more of this volume should come
from thinnings. This together with clearing saw work also guarantees
the future for the people who live in the regions.
Another important factor is to determine the degree of mechanization.
The salary level per hour gives the best guideline to decide about
this. No mechanized system can compete with skilled loggers in
thinning if the total salary cost per hour is below 10 USD. The
biological quality of the work can also be of a higher quality
with skilled loggers.
To cut all this volume it is necessary to employ a lot of people.
In the villages there are a lot of unemployment at the moment.
We need more than 1 miljon employees for cutting and transport
only, who must start to work and to get education for this.
A lot of new equipment is also necessary: Safety equipment, chain
saws, clearing saws, measuring equipment, forwarders, timber trucks,
loaders, road building equipment and so on. Large investments
must also be done in the road system, sawmills, fanèr factories,
furniture factories, pulp and paper factories, schools, technicums
and so on
.
Biological rules in Russia and our experiences:
- Thinning: Tickets are obtained - even if the forest outside
the border is of the same characteristic, it can be to small to
make a special ticket for. Therefore this area will be left untouched,
and the forest here can not develop in the right way.
- The borders(granitsa) are always made with compass - not with
any thought of what is necessary for the forest.
- The tickets are very often obtained from people sitting in the
office looking at the forest management plan for the next coming
years. When you go out in the forest you find forest which do
not correspond with the facts that are written in the documents.
- When you try to get the areas where it is suitable to make thinning
you always get the response the this area is not included in the
plan for this period and we can not give you a ticket for this
area
- Always the hard fight for the shortwood-technique with its advantages
in thinning, both technically and biologically. When you start
you have to take a small area for testing where you show the methods.
- You always get a lot of critics for a number of Russian law
reasons. Even though the result is much better than any of the
Russian methods ( if they exist, my experience is that if we don't
make the thinning it will not be done at all. At which consequences.
). By the way, we do not often get credits.
- Distance between the strip roads (in very young forest the distance
must be 16 m. according to the law) With our short wood technique,
with forwarders with 10 meter long crane we can have as much as
30 m between strip roads, which gives more forest and a better
result after thinning.
- Branches lying in the forest(pasika) and not in the forwarder-roads,
that are longer than 1 m. and thicker than 4 cm, gives (straffs).
The reasons for this straffs are different, berry-mushrom-pickers,
fires, a so. Who can explain to me that a forest fire is more
dangerous and more extensive in anyone of these situations. When
there is a fire it burns everything.
- The selection of the trees must be made by those who cut the
trees. With the education we provide this is both possible and
advantageous for the forest companies.
We have been working in Former Sovjet Union for five years conducting
different education projects. These projects together with its
extensions have the total production capacity of more than 3 mill.
m3 per year. Although more than 50 % of the volume is cut in thinning,
the capacity of thinned area per year exceeds 18 750 hectares
of former Sovjet Unions forests
- The standardized instruction from the Leschoz regarding cutting
volume does not correspond with practical facts. The forest is
never even, therefore an instruction in density is not possible
to give. As the forest condition varies a lot in the same area,
from 0,6-0,9(polnata), the forest must be thinned after these
conditions. If there is a dense forest, which have many stems
or volume, more volume must be cut there than in a forest which
does not have so many stems or volume.
- It must be possible to build roads according to ground conditions
and forest stands instead of the compass.
- When making a clear cutting the young trees must be saved. The
Russian instruction is that all trees smaller than 8-13 cm diameter
must be saved. Local Leschoz directors are more open and want
to save trees according to age, Max 15-20 Years, which is right.
The short wood technique gives also a larger flexibility for various
methods. It might be clear cutting with seed trees or shelter
trees of different spices or other variations depending on the
local conditions.
The Russian law is adapted to Russian technique and equipment.
When other kind of equipment with different working principals
is used, there should be different laws and rules for this equipment.
It is necessary to start with new and reasonable playing rules
for both foreign and local companies. The new rules must be stable
and long term active.
The companies must write long term commitments for Russian territory.
These documents must contain rules for Sustainable Forest Management
Some examples:
- There is today no manufacturing of local forwarders with eight
wheels in Russia. These eight wheel forwarders have less impact
on the environment.
- Special environmental tracks for all machines should be mandatory.
- Special biological oils and grease for all machines should be
recommended.
- Special clearing saws for performing lightening in young forests
should be import tax free.
- Logging equipment not manufactured with the same quality in
Russia should be import tax free.
Best regards from,
Svante Hansson, Sweden,
svante@shab.se