The State, Utilisation and Possible Future Developments of Leningrad Region Forests

Joensuu

1999

59 S.

7 Abb., 7 Tab., 29 Lit.A.g.

Bandaufführung

14099

71810

The total area of Leningrad Region forest fund is 5.8 million ha of which 4.8 million ha is forest land. These forsts belong to the southern taiga with sandy-loam and peat sites. Of the forest fund, 79% is under the direct administration of the Forest Committee of the Leningrad Region, which is a regional administrative organ of the Federal Forestry Service of Russia. According to the Russian classification of forest functions, 40% of the forest is assigned to the Group I (special protection) forests, out of which 20,000 ha are strict reserves. The other 60% belong to Group II, (multi-functional forests). From 1958 to 1993 Group I forest area increased from 24 to 40%. Coniferous species dominate the forests of the region, usually in mixed uneven-aged stands. Of the forest land under the Forest Committee, 2.3 million ha are dominated by Scots pine and Norway spruce. The rest consists mainly of birch and aspen. The growing stock of the forest lands under the Forest Committee amount to 639 million mß. The total growing stock in mature and overmature stand amount to 236 million mß. Because of large areas of old forest, the stuctural diversity of the forests in the region is very high. Most likely, biodiversity values are high too, although inventory data, which covers the whole region on this aspect, does not exist. The annual mean increment (as defined in the Russian Forest Inventory) amounts to 9.86 million mß on the 3.4 million ha administered by the State Forest Committee. However, the gross annual increment could well amount to 20 million mß. The annual allowable cut determined by forest authorities is 7.5 million mß. Conifers comprise 45% of this. Clearcutting has always been the preferred way for felling and it used to comprise 85% of the total felling. Because of the low demand for wood since the recession in the Russian economy, the utilisation of the allowable cut is only 35%. As a result of this and earlier under-utilisation, the total growing stock of the mature exploitable forest increased by 76% in the past 35 years. The share of actually felled allowable cut has been decreasing during the analysed period: from 86% in 1968 to 35% in 1996. The latest forest inventory was carried out in 1989-1993. The Russian forest inventory system consists of the use of aerial photographs for separating the compartments followed by ground ocular estimates in all compartments (varying from 3 to 50 ha). The forest inventory mainly provides estimates of growing stock and mean increment by species per compartment. For compartments that are considered for final felling a standard error of 10 15% at 95% probability is targeted. In several cases it has been observed that the method described above underestimates the growing stock in mature and overmature compartments by 5 to 15%. This means that the reported growing stock figures in the present report are probably underestimated too. To forecast the possible future development of the forest resources in the region, a forest scenario model was used to project the forest resource till 2040. Five scenarios of forest management were run: 1. 'handbook': projecting the forest resources under theoretical optimal management regimes; 2. 'business as usual': a projection with continuation of current (1933) harvesting levels; 3. 'maximum sustainable production': searching the theoretical biological maximum; 4. 'recovery of the forest sector': a scenario which assumes a quick recovery of the Russian forest sector; 5. 'recovery with nature conservation': the same as scenario 4 but with more attention paid to nature conservation. All scenarios show that recovery of the forest sector in the Leningrad Region is very well possible from a biological forest point of view - a maximum sustainable production level of 15.2 million mß per year was found. A more modest recovery level of the forest sector gave a continuous annual production of 10.6 million mß per year by 2041. At the latter level, the age class distribution is still shifting towards older stands and increasing growing stock. Under all scenarios the present concentration of forest area in the mature classes is reduced as more of both younger and older stands develop. The recovery with nature conservation scenario has shown that recovery and further development of the forest sector in the region is possible from a biological point of view, while at the same time paying full attention to other values of the forest as well. It was, in principle, possible to set aside 27% of the forest area and still allow for development of the forest sector to a higher productivity level than in the late eighties. All recovery scenarios further indicate that the forest sector can contribute to the socio-economic development of the region. If all harvested wood is exported as raw material this contribution will be small in the near future but the income can be used for developing both infrastructure and (small scale) processing industry. To facilitate development, an integral development plan for the region would be needed. Such a plan has to involve the local government, the enterprises of the Federal Forest Service, nature conservation organisations, the tourist industry, donors, i.e. World Bank, and foreign investors.