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Results
Improved understanding about the basis, principles and practices of
forest management in NW Russia
- Proposal of new forest management practices
- Technical, environmental and economical evaluation of presently used
harvesting technologies
- Definition of precondition for new technology implementation for the
most efficient operations
- Proposal for new technology of wood harvesting and logistics
- Overview of forest resources and their accessibility, including economical
accessibility
Forest management and silviculture
Intensification of forest management and wood harvesting is possible in Northwest Russia in the conditions of the following persevering and focused operations:
- Revision of instructions and norms on forest planning, forest regeneration, tending of forests, timber harvesting and forest-road construction in the way that enables economically profitable and ecologically and socially sustainable forestry
- In forest regeneration, the whole clear-felling area should be regenerated in a qualified manner (Fig 1.), the proportion of natural regeneration without human intervention should be minimized, use of assisted natural regeneration in the appropriate forest vegetation conditions, increase of planting and seeding especially in the middle taiga region
- Increase of amounts of seedling stand tending at least twice compared to current level and connecting it as a continuous part to forest regeneration chain
- Increase of amounts of intermediate felling from the current level of 9% of the total annual removals gradually up to 20–30% and increase of intensity of thinning to improve their profitability
- Increase of forest-road construction meant for all-year timber transportation with the aim to raise the road density gradually from 2 meters to 8–10 meters per hectare
- Development of methods and techniques of forest inventory and planning aiming to up-dated and reliable information about forest resources, better consideration of forest user’s goals for forest management and economic evaluation of proposed silvicultural and harvesting operations in forest planning
- Conservation of biological diversity and valuable key habitats also in harvesting of production forests
*North – Komi, Arkhangelsk , Murmansk , Karelia, Vologda ; Northwest – Leningrad , Novgorod , Pskov
Fig. 1. Area of clear felling and forest regeneration by methods in North and Northwest Russia in 1993–2004.
Wood harvesting and logistics
Efficiency, productivity and safety risks in wood harvesting and procurement
- Wood harvesting: dropped in the 1990s from over 80 million m 3 to about 40 million m 3 per year, but last years it has been rather stable (Fig. 2).
- Quality of forests: has declined during the past 50 years; output of sawlogs has decreased by 8%, relative density in half of the stands is 0.6-0.4 and in about 10% of the stands less than 0.3; logging companies are working selectively, preferring to cut coniferous stands
- Forest use : based more in long-term lease, up to 25 or 49 years; in 2006 logging companies had about 40 million ha forests in lease and 47 million m3 annual allowable cut, which was about 50% of the total annual allowable cut in Northwest Russia; in Leningrad oblast and Republic of Karelia about 80% of the forests have been leased
- Wood harvesting methods: full-tree, tree-length and cut-to-length methos in use; traditional harvesting methods and systems (full-tree and tree-length) are still dominating in most regions; wood harvesting is usually at least partly mechanized
- Cut-to-length method: becoming more common in Northwest Russia; in Karelia and Leningrad region share is already about 70% (Fig. 3)
- Harvesting costs: unit costs high in wood harvesting, sometimes exceeding harvesting costs in Finland ; productivity of labor is extremely low in companies using traditional Russian machinery
- Forest road construction: one of the challenges in wood procurement; road network density is poor in comparison to Finland, varies from 1.2 km/1000 ha in Komi to 11.6 km/1000 ha in Pskov region
- Thinnings: only 4.5 million m3 or 12% of the total actual cut in Northwest Russia from thinning operations due to poor road network, lack of appropriate technology and intensive forest management traditions and norms
- Work safety: accident risk is high in logging; about 20 accidents (0.5 fatal accidents) per 1000 employees
- Unreported round wood : estimated to be 23% of the wood flow in whole Northwest Russia; the most critical regions are Leningrad , Novgorod and Pskov
Preconditions for implementing modern technology chains and harvesting methods to new conditions
- Weak points: weak production infrastructure, lack of advanced road network, lack of own turnover means, lack of advanced domestically made machinery, low quality of training especially for harvester and forwarder operators, increasing variable costs
- Application of cut-to-length method: would increase productivity and profitability of the logging operations, cause less environmental impacts, and better work safety
- Existing methods and systems for wood transport logistics: suitable for companies which utilize traditional tree-length technology; do not provide basis for economic analysis; introduction of cut-to-length technology requires more attention to wood transport logistics
- GIS-based decision support program : developed to assist logging companies in planning, utilization and optimization of vehicle fleet and transportation operations; could be used also for other applications, such as forest road planning, fuel supply, seedling transportation etc.; demonstration has shown that the efficiency of short-wood transport can be increased by 40%
Requirements for economically and environmentally sustainable wood harvesting in changing forestry
- Production of round wood: most by since planned economy privatized and remaning big and medium sized logging companies; importance of small enterprises growing
- State of the logging companies: substantial variation in economic, technological, social, and environmental state; becoming part of vertically integrated structures that can develop logging companies
- Average wood harvesting costs: study showed cost of about 7 - 7.5 € per m3 at the road-side for all applied wood harvesting methods, but in case of cut-to-length method the company has industrial round-wood, while in case of tree-length and full-tree methods logs which need further processing at central processing yard and thus additional production cost of 6 – 8 € per m3.
- Origin of wood: GIS-based system for monitoring restrictions for logging in conservation areas was developed
- Official conservation areas : share of the forest fund 6 - 8% in Karelia, Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions, highest in Arkhangelsk region; Karelia has the most rigid policy for wood harvesting restrictions (Fig. 4); all types of fellings are forbidden on half of the protected areas (3.0% of forest fund area) in Karelia, in Vologda 40% (or 2.3% of forest fund area) and in Arkhangelsk 27% (of 2.1% of forest fund area)
- So called old-growth forests: cover 1/3 of the forest fund in Arkhangelsk region, altogether 11 detached areas (average size of a detached area is about 0.9 million ha); in Vologda region one area, 95 000 ha; Karelia has 40 detached areas with average size of about 7 000 ha
Fig.2. Round wood removals in Northwest Russian between 2000 and 2006
Fig.3. The development of cut-to-length method in Karelia in 1994-2006
Fig.4. Wood harvesting restrictions in official conservation areas: red – all types of fellings forbidden, blue – final fellings forbidden, green – no restrictions for felling
Development and accessibility of forest resources
Development of forest resources in Northwest-Russia
- Three scenarios of the 50 years development of forest resources were made on regional level with the European Forest Information Scenario model (EFISCEN)
- Keeping fellings at the current level results in decreasing net annual increment and higher average growing stock per hectare as forests get older
- Increasing final fellings by 120 million m3 decreases average growing stock per hectare but increases net annual increment
- Increasing thinnings up to 30% in addition to 120 million m3 increase in final fellings results approximately 15% increase in net annual increment while average growing stock would be the same as now due to lower natural mortality
Analysis on the accessibility of forest resources indicates that
- the infrastructural networks are of highest density in the Karelia, Leningrad , Novgorod and Pskov regions, having transportation distances to nearest railway station within 100 kilometers for most parts of these oblasts and thus connected harvesting costs do not exceed 700 rubles per cubic meter
- in Arkhangelsk , Komi, Murmansk and Vologda regions transportation distances are higher than 200 kilometers for large parts of the oblasts due to lack of railway connections, which results to an estimate for harvesting costs over 940 rubles for a total of ca. 1,9 billion cubic meters of wood
- approximately 60% of the coniferous forest resources and approximately 73% of the broadleaved forest resources in Northwest Russia would be accessible within transportation and harvesing cost up to 800 rubles per m3
Research training
- Master's thesis
- Doctoral dissertations (Olga Tyukina's thesis to be completed in this
project)
- Olga Tyukina: Comparison of economics of different wood harvesting
chains in Russian Karelia
- Timo Leinonen: Ecological and economic analysis of forest management
modes and silvicultural norms and practices in Northwest Russia
- Dominic Röser: Optimal wood harvesting systems in selected
European countries and countries in economic transition
- Taicia Garbuzova: Optimization of utilization of forest resources
and protection of forest ecosystems in sub-taiga of Novgorod region
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