gh FUTURE FOREST MODEL

What should be done to make forest exploitation in Russia cost-effective instead of loss-making? Legal reforms and financial investments are not enough - experience and new technologies are necessary too. In that connection, so-called model forests have recently appeared in Russia. These are experimental plots within wood areas, where specialists develop new methods aimed at making profit and, at the same time, preserving main biosphere functions of forest. The one of them is Pskov Model Forest, where norms and technologies appropriate for the European taiga are developed. All ecosystems have specific nature - that is why one cannot apply the experience of forest managers from abroad, e.g., from Sweden, to our woods. We need to conduct research here, in place, and develop specific know-how.

At the beginning, researchers working under the project analyzed the history of wood areas and compared it to the current state of woods, the rate of their growth and natural reforestation. On the basis of these data, they made simulation models on computers, which can give prognosis of the forest development for several decades ahead.

One of the main innovations in this project, as say its managers, consists in considering each particular plot of the wood individually. For each specific plot, they design special measures to be applied. However, in reality, timber industry in this country still relies on norms averaged for large territories and, therefore, ignoring a lot of local biological and geological factors. The individual approach is eventually more economic, because it makes it possible to avoid losses and reduce investments. For example, how one should cut a wood that consist half of old aspen and half of birch with and admixture of spruce? Before, they would cut everything and plant spruces - but that is expensive and unprofitable. The project specialists offered another scheme that saves 10 thousand roubles per hectare. They begin with cutting all birches and those aspens, which still have good quality. Old aspens are "ringed" to make them go dead, but not at once, i.e., in about five years. Within that period, spruces grow up, while aspen saplings go down because of a lack of light. When spruces get big enough, aspens can be felled and left in place, no money being spent of carrying them away. The spruce wood then grows further and improves its quality and price. The specialists believe that every rouble invested into forest amelioration brings more profit than rouble spent on tree planting. The latter is quite an expensive and risky undertaking, because saplings are very vulnerable to adverse factors. Natural reforestation is more effective. For that purpose, several mature fruit-bearing trees should be left within the logging area, and machinery-caused disturbance of the soil surface within that area should be minimal.

The researchers try to avoid turning wild woods into gardens for tree growing, like it happened in Scandinavian countries, where biologists then needed to restore the complex structure of natural biocenoses. Russian scientists worked for a long period to define the criterion of naturalness and determine permissible impacts to natural woods. As a result, they came to conclusion that some parts of wood should be left intact, which will play a key part in maintaining the biological diversity and water balance. These are woods on steep slopes, along roads, lake banks, river floodplains, mature spruce forests with established complex of flora and fauna that serve as a bank of species. For each type of forest, they calculated the maximal permissible cutting loads. It was taken into account that destroying spruce wood by clear cutting leads to drying of streams, and the cutting area of pine stand turns into a swamp. Many decisions concerning the forest management depend on the requirements of local inhabitants. They are offered to consider several proposals for the development of their area, advantages and shortcomings of each proposal being clearly explained. And the people can choose, what is most suitable for them.

The experience gained on Pskov Model Forest has demonstrated that forest exploitation and conservation can be beneficially combined. One can see some examples of wise forest management now.

The Pskov Model Forest Project initiated by the WWF of Russia is aimed at developing the model of ecologically and socially substantiated and cost-effective forest exploitation a certain area used as an example. That forest area is about 46000 ha and comprises lands of many different types. The project has involved the Ministry of Natural Resourses of Russian Federation, the Pskov Oblast Administration, local authorities, foresters, timber companies, the Institute of Forestry (Moscow area), Geological Faculty of St, Petersburg University, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and other organizations. There are also some foreign participants: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), StoraEnso Company, and WWF of Germany. Similar projects are implemented in Komi Republic, Far East, and Altai-Sayan Mountains.

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