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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

China's Demand for Timber Fuels Clear-cutting in Siberia

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

07/30/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

A huge area of Russian frontier forest is to be opened to clear-

cutting. China's demand for timber after over exploiting its own

resources is growing and seemingly insatiable. China (or for that

matter any country) must not be allowed to import timber that was

industrially harvested from the World's dwindling ancient forests.

g.b.

P.S. My apologies for unusually high traffic volume. While I strive

to be selective, as it periodically does, a lot is happening right now

as the forest conservation movement is moving rapidly and making huge

strides. The fate of large frontier forests is being determined now.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: China's Demand for Timber Fuels Clear-

cutting in Siberia

Source: Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.

Date: July 27, 2000

By: Danielle Knight

CHITA, RUSSIA, July 27 (IPS) - To the alarm of local environmental

watchdogs, the regional forestry authorities have allowed a large

area of pristine Siberian forest to be clear-cut to satisfy China's

demand for timber.

According to the regional Forest Service office here in Chita, an area

of 490,000 hectares along the Argun river bordering China is being

rented to several Russian logging companies, including Kluchi and

Epos, which will then allow Chinese companies to manage the logging

operations.

Most of this area is frontier or untouched forest and about 80 to 85

percent of it will be cleared within five years, according to Eugene

Atamankin, deputy director of the Chita Forest Service.

He says that in general Chinese logging companies are more

conscientious about the environment than Russian companies and they

obey the forestry laws. They often replant a clear-cut area, adds

Atamankin.

Various trade routes have been created along the border near this area

to allow the timber across. Most of the logging and hauling is done in

winter when the river is frozen over since there are no bridges over

the Argun in the area.

Atamankin says Russian companies are currently preparing a business

plan for the creation of a river barge operation to haul the wood

across the river, a proposal that has stunned and outraged local

environmental groups.

''Of course we are opposed to their opening up frontier forest,'' says

Inga Zinovieva, director of the Dauria Ecological Centre, a local

environmental organisation based here, that only recently found out

about the proposal.

Zinovieva is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) representative on

the local advisory board on forest resource issues, but had heard

nothing about the proposal before.

''This just shows how little information is available to us and that

the vast majority of Chita's forests are under threat today and at any

time could be logged,'' she says.

Zinovieva says she will bring her concerns about the new logging

concession before the next advisory board meeting and try to at least

ensure that an environmental impact assessment is done.

One the problems with this project, according to Dave Martin, co-

ordinator of the Siberian programme for the California-based Pacific

Environment and Resources Center (PERC), is that local authorities do

not have the resources to ensure that the Chinese companies reforest

the land.

''There is no guarantee that they will fulfil their obligation because

they are only there for five years and will then leave the area,'' he

says.

Demand for Russian timber products has increased since 1998 when China

established new domestic forest conservation laws which so far have

been well enforced. Several years ago China was forced to overhaul its

forestry laws after a half-century of exploitation led to disastrous

levels of soil erosion and catastrophic flooding.

Just north of the world's most populous nation lies one of the Earth's

largest intact tract of pristine forest. Known as the Russian Taiga,

the seemingly endless expanse of trees stretches from the Ural

mountains to the Pacific Ocean and represents 54 percent of the

world's coniferous forests and about 26 percent of its remaining

frontier forests.

The Taiga provides habitat for a vast array of rare and endangered

species, including the Siberian tiger, the Amur leopard, brown bear

and Japanese crane.

Siberia is also prone to forest fires which destroy five times as many

trees as are lost to logging. Travelling along the trans- Siberian

railway you can see whole hillsides of dead forests, the result of

uncontrolled burning.

After forest fires, logging is one of the key threats to Siberia's

forests. According to a report released in June by the international

environmental group Greenpeace, about one-fifth of logging in Russia

is illegal.

Here in the region of Chita, forester Atamankin says the problem is

not with large corporations, which are easier to monitor, but with

small scale operators who contract with Chinese timber buyers. There

are about four registered large logging companies in the region and an

estimated 480 small operators.

According to Zinovieva, local newspapers carry many advertisements

seeking timber harvesters. ''These ads are placed by Russian middlemen

who then sell illegally to Chinese buyers,'' she says.

Atamankin says that while it is possible to monitor the operations of

larger companies such as Kluchi, it is impossible for the forestry

service to keep track of all of the small independent dealers.

''It's definitely a problem,'' he told IPS. ''We don't have the

resources to monitor the whole region and we don't have the situation

under control.''

Atamankin and Zinovieva say another obstacle lies with a lack of

federal legislation that would help the regional forest service

monitor and fine people who are illegally logging and exporting timber

to China. Right now the ability to inspect timber shipments lies with

the tax and customs authorities and is out of the Forest Service's

jurisdiction, says Atamankin.

''The current federal administration is not prioritising the issue and

lack expertise in forest issues,'' he says.

Zinovieva adds that there are currently no defined criteria for how

logging licenses are given. ''It's a very closed process which in turn

easily leads to corruption,'' she says.

Chita's Forest Service recently proposed 27 different forest

protection laws but not one of them was adopted by the regional

parliament. Now that it is an election year, Atamankin says, regional

politicians are not paying any attention to environmental issues.

In 1997, the regional government did adopt a law that would allow

about 25 percent of Chita's forests to be preserved. Currently only

about 1.5 to two percent is completely protected, says Zinovieva.

Zinovieva along with Tatyana Strizhova, a scientist with the Institute

of Natural Resources of the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy

of Sciences here in Chita, are currently working on a voluntary basis

to map out the proposed protected areas.

''They created this law, but no money was given to demarcate the

protected areas,'' says Strizhova.

She worries that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree made in May

to liquidate the two main environmental protection bodies will further

hinder this effort to create nature reserves.

The decree transferred the functions of the Russian State Committee on

Ecology and the Federal Forest Service to the Ministry of Natural

Resources, a body that environmentalists warn is more focused on

natural resource extraction, not protection.

''The decree could lead to further manipulation of Chita's natural

resources and could altogether halt the money needed to protect these

areas, '' she says. (END/IPS/EN/dk/da/00)

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