The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development
(Josh Newell, pub. Daniel & Daniel, 2004).

Russia has the most expansive forests of any country on the planet, comprising about one fifth of the Earth's total forest cover and more than half of the planet's coniferous forests. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports that Russia's forests are actually increasing in timber volume and in total area, at a rate of 135,000 ha per year for the 1990-2000 period. While technically true, the report is misleading; numerous studies show that forest quality is declining. Second-growth deciduous forests (such as aspen and birch) are gradually replacing mature conifers (spruces, pine, firs, larch) in the total forest cover. A 2001 study by International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), a think-tank based in Europe, found that almost a quarter of the stock of 'mature and over-mature' forests (essentially conifers) has disappeared from the eastern third of Russia - often called the Russian Far East. These old-growth conifer forests have decreased from 7.1 billion cu. m in 1961 to just 5.5 billion in 2000. There are many underlying causes for this loss of forest quality in Russia: logging, fires, mining, road construction, oil and gas development, and clearing for agriculture.

Despite this, Russia retains vast areas of what forest ecologists call 'frontier' or 'old-growth' forests. The World Resources Institute (WRI) estimates Russia has one-quarter of the planet's remaining old-growth forests. And most of these forests, about 70 percent of Russia's total, are in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, where Forests Monitor focuses its efforts. In general, Russia's northern forests are less fragmented than the more heavily roaded and more commercially valuable forests in the south. These southern forests are more densely wooded and have larger trees, but declining forest quality from intensive logging is unfortunately associated with new logging in ever more remote areas.

Forests are now well-known for the wealth of services they provide: supplying timber and non-timber forest products, mitigating climate change, preserving biological diversity, maintaining indigenous livelihoods, and providing for recreational and spiritual purposes. For these reasons, stemming Russia's declining forest quality is of crucial importance.

Biological diversity is often equated with forests in the tropics, but diversity can be found in temperate and boreal forests as well. The Ussuri taiga forests growing along the Sikhote-Alin Mountain Range in the southern Russian Far East are the most biologically diverse in Russia and rival that of any temperate forest ecosystem worldwide. It is in these forests where one will find the highly endangered Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). The Siberian pine forests of eastern Siberia are also biodiverse, but like the Ussuri taiga highly endangered. Siberian pine, like its Sikhote-Alin counterpart Korean pine continues to be logged (often illegally), as demand for both species is high in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Our climate change crisis brings new urgency for the sound development of Russia's forests, particularly those growing on permafrost, which cover about 75% of the Russian Far East and Siberia. Logging, mining, oil and development, and other industrial activity disturb the normal freeze-thaw cycle of permafrost. When permafrost melts, it releases trapped methane and carbon dioxide from the plant matter and soil - both powerful greenhouse gases that warm the atmosphere. Logging, especially clear-cutting, can also release large amounts of carbon dioxide by transforming carbon-loaded temperate and boreal forests into relatively carbon-poor secondary forests and shrubs.

While much of the Russian boreal forest today remains roadless and unlogged largely because of lack of infrastructure, there is a rising demand from the Japanese and Chinese plywood industry. Plywood manufacturers are promoting Russian larch as a green alternative to tropical luan timber. Ninety-eight percent of all Russian larch grows on some form of permafrost, however, making large-scale logging of the species an unwise proposition.