The stewardship and use of forest and forest land in a way,
and a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity,
vitality, and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological,
economic, and social functions, at local, national, and global levels,
and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems
Growing public awareness of forest destruction and degradation has led consumers to demand,
that their purchases of wood and other forest products will not contribute to this destruction,
but rather to help to secure forest recourses for the future.
Russian forestry and forest methods are now considered not to fulfill these objectives. For western companies operating in Russia this is an important issue.
Headlights are easily turned to these companies and it is important that their actions are managed in a way that does not awake public awareness.
The goal for "the company" should in accordance with this be to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of those forests with are given for utilatization.
If forests utilized by "the company" are to be managed in a proper way, long term tenure and use rights to the land and forest recources shall be clearly defined, documented and legally established. The areas must be large enough for large scale operations.
All local forestry rules must be presented by the authorities and agreements regarding these rules are to be made.
In accordance "the company" must demonstrate a long term commitment to adhere to normal western forest principles.
Local communities with legal or customary tenure or use rights shall maintain control over forest operations to the extent necessary to protect their rights or resources, unless they delegate control with free and informed consent to "the company".
Forest management areas should also be protected from illegal harvesting or unauthorized activities.
Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluation of social impact.
Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management
operations. Appropriate mechanisms shall be employed for resolving fair compensation
of the resources.
"the company" should have a clear objective in their forest management operations to strive toward economic viability, while taking into account the full environmental, social and operational costs of production, and while ensuring the investments necessary to maintain the ecological productivity of the forests.
The forest management on areas managed by "the company" should not threaten or diminish the forest resources. Forest management should meet or even exceed applicable laws and/or regulations.
The rate of harvest in the region shall not exceed levels with can be permanently sustained.
These principals is a matter of standpoints in the beginning of the project and they have to be
performed in an economical sound way.
In general these questions more are a matter of principle than costs.
All forest management shall maintain the ecological functions and the integrity of the forest and,
by doing so, ensure conservation of biological diversity, water resources, soils and unique fragile ecosystems. Assessment of environmental impacts shall be completed, appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations and adequately integrated into management systems.
"the company" should invest in a management plan appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations. This plan should be kept up to date. Long term objectives of management, and the means of achieving them, shall be clearly stated.
The proposed methods has already been carried out in other parts of Russia by SHAB and been
studied and approved by the World Wildlife Fund, WWF as well as the Socio-Ecological Union in Moscow.
The plan and supporting documents shall provide at least:
- Management objectives
- Description of the forest resources to be managed, land used and ownership status, socio economic conditions and profile of adjacent lands.
- Description of silviculture system, based on ecology and inventories
- Figures of forest growth and sustainable annual harvest
- Maps describing the forest recourses, planned management activities and land ownership
The plan shall be periodically revised to incorporate the results of monitoring and harvest. In accordance all personnel shall receive adequate training and supervision to ensure proper implementation of the plan.
In reforestation, natural regeneration methods should be preferred and plantations should only complement natural regeneration. Natural corridors and a mosaic of different aged stands shall be used in siting the forests. In the future "the company" probably has to invest in a small plant-nursery.
Plan for further procedures
In accordance with the principles mentioned above, "the company" need to have fairly large areas of forest in its possession, preferable on long term leasing contracts, to be able to make large scale management plans.
"the company" will take great consideration in employing local people in order to gain a local economic growth in each region of activities.
The areas that are in "the company" possession are monitored by sattelite-pictures. From the satellite pictures and by inventories proper forest management plans are made. The plans are later supervised by "the company" but on the field governed by both the local forest people and "the company" local forest department.
All forest personnel are equipped with modern western equipment , and they are trained by SHAB.
The forest workers are served by forwarders that are bought and owned by "the company".
Safety education, as well as first aid training will be provided for all personnel.
It is necessary that "the company" invests in building roads. In order to achieve an optimal localization of these forest roads, it is essential that "the company" is allowed to have full access to the leased forest land.
Computer programs and development is necessary also on the transportation department, where different kinds of software is needed to control fluency of wood from the forest to the terminals.
To furthermore ensure local and regional economic growth "the company" is planning to start saw milling activities in the regions of "the company" activities. These will be combined plants with drying facilities (kiln drying) as well as surfacing ( planing ) The potential for these activities is large, considering the shortage of dried and planed lumber for construction and carpentry, on the Russian domestic consumer market.