Mapping resource use over a Russian landscape: an integrated look at harvesting of a non-timber forest product in central Kamchatka

Abstract

Small-scale resource use became an important adaptive mechanism in remote logging communities in Russia at the onset of the post-Soviet period in 1991. We focused on harvesting of a non-timber forest product, lingonberry ( Vaccinium vitis-idaea ), in the forests of the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russian Far East). We employed an integrated geographical approach to make quantifiable connections between harvesting and the landscape, and to interpret these relationships in their broader contexts. Landsat TM images were used for a new classification; the resulting land-cover map was the basis for linking non-spatial data on harvesters’ gathering behaviors to spatial data within delineated lingonberry gathering sites. Several significant relationships emerged: (1) mature forests negatively affected harvesters’ initial choice to gather in a site, while young forests had a positive effect; (2) land-cover type was critical in determining how and why gathering occurred: post-disturbance young and maturing forests were significantly associated with higher gathering intensity and with the choice to market harvests; and (3) distance from gathering sites to villages and main roads also mattered: longer distances were significantly correlated to more time spent gathering and to increased marketing of harvests. We further considered our findings in light of the larger ecological and social dynamics at play in central Kamchatka. This unique study is an important starting point for conservation- and sustainable development-based work, and for additional research into the drivers of human–landscape interactions in the Russian Far East.

Keywords

• Russian Far East
• Landsat
• remote sensing
• land-cover/land-use
• small-scale resource use
• lingonberry