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| Focus on Russia |
| | Russia ratified the CBD in December 1995. Since 1996 a Global Environment Fund (GEF) project on biodiversity conservation has assisted CBD implementation in Russia but it has been quite narrow in scope. The future implementation of the CBD in Russia needs to address a broader range of issues (see box), and to recognise the role that NGOs are playing in generating high-quality information about the precise location and quality of the taiga and the threats to it.
The core of Russia's CBD implementation, the GEF biodiversity conservation project, has so far focused on forest conservation and financial assistance to strictly protected areas. Russia has four kinds of protected areas: 100 'zapovedniks' - nature reserves corresponding to IUCN category I, with a total territory of 33.5 million ha; 35 national parks (7 million ha); 68 federal nature reserves (12.5 million ha); and more than 4,000 natural monuments with a total area of 83.6 million ha. In total, about 120 million ha (6.6% of the Russian territory) is situated in protected areas.
Russia is the biggest and most forested country in the world, its territory covering about 17 million km2 (11.4% of the global landmass) with forests occupying more than 69% of the total land; 78% of all its dense forests, including most of the primary forests, are located in the Asian region (Siberia and the Russian Far East). A clear picture of the location and quality of Russia's forests has at last been produced. Russian NGOs together with colleagues from the World Resources Institute have carried out a project called Forest Watch Russia to map Russian primary forests using satellite images. The resulting map is currently under expert review and will be published this spring.
Russia faces many financial problems in protecting its biodiversity. The biggest threat is from illegal logging especially in areas that are situated close to the national borders (Karelia, Murmansk, Krasnodar and other regions) and in the forests of the Russian Far East. A new report, on illegal logging in Siberia and the Russian Far East and the resulting trade with China, clarifies the scale of this problem. This report is another result of NGO monitoring, having been produced by BROC (Vladivostok), Friends of the Siberian Forests (Krasnoyarsk) and Forests Monitor (UK). It can be found at: www.forestsmonitor.org/reports/russia/twetoc.htm
Implementation of the CBD in Russia depends on the government recognising the high quality of information on forests that is produced by the country's NGOs, and taking action on the problems that they identify.
Top Ten CBD Action Points for Russia
The following 10 activities from the proposed CBD work programme for 2002-2012 should be top priority for effective CBD implementation in Russia.
Develop and implement appropriate mechanisms for the participation of all stakeholders in ecosystem-level planning and management.
Identify policies, practices and measures aimed at addressing the causes and reducing impacts on forest biological diversity resulting from human-induced uncontrolled/unwanted fires, often associated with land clearing and other land use activities.
Establish ecological corridors on a national and regional basis.
Support activities of indigenous and local communities involving the use of traditional forest-related knowledge in biodiversity management.
Provide information on a voluntary basis to enable a better comprehension of the effects of illegal logging, exploitation of other forest resources and associated trade, as well as on the underlying causes, on forest biological diversity. On the basis of dissemination of this information countries may decide to take relevant measures such as enforcement actions.
Develop methods and build capacity for effective law enforcement.
Develop, test and disseminate methods for valuing forest biological diversity and other forest ecosystem goods and services and for incorporating these values into forest planning and management, including through stakeholder analysis and mechanisms for transferring costs and benefits.
Elaborate and implement economic incentives promoting forest biological diversity conservation and sustainable use.
Increase awareness of the value of forest biological diversity amongst public authorities and decision makers through specific information and training actions.
Develop and apply national forest ecosystem classification systems and maps that include key components of forest biological diversity to be used in assessment reports on forest types including socio-economic and cultural aspects.
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| | Contact
Andrei Laletin, Friends of the Siberian Forests |
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