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Background
Forest policy in the modern sense is a relatively new concept in the
country emerging into professional use during the transition period of
economy in the 1990s.
Russia's forest policy presently can be understood as a composition
of forest legislation, several target programmes and strategy documents
and some aspects of international agreements. However, the documents do
not yet represent any logical and comprehensive contents for forest policy.
Objectives
To clarify and to increase the understanding about the rationale and
contents of ongoing processes involved and the political cross-swell to
formulate more solid Russian forest policy to respond the economic, social
and environmental problems forestry is facing.
Work packages
The study investigates the development of forest policy framework, including
analysis of goals and means, forest legislation, national and regional
forest programs and institutional changes, taking into account the involvement
of politics - the strong economic and political interests. Four entities
are regarded here to be most relevant:
- The argumentation concerning forest ownership including the mixed
management approaches,
- Financing of forestry and silviculture,
- The division of governance between federal and regional levels and
- The institutional-organisational structure of forest sector.
Results
- Russian forest policy has gone through several turnarounds since the beginning of 1990s
- The main trend of development has been the transition from centrally planned systems of forest management and forest use towards market
- Previous attempts of decentralisation have been largely unsuccessful largely due to inefficient institutional framework and unclear division of power, i.e. the benefits and costs of forest use have not been in balance
- The lack of clearly defined and pronounced national forest policy has slowed down development
- Forestry and forest use have been hampered by the lack of investments: state revenue from forest use has remained modest while unpredictable operational environment has hindered the investments by private forests industries
- The main tools of the Russian forest sector reform are the new forest law adopted in 2007, the reformation of state forest administration and the decentralisation of forest management
- The central government retains the highest decision-making power through the ownership of forests and financing of forestry
- Regional governments are responsible for forest management duties and allocation of forest tenure rights, they also regulate investment activities
- Long-term forest lease is the main form of commercial forest use, leaseholders being responsible for the execution of forest management on leased forest land
- Lease right contains some features that are close to private ownership, including transferability and usage as collateral, on the other hand the new law does not contain economic incentives for liable and sustainable management of forests
- The new forest lease requirements will boost the consolidation of the forest industries by removing small and medium sized enterprises from the sector
- The new law provides a sufficient starting point for positive development in the forest sector, even more crucial in the future is the enforcement of the law and supportive regulations.
Partners
- University of Joensuu: Prof. Olli Saastamoinen, Mr. Tatu Torniainen
- All-Russian Institute of Continuous Education in Forestry: Prof. Anatoly
P. Petrov, docent Galina. N. Filyushkina (senior researcher), docent
I.A. Vukolova (senior researcher) and Mrs. Natalia Bulygina (junior
researcher)
- St. Petersburg Forest Technical Academy: Prof. Vladimir N. Petrov
Publications
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Saastamoinen, O. & Torniainen, T. 2007. Metsäpolitiikka ja metsäohjelmat. Julkaisussa: Karjalainen, T., Ollonqvist, P., Saastamoinen, O. & Viitanen, J. (toim.). Kohti edistyvää metsäsektoria Luoteis-Venäjällä - Tutkimushankkeen loppuraportti. Metlan työraportteja/Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Res. Inst. 62: 14-26.
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Torniainen, T.J. & Saastamoinen, O.J. 2007. Formal and informal institutions and their hierarchy in the regulation of the forest lease in Russia. Forestry 2007; doi: 10.1093/forestry/cpm033
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Karvinen, S., Välkky, E., Torniainen, T. & Gerasimov, Y. 2006. Northwest Russian Forestry in a Nutshell. Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Research Institute 30. 98 p.
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Torniainen, T., Saastamoinen, O., Petrov, A. 2006. Russian forest policy in the turmoil of the changing balance of power. Forest Policy and Economics. (pdf)
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Saastamoinen,
O. & Torniainen, T. 2005. Venäjän metsäpolitiikka
murroksessa. Ostiensis 1/2005: 29-31 (pdf)
Contact information
- olli.saastamoinen @ forest.joensuu.fi
- tatu.torniainen @ metla.fi
Funding
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