Russia's Burning Forest an Ecological Disaster

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

10/22/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Russia's forests, comprising the most expansive remaining forest

wilderness in the world, are ablaze. These fires, and the pandemic of

recent forest fires worldwide, are the inevitable result of

inappropriate forest land use practiced for centuries. Fundamental

misunderstandings regarding the nature of forest ecosystems have

intensified as industrial forest production methods have expanded.

Forests, and particularly a huge ecosystem such as the Russian taiga,

are one of the, if not the, single greatest ecological system driving

planetary life support systems. Failure to act, and act quickly with

resolve, will doom humanity and countless other species to chaotic,

spiraling environmental decline. Protect, conserve, restore and

resist! Come share and discuss your ideas regarding forest

conservation at http://forests.org/web/

g.b.

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Title: Facing Burning Forests, Russia Can't Afford a Bucket More

than 2.9 million acres have burned in what UN terms an

'ecological disaster.'

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Date: October 15, 1998

Byline: Judith Matloff, Staff writer of The Christian Science

Monitor

KHABOROVSK, RUSSIA

The smoke here was so thick that it resembled a heavy fog. Its acrid

smell spread to villages more than 1,000 miles away.

To escape the forest inferno, many animals headed into the city.

Startled residents in one apartment building found a brown bear in

their lobby.

The Siberian taiga is a pristine woodland of conifers, stretching 1.3

million square miles to Russia's Far East Pacific coast. Comprising

nearly a quarter of the planet's timber reserves, the taiga is twice

the size of the Amazon rain forest. It is one of the earth's great

lungs, generating oxygen and extracting pollutants, while providing a

refuge for endangered tigers, bears, and birds.

But huge fires have been raging unchecked in the Siberian Far East for

three months, devastating vast tracts of primeval forest. United

Nations experts who visited Sakhalin island and Khabarovsk, near the

Chinese border, this week called it a global catastrophe.

"Forest fires of such a scale fall in the category of worldwide

ecological disasters," the UN experts said.

"They bear consequences not only for the ecosystem of frontier

countries with Russia but also for a large part of the Northern

Hemisphere," the UN statement added.

These 2.2 billion acres of woodland serve as "sinks" that soak up

carbon gases that add to global warming. The forests host diverse

plant and animal life and make up the traditional homelands of nearly

200,000 indigenous people.

Now the fires, as well as illegal logging, are devastating these

woods. Environmentalists say this poses a bigger threat to the world's

environment than the destruction of forests in Brazil, Madagascar, or

Thailand.

Dry year fuels huge blazes

Forest fires in the Far East are an annual summer event, touched off

by both nature and careless humans. But this year was particularly

dry, and the autumn rains are late. In Khabarovsk, about 990,000 acres

are still blazing and 2.9 million acres have been destroyed. As much

as two-thirds of the forest on Sakhalin, an island just miles off

Japan, have burned.

"If there is no serious rain, Sakhalin's forest will disappear soon,"

says Yevgeny Usov, a spokesman for Greenpeace Russia. "The

consequences are serious."

Forest fires are difficult to control in this part of the world

because there are few roads or towns, little equipment, and scarce

funds. The fires began just as Russia's economy collapsed and the

central government is too distracted - and bankrupt - to worry about

trees.

Foreigners are filling the void. Japan pledged $40,000 in humanitarian

aid to the town of Gorky, which was ruined by fire, while foreign oil

firms working on Sakhalin have promised $50,000. But Greenpeace

estimates that total material losses in the region could top $31.5

billion.

That doesn't even take into account the ecological havoc: As much as

50 million tons of toxic carbon gasses may be emitted this year from

the forest fires. And ashes falling into Sakhalin rivers will make it

difficult for salmon to spawn. This could affect the red caviar

industry on which the impoverished region depends.

Environmentalists fighting to save endangered Siberian tigers are

glum. Protection efforts had made progress in stabilizing the wild

population at more than 400, but the fires are destroying traditional

habitats. "This means they will move closer to towns where they

inevitably will be killed by poachers," Greenpeace's Mr. Usov says.

The attention on the forest fires is obscuring another serious problem

- the smuggling of valuable cedar, elm, and ash trees to China, Korea,

and Japan.

Illegal logging has soared over the past decade, especially since

borders opened after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Russia's

pervasive corruption means that truckloads of rare wood regularly

cross the border unchecked. It can be catastrophic when the trees are

cut down in areas of permafrost, where soil remains frozen year round.

Swamps are created on which new trees cannot be planted.

Illegal logging adds to losses

Illegal logging is practically equal to forest fires in terms of its

threat to the taiga, says Vladimir Shetinin, deputy chairman of the

Primorsky region's State Committee on Environmental Protection, based

in Vladivostok.

"The real smuggling is only beginning now. Over the past three to four

years smugglers got a taste of the money they could make," he says.

Ash is one of the most valuable woods in the world, fetching up to

$800 for a small piece, says Vladimir Stegni, director of the

Primorsky regional government's Department of International Economic

Relations in Vladivostok. Cedar is banned from export because it is so

endangered. But it gets to China anyway.

Mr. Shetinin blames the economic crisis, which he says is driving

desperate men to smuggle. "Middlemen meet laid-off factory workers and

take advantage of their professional skills. This is first-class

work."

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