Operational features of the Far East forests

Abstract

Forest area of the Far East reaches almost 50 % of the forest area of the Russian Federation. The share of the operational forest fund accounts for about 50 %, the rest are protective, protected, low-density, near-tundra and reserve forests. Most of the operational forests have been developed. The permissible volume of wood withdrawal is 92.0 million m3 . Moreover, it is planned to harvest only 14 % by selective logging, the rest of the wood is planned to harvest by clear cuts. Care felling and forest health improving felling in the forests of the Far East are carried out in insignificant volumes. Timber harvesting during the creation of infrastructure facilities is organized mainly in subjects with a developed mining industry. The high diversity of forests and the differences in their growing conditions determined the need to allocate 12 special forest areas here, in 10 of which timber harvesting is carried out. Both continuous and selective logging methods are used. The main volume of logging take place on the Far Eastern taiga region and amounts 8.9 million m3 , mainly by continuous logging. Selective logging of up to 3.5 million m3 of wood prevails in the Amur-Primorsky coniferous-deciduous area. In the Kamchatka taiga, Trans-Baikal forest-steppe and Altai-Sayan mountain-taiga forest areas, timber harvesting is carried out in insignificant volumes, only for the own needs of the population. Currently, due to the significant depletion of operational forests, the dynamics of timber harvesting in the Far Eastern Federal District tends to decrease.

Keywords

• forest regions
• clear and selective cuttings
• operational forests
• timber harvesting