On the Concept of the draft Federal law “Forest code of the Russian Federation”

Abstract

An analysis of a numerous official documents and publications reveals a serious crisis of forest management in Russia. Forest management paradigm, defined by the Forest Code ideologues, will lead inevitably to the Russian forest fund degradation. Meanwhile, forestry is production industry in which laws of the market economy are in force. For this reason, forest management should be reconstructed in Russia. A principle of forestry revival will be impartial ecological and market economic assessment of forest resources, which would be instrumental in transition of the subsidized scheme of forest management financing to a system that would provide rational forestry and a profit. Forestry organization is the key task of forest inventory that is completed in close connection with forest economy and forest management. Specific problems of sustainable forestry organization and forest use should be solved on this basis. When State owns forests in the market economy environments, stumpage sale at prices lower than the cost for reforestation cannot be allowed. In view of this, market transition of forest use is crucial to establish payments for standing timber based on rental income. This will guarantee the financing of reforestation as well as assignments to the budget at the different levels. Chief reorganization objective of forest management in Russia is outlined as follows: ensuring economic efficiency of the forest sector; sustainable use of forest resources and reforestation; forest conservation for the next generations.