Countries richest in tropical forests. Countries most endowed with water resources. Global problems of humanity
The scientific literature often describes the role of forests and forest vegetation as an integral part of the biosphere. It is usually noted that forests form the largest ecosystems on Earth, in which most of the planet’s organic matter accumulates. That they are of great importance for photosynthesis, for the normal course of processes of stabilizing the oxygen balance of the atmosphere, the absorption of carbon dioxide, as well as for maintaining soil fertility and water purity. That they are the largest repositories of the gene pool of the biosphere, a habitat for large number plants and animals, an important source of wood, food, feed, technical, medicinal and other resources. In addition to all this, forests absorb noise and many air pollutants, thereby favorably influencing the quality of the natural environment, and indirectly the mood of people who find positive emotions in communication with nature. In short, the economic, environmental, and aesthetic significance of forests is always highly valued.
To quantify the world's forest resources, as an important component of terrestrial biological resources, we use various indicators. The most important among them are indicators forest area, forest cover(proportion of forest area in the entire territory) and standing timber stock. However, when getting to know them, a rather significant difference in assessments attracts attention. If you try to compare the estimates of FAO, other international organizations and individual specialists in this field, then such a difference will be revealed quite easily. For example, various sources estimate the global forest area at 51.2 billion hectares; 43.2; 39.6; 36.0; 34.4;
30.0 billion hectares. Accordingly, there are also large differences in the indicators of forest cover on the earth's land (37%, 32, 30, 27%, etc.), as well as in indicators of wood reserves (385 billion m 3, 350, 335 billion m 3, etc.) .
This discrepancy is explained by the fact that some of these estimates relate to different categories of forest area. The highest of them relate to the area of all forest land, which, in addition to forest land itself, also includes shrubs, open areas, clearings, burnt areas, etc. The average ones correspond to a more strict approach to the definition of forest land, the lower ones - to forested land, i.e. . areas directly occupied by forests, and the lowest - to closed forests, which occupy no more than 2/3 of all forest areas and, perhaps, most accurately characterize the true forest cover of the territory. Sometimes statistics also take into account primary and secondary forests.
Table 28 gives an idea of regional differences in the distribution of the world's forest resources.
The following conclusions follow from the data presented in Table 28. Firstly, that Latin America occupies the leading place in the world in all important forest indicators. Secondly, that the CIS, North America and Africa fall into the “second echelon” according to these indicators. Thirdly, that foreign Asia, which is distinguished by high overall indicators, has - as one might expect - the lowest provision of forest resources per capita. And fourthly, that for all the main indicators included in the table, foreign Europe and Australia with Oceania close the ranking of large regions.
Table 28
DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORLD'S FOREST RESOURCES AMONG LARGE REGIONS
* Without CIS countries.
Along with the distribution of the world's forest resources across large regions of the world, their distribution across the main forest belts is also of great interest (Fig. 24). Figure 24 clearly shows the distribution of coniferous forests of the cold zone (or coniferous boreal forests), stretching in a wide strip across the northern parts of Eurasia and North America. To the south lies a belt of mixed temperate forests. Forests of dry areas are most characteristic of Africa (where they are represented by sparse forests and shrubs of the savannah zone), but are also found in North and South America and Australia. Equatorial rain forests grow in a belt of consistently high temperatures and heavy rainfall north and south of the equator. Their main massifs are located in the Amazon and Congo river basins, as well as in South and Southeast Asia. Tropical rain forests are generally much less well preserved and should be sought only in isolated areas of Central and South America, Africa and South Asia. Finally, warm temperate rainforests occur in isolated, fairly large areas in North and South America, East Asia, and Australia.
Rice. 24. Schematic map of the world’s forests (according to I. S. Malakhov): 1 – coniferous forests of the cold zone; 2 – mixed forests of the temperate zone; 3 – forests of dry areas; 4 – equatorial rain forests; 5 – tropical rainforests; 6 – moist forests of the warm temperate zone
Figure 24 also provides the basis for a more generalized approach to identifying forest belts, which is more often used in educational literature. It consists of combining them into two main forest belts of the Earth– northern and southern, which are separated by a wide belt of arid territories.
Square northern forest belt– 2 billion hectares (including 1.6 billion hectares under a closed tree stand and 0.4 billion hectares under shrubs and open forests). The largest forest areas in this belt are located within Russia, Canada, and the USA. Coniferous trees occupy 67% of the total forest area, and deciduous trees - 33%. The diversity of species in the forests of the northern zone is not so great: for example, in foreign Europe there are approximately 250 species of trees and shrubs. Wood growth also occurs rather slowly. Thus, in the coniferous forests of Russia, on average, 1.3 m 3 grows per 1 hectare per year, in Finland - 2.3 m 3, in the USA - 3.1 m 3. In the mixed forest zone this increase is noticeably greater.
Square southern forest belt– also approximately 2 billion hectares, but 97% of it consists of broad-leaved forests. At the same time, half of the entire forest area is occupied by tall-stemmed forest, and the rest is accounted for by low-density sparse forest, shrubs, and forest fallow. In the southern forest belt, the tree stand is much more diverse than in the northern one: in all tropical forests per 1 hectare you can find more than 100 and even 200 different species of trees. The average annual growth of wood per 1 hectare here is several times greater than in the forests of the northern zone. And the average stock of standing timber reaches 250 m 3 /ha, which is tens of times higher than the stock in some types of forests in the northern zone. Therefore, the total supply of wood in the forests of the southern belt is greater.
Naturally, countries with the largest forest areas should be sought within either the northern or southern forest belts (Fig. 25). These same belts also include countries with the highest forest cover: in the northern belt these are primarily Finland and Sweden, and in the southern belt - Suriname and Guyana in Latin America, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, Papua New Guinea in Oceania.
Russia is the richest country in forest resources in the world. From Figure 25 it follows that this applies to both its forested and forested area (the latter is 22.1% of the world). The total timber reserves in Russian forests—82 billion m3—exceed those of any major foreign region, with the exception of Latin America. This means that Russia accounts for more than 1/5 of the world's timber reserves, including almost 1/2 of the coniferous timber reserves. According to the corresponding per capita indicators (5.2 hectares and 560 m3), it is second only to Canada. However, Russia's forest resources are distributed very unevenly across its vast territory: almost 9/10 of the entire forested area is located in the taiga zone, especially within Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
Rice. 25. Top ten countries by forest area
26. Problems of deforestation
Deforestation(deforestation) is the loss of forest due to natural causes or as a result of economic activity person.
The process of anthropogenic deforestation actually began 10 thousand years ago, during the era neolithic revolution and the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding, and continues to this day. According to existing estimates, during the era of this revolution, 62 billion hectares (62 million km 2) of the earth's land were covered with forests, and taking into account shrubs and coppice - 75 billion hectares, or 56% of its entire surface. If we compare the second of these figures with the modern one, which was given above, it is not difficult to conclude that the forest cover of the land during the formation and development of human civilization has decreased by half. A spatial reflection of this process is shown in Figure 26.
This process took place in a certain and understandable geographical sequence. Thus, forests were first cleared in the areas of the ancient river civilizations of Western Asia, India, Eastern China, and in the era of ancient civilization - in the Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages, widespread deforestation began in foreign Europe, where until the 7th century. they occupied 70–80% of the entire territory, also on the Russian Plain. In the 17th–19th centuries, with the beginning of industrial revolutions, active industrial and urban development, as well as with the further development of agriculture and livestock raising, the process of deforestation most affected Europe and North America, although it also affected some other regions of the world. As a result, only in 1850–1980. The area of forests on Earth has decreased by another 15%.
Rice. 26. Change in the area covered by forest vegetation during the existence of civilization (according to K. S. Losev)
Deforestation continues at a rapid pace today: annually it occurs on an area of approximately 13 million hectares (these figures are comparable to the size of entire countries, for example Lebanon or Jamaica). The main reasons for deforestation remain the same. This is the need to increase agricultural land and areas intended for industrial, urban and transport development. This is also a constant increase in the need for commercial and firewood (about 1/2 of all wood produced in the world is used for fuel). That is why the volume of timber harvesting is increasing all the time. Thus, in 1985, its global indicator was approximately 3 billion m 3, and by 2000 it increased to 4.5–5 billion m 3, which is comparable to the entire annual increase in wood in the world's forests. But we must also remember the damage that fires, acid rain and other negative consequences of human activity cause to forest vegetation.
However, it must be taken into account that the geographical distribution of deforestation has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Its epicenter moved from the northern to the southern forest belt.
Economically developed countries, located within the northern forest belt, thanks to rational forestry management, the situation as a whole can be assessed as relatively prosperous. Forest areas in this belt have not only not been declining recently, but have even increased somewhat. This was a consequence of the implementation of a system of measures for the conservation and reproduction of forest resources. It includes not only control over the natural regeneration of forests, which is characteristic primarily of the taiga forests of North America and Eurasia, but also artificial afforestation, used in countries (primarily European) with previously cleared and unproductive forests. Nowadays, the volume of artificial reforestation in the northern forest belt already reaches 4 million hectares per year. In most countries of Europe and North America, as well as in China, timber growth exceeds annual cuttings.
This means that everything said above about increasing deforestation applies mainly to the southern forest belt, where this process takes on environmental disaster ugh. Moreover, the forests of this belt, as is well known, perform the most important function of the “lungs” of our planet and it is in them that more than half of all species of fauna and flora present on Earth are concentrated.
Rice. 27. Death of tropical forests in developing countries ah in 1980–1990 (according to "Rio-92")
The total area of tropical forests by the early 1980s. still amounted to about 2 billion hectares. In America they occupied 53% of the total area, in Asia - 36, in Africa - 32%. These forests, located within more than 70 countries, are usually divided into evergreen and semi-deciduous forests of the constantly humid tropics and deciduous and semi-deciduous forests and tree-shrub formations of the seasonally humid tropics. The category of tropical rainforests includes approximately 2/3 of all tropical forests in the world. Almost 3/4 of them come from just ten countries - Brazil, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru, Colombia, India, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, Venezuela and Myanmar.
However, then the deforestation of the southern belt accelerated: in UN documents, the speed of this process was first estimated at 11, and then began to be estimated at 15 million hectares per year (Fig. 27). Statistics show that only in the first half of the 1990s. More than 65 million hectares of forests were cut down in the southern zone. According to some estimates, the total area of tropical forests has already decreased by 20–30% in recent decades. This process is most active in Central America, in the northern and southeastern parts of South America, in Western, Central and Eastern Africa, in South and Southeast Asia. (Fig. 28).
This geographic analysis can be extended to the level of individual countries. (Table 29). Following the top ten “record-breaking” countries, representing almost all the regions noted above, are Tanzania, Zambia, the Philippines, Colombia, Angola, Peru, Ecuador, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Vietnam, etc. As for the forest losses of individual countries, not expressed in absolute and in relative terms, the “leaders” here are Jamaica (7.8% of forests were cleared there per year), Bangladesh (4.1), Pakistan and Thailand (3.5), Philippines (3.4 %). But in many other countries of Central and South America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, such losses amount to 1–3% per year. As a result, in El Salvador, Jamaica, and Haiti, almost all tropical forests have actually already been destroyed; in the Philippines, only 30% of primary forests have been preserved.
Rice. 28. Countries with the largest annual volumes of tropical forest clearing (according to T. Miller)
Can be called three main reasons leading to deforestation in the southern forest belt.
The first is to clear land for urban, transport and especially slash-and-burn agriculture, which still employs 20 million families in tropical forests and savannas. Slash-and-burn agriculture is believed to be responsible for the destruction of 75% of the forest area in Africa, 50% of the forests in Asia and 35% of the forests in Latin America.
Table 29
TOP TEN COUNTRIES BY AVERAGE ANNUAL FOREST CLEARANCE
The second reason is the use of wood as fuel. According to the UN, 70% of the population of developing countries use firewood for heating their homes and cooking. In many countries of Tropical Africa, in Nepal, in Haiti, their share in the fuel used reaches 90%. The rise in oil prices on the world market in the 1970s. led to the fact that forests began to be cut down (primarily in Africa and South Asia) not only in the near but also in the distant surroundings of cities. In 1980, approximately 1.2 billion people in developing countries lived in areas experiencing firewood shortages, and by 2005 this number had risen to 2.4 billion.
The third reason is the increasing export of tropical wood from Asia, Africa and Latin America to Japan, Western Europe and the USA, its use for the needs of the pulp and paper industry.
The poor, and especially the poorest developing countries, are forced to do this in order to at least slightly improve their balance of payments, burdened by debts to the rich countries of the North. Many believe that they cannot be blamed for such a policy. For example, at the opening of the IX Forestry Congress held in Paris in 1991, then-President of France François Mitterrand said: “What right do we have to reproach the population of tropical regions, for example, for contributing to the destruction of forests when they are forced to do so in order to just get by."
To prevent the complete destruction of tropical forests already in the 21st century. Urgent and effective measures are needed. Among possible ways For the reproduction of forest areas in the southern zone, the greatest effect, perhaps, can be achieved by the creation of forest plantations specifically designed for growing highly productive and fast-growing tree species, such as eucalyptus. The existing experience in creating such plantations shows that they allow one to grow 10 times more valuable timber than, say, European forests. At the end of the 1990s. Such plantations worldwide already occupied 4.5 million hectares, of which 2 million hectares were in Brazil.
At the World Conference on environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, a Statement of Principles on Forests was adopted as a special document.
Many of the problems listed above are also relevant for Russia, despite its wealth of forest resources. With a formal approach to this issue, there is no reason for any concern. Indeed, the country's estimated logging area is 540 million m3, but approximately 100 million m3 is actually cut down. However, these are average figures that do not take into account the differences between the European part of the country, where the estimated logging area is often exceeded, and the Asian part, where it is underutilized. It is also necessary to take into account the significant loss of forest plantations, primarily due to forest fires (15 million hectares in 2006). Therefore, Russia is taking measures for rational forest management and reproduction of forest resources. Now the area under forests is not decreasing, but growing.
How does Russia compare to other countries with significant forest reserves? This issue was addressed by scientists from the All-Russian Research Institute of Forestry and Forestry Mechanization (VNIILM), who conducted their own analysis of the processes occurring in Russia and abroad. As a basis for the study, the scientists used the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Global Forest Resources Assessment databases.
The list of countries chosen for comparison with Russia includes 14 states and reflects the diversity of natural and climatic conditions. Of course, many of the data underlying the study are controversial in the scientific world, since the calculation methods used in different countries often do not coincide, and therefore do not allow for correct comparative analysis. It is no coincidence that VNIILM specialists turned to the database of an international organization, which, although not indisputable, makes it possible to compare different countries in a single coordinate system. The result is the following picture.
The total forest area of the Earth is just over 4 billion hectares. The top three richest forest countries are Russia, Brazil and Canada. Moreover, the forested areas in Russia are 1.5 times larger than the area of the Brazilian jungle.
When it comes to how forests are changing, one of the most dynamic countries is China. From 2000 to 2010, the forest area here increased by 30 million hectares. But Brazil lost 26 million hectares of forest during this period. Russian Federation demonstrates rare stability: over the past 20 years the numbers have not changed either positive or negative.
“The high level of wood imports into China has increased pressure on natural forests in neighboring countries,” Russian scientists believe. As a result, between 2000 and 2005, the countries of Southeast Asia lost more than 14 million hectares of virgin forests, which were replaced by forest plantations. According to forecasts, if nothing changes, then in 10 years the virgin forests of Southeast Asia may be completely destroyed.
The universal assessment of forest resources at the national level is forest cover. Finland boasts the maximum forest cover (73%), followed by Sweden (69%) and Malaysia and Brazil (62%). The situation is worse than others in Uruguay (10%). Russia, with a forest cover of 49%, is in the middle of the list. Over the past 20 years, forest cover has declined in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia. In other countries, on the contrary, this figure has increased, especially over the past five years.
According to recent estimates, the global timber supply is 527 billion cubic meters. Brazil leads the way with a reserve of 126 billion cubic meters, followed by Russia (81.5 billion cubic meters) and the United States (47 billion cubic meters). These top three account for 60 percent of the world's timber reserves. While in other countries this figure shows stability, in Brazil it has increased by 64 percent over the past five years. VNIILM specialists attribute this to the completion of the forest inventory process, carried out according to the FAO methodology. Most likely, according to VNIILM experts, after the completion of the first stage of the state forest inventory in Russia, this figure will also shoot up.
The largest reserves of wood per 1 hectare were recorded in New Zealand (434 cubic meters), Germany (315 cubic meters) and Brazil (243 cubic meters). Russia, with an indicator of 101 cubic meters per 1 hectare, ranks ninth. As Russian scientists note, Germany's excellent school of forestry and the high quality of forest crops created after the Second World War allowed Germany to reach second place.
The conservation of biological diversity is usually associated with the area of specially protected natural areas. In general, the area of protected areas on the planet increased from 1990 to 2010 by 94 million hectares. But, for example, in Indonesia and Malaysia, on the contrary, it decreased. The largest forest areas under state protection are in Brazil, where protected areas occupy 89.5 million hectares. In Russia, according to international organizations, protected areas occupy 17.5 million hectares. But these are only parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries of federal significance. If we take into account all forests with restrictions on forest use, this is almost 25 percent of the entire forest fund area of Russia.
The state of the forestry industry is characterized by the volume of timber harvested. For many years, the United States remained the leader in this issue. Against the background of the world economic crisis In America and European countries there is a decline in logging, and in the United States it decreased by 59 percent. The crisis influenced the change of leader, which in 2010 became India with a timber harvest of 332 million cubic meters. The United States, slightly behind, takes second place, while Russia traditionally holds fifth position.
But if everything is not so bad with volumes, then the efficiency of logging is “limping” on both legs. While in Uruguay 6.9 cubic meters of wood are removed from one hectare, in Germany and India - 4.9 cubic meters, in Sweden 2.6 cubic meters, in Finland 2.3, in Russia - only 0.2 cubic meters. Only Australia demonstrates a similarly low efficiency rate. According to Russian scientists, the main reason for this situation is the limited number of economically interesting forests, which leads to the need to increase logging areas.
But we are still the first in some things. According to FAO, Russia has the largest area of forests (71.4 million hectares) that perform protective functions. China (more than 60 million hectares) and Brazil (42 million hectares) help us maintain the ecological well-being of the planet.
Forest area is the area occupied by trees of natural propagation or planted stands of at least 5 meters in height. Garden areas, other agricultural trees, and trees in city parks and gardens are excluded. The area of forest land for each country excludes all plantations within any settlements(cities and villages). The countries with the largest forest area are shown below.
The list of countries by forest area includes all countries in the world, sorted by total area their forests (in square kilometers). The table also shows data on what percentage of the total area of the country is occupied by forests - this indicator makes it possible to determine the most forested countries in the world. Despite the fact that less than 50% of the area in Russia is covered with forests, due to the large area of the country as a whole, Russia is the world leader in forest resources. However, the most forested regions are the regions of Central Africa and South America. The countries most endowed with forest resources besides Russia are Brazil, Canada, USA, China, DR Congo. According to the UN, the world's total forest area at the end of 2015 was 39,991,336.2 km², or about 30.8% of the world's total land area (excluding Antarctica).
The source of the data below is, which collects data from national statistical agencies and from specialized international agencies for the protection and accounting of the planet's forests. In compiling the current table, data from two World Bank tables was used: “ Forest area (% of land area)" And " Forest area (sq. km)". All data on the total forest area are given as of the end 2016 year (the most recent data at the moment). Also attached below is a map of European forests and a map of world forests.
| № | A country | % of country area | Forest area, km2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 49,76% | 8 148 895 |
| 2 | Brazil | 58,93% | 4 925 540 |
| 3 | Canada | 38,16% | 3 470 224 |
| 4 | USA | 33,93% | 3 103 700 |
| 5 | China | 22,35% | 2 098 635 |
| 6 | DR Congo | 67,17% | 1 522 666 |
| 7 | Australia | 16,26% | 1 250 590 |
| 8 | Indonesia | 49,86% | 903 256 |
| 9 | Peru | 57,66% | 738 054 |
| 10 | India | 23,83% | 708 604 |
| 11 | Mexico | 33,92% | 659 484 |
| 12 | Colombia | 52,70% | 584 750 |
| 13 | Angola | 46,31% | 577 312 |
| 14 | Bolivia | 50,29% | 544 750 |
| 15 | Zambia | 65,20% | 484 684 |
| 16 | Venezuela | 52,74% | 465 186 |
| 17 | Tanzania | 51,58% | 456 880 |
| 18 | Mozambique | 47,98% | 377 336 |
| 19 | Papua New Guinea | 74,10% | 335 562 |
| 20 | Myanmar | 43,63% | 284 946 |
| 21 | Sweden | 68,92% | 280 730 |
| 22 | Argentina | 9,80% | 268 152 |
| 23 | Japan | 68,46% | 249 564 |
| 24 | Gabon | 90,04% | 232 000 |
| 25 | Congo | 65,35% | 223 186 |
| 26 | Finland | 73,11% | 222 180 |
| 27 | Malaysia | 67,60% | 222 092 |
| 28 | CAR | 35,56% | 221 544 |
| 29 | Sudan | 0,00% | 190 355 |
| 30 | Laos | 82,11% | 189 506 |
| 31 | Cameroon | 39,34% | 185 960 |
| 32 | Spain | 36,94% | 184 520 |
| 33 | Chile | 24,26% | 180 358 |
| 34 | France | 31,23% | 171 020 |
| 35 | Guyana | 83,90% | 165 160 |
| 36 | Thailand | 32,16% | 164 290 |
| 37 | Suriname | 98,26% | 153 282 |
| 38 | Paraguay | 37,75% | 149 976 |
| 39 | Vietnam | 48,06% | 149 020 |
| 40 | Zimbabwe | 35,54% | 137 496 |
| 41 | Ethiopia | 12,54% | 125 396 |
| 42 | Ecuador | 50,21% | 124 692 |
| 43 | Madagascar | 21,41% | 124 570 |
| 44 | Mongolia | 8,02% | 124 555 |
| 45 | Norway | 33,18% | 121 140 |
| 46 | Türkiye | 15,35% | 118 174 |
| 47 | Germany | 32,69% | 114 210 |
| 48 | Botswana | 18,95% | 107 378 |
| 49 | Iran | 6,56% | 106 920 |
| 50 | Ivory Coast | 32,71% | 104 006 |
| 51 | New Zealand | 38,56% | 101 522 |
| 52 | Ukraine | 16,71% | 96 788 |
| 53 | Poland | 30,88% | 94 562 |
| 54 | Ghana | 41,16% | 93 654 |
| 55 | Italy | 31,79% | 93 508 |
| 56 | Cambodia | 52,85% | 93 296 |
| 57 | South Africa | 7,62% | 92 410 |
| 58 | Belarus | 42,63% | 86 534 |
| 59 | Philippines | 27,77% | 82 800 |
| 60 | Senegal | 42,76% | 82 330 |
| 61 | South Sudan | 29,40% | 71 570 |
| 62 | Romania | 30,12% | 69 302 |
| 63 | Namibia | 8,31% | 68 448 |
| 64 | Nigeria | 7,23% | 65 834 |
| 65 | Guinea | 25,75% | 63 280 |
| 66 | Somalia | 10,02% | 62 862 |
| 67 | South Korea | 63,35% | 61 764 |
| 68 | Morocco | 12,60% | 56 240 |
| 69 | Burkina Faso | 19,34% | 52 902 |
| 70 | North Korea | 40,73% | 49 040 |
| 71 | Chad | 3,77% | 47 484 |
| 72 | Mali | 3,80% | 46 360 |
| 73 | Panama | 61,89% | 46 006 |
| 74 | Honduras | 39,97% | 44 720 |
| 75 | Kenya | 7,82% | 44 496 |
| 76 | Benin | 37,79% | 42 610 |
| 77 | Liberia | 43,08% | 41 490 |
| 78 | Turkmenistan | 8,78% | 41 270 |
| 79 | Greece | 31,69% | 40 842 |
| 80 | Austria | 46,91% | 38 708 |
| 81 | Bulgaria | 35,37% | 38 402 |
| 82 | Nepal | 25,36% | 36 360 |
| 83 | Guatemala | 32,70% | 35 036 |
| 84 | Latvia | 53,98% | 33 564 |
| 85 | Kazakhstan | 1,23% | 33 090 |
| 86 | Cuba | 31,28% | 32 536 |
| 87 | Uzbekistan | 7,54% | 32 088 |
| 88 | Portugal | 34,61% | 31 706 |
| 89 | Great Britain | 13,07% | 31 610 |
| 90 | Malawi | 33,19% | 31 290 |
| 91 | Nicaragua | 25,88% | 31 140 |
| 92 | Sierra Leone | 43,05% | 31 076 |
| 93 | Georgia | 40,62% | 28 224 |
| 94 | Costa Rica | 54,57% | 27 862 |
| 95 | Butane | 72,48% | 27 649 |
| 96 | Serbia | 31,12% | 27 214 |
| 97 | Czech | 34,56% | 26 690 |
| 98 | Estonia | 51,34% | 22 316 |
| 99 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 42,68% | 21 850 |
| 100 | Lithuania | 34,83% | 21 820 |
| 101 | Solomon Islands | 77,86% | 21 794 |
| 102 | Hungary | 22,91% | 20 736 |
| 103 | Sri Lanka | 32,90% | 20 634 |
| 104 | Dominican Republic | 41,73% | 20 162 |
| 105 | Algeria | 0,82% | 19 636 |
| 106 | Guinea-Bissau | 69,77% | 19 620 |
| 107 | Uganda | 9,68% | 19 418 |
| 108 | Slovakia | 40,35% | 19 402 |
| 109 | Croatia | 34,35% | 19 224 |
| 110 | Uruguay | 10,67% | 18 677 |
| 111 | Equatorial Guinea | 55,49% | 15 564 |
| 112 | Eritrea | 14,91% | 15 056 |
| 113 | Pakistan | 1,85% | 14 290 |
| 114 | Bangladesh | 10,96% | 14 264 |
| 115 | Belize | 59,68% | 13 613 |
| 116 | Afghanistan | 2,07% | 13 500 |
| 117 | Switzerland | 31,83% | 12 578 |
| 118 | Slovenia | 61,97% | 12 482 |
| 119 | Azerbaijan | 14,10% | 11 656 |
| 120 | Niger | 0,89% | 11 296 |
| 121 | Tunisia | 6,77% | 10 512 |
| 122 | Fiji | 55,94% | 10 221 |
| 123 | Macedonia | 39,57% | 9 980 |
| 124 | Saudi Arabia | 0,45% | 9 770 |
| 125 | New Caledonia | 45,90% | 8 390 |
| 126 | Montenegro | 61,49% | 8 270 |
| 127 | Iraq | 1,90% | 8 250 |
| 128 | Albania | 28,12% | 7 705 |
| 129 | Ireland | 11,03% | 7 597 |
| 130 | Belgium | 22,58% | 6 838 |
| 131 | East Timor | 45,38% | 6 748 |
| 132 | Kyrgyzstan | 3,28% | 6 290 |
| 133 | Denmark | 14,70% | 6 172 |
| 134 | Swaziland | 34,34% | 5 906 |
| 135 | Yemen | 1,04% | 5 490 |
| 136 | Bahamas | 51,45% | 5 150 |
| 137 | Puerto Rico | 56,29% | 4 993 |
| 138 | Syria | 2,67% | 4 910 |
| 139 | Gambia | 48,38% | 4 896 |
| 140 | Rwanda | 19,73% | 4 868 |
| 141 | Vanuatu | 36,10% | 4 400 |
| 142 | Moldova | 12,58% | 4 136 |
| 143 | Tajikistan | 2,97% | 4 124 |
| 144 | Brunei | 72,11% | 3 800 |
| 145 | Netherlands | 11,18% | 3 766 |
| 146 | Jamaica | 30,92% | 3 348 |
| 147 | Armenia | 11,67% | 3 322 |
| 148 | UAE | 4,56% | 3 237 |
| 149 | Burundi | 10,93% | 2 806 |
| 150 | Salvador | 12,58% | 2 606 |
| 151 | Trinidad and Tobago | 46,02% | 2 361 |
| 152 | Mauritania | 0,21% | 2 210 |
| 153 | Libya | 0,12% | 2 170 |
| 154 | Cyprus | 18,69% | 1 727 |
| 155 | Samoa | 60,42% | 1 710 |
| 156 | Togo | 3,09% | 1 682 |
| 157 | Israel | 7,73% | 1 672 |
| 158 | French polynesia | 42,35% | 1 550 |
| 159 | Lebanon | 13,43% | 1 374 |
| 160 | Jordan | 1,10% | 975 |
| 161 | Haiti | 3,49% | 962 |
| 162 | Cape Verde | 22,55% | 909 |
| 163 | Luxembourg | 35,68% | 867 |
| 164 | Egypt | 0,07% | 736 |
| 165 | Micronesia | 91,86% | 643 |
| 166 | Sao Tome and Principe | 55,83% | 536 |
| 167 | Iceland | 0,50% | 505 |
| 168 | Lesotho | 1,65% | 500 |
| 169 | Dominica | 57,41% | 431 |
| 170 | Seychelles | 88,41% | 407 |
| 171 | Palau | 87,61% | 403 |
| 172 | Mauritius | 19,03% | 386 |
| 173 | Comoros | 19,67% | 366 |
| 174 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 36,21% | 344 |
| 175 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 69,23% | 270 |
| 176 | Guam | 46,30% | 250 |
| 177 | Saint Lucia | 33,18% | 202 |
| 178 | American Samoa | 87,50% | 175 |
| 179 | Virgin Islands (USA) | 49,97% | 175 |
| 180 | Grenada | 49,97% | 170 |
| 181 | Singapore | 23,06% | 164 |
| 182 | Andorra | 34,04% | 160 |
| 183 | Cayman Islands | 52,92% | 127 |
| 184 | Marshall Islands | 70,22% | 126 |
| 185 | Kiribati | 15,00% | 121 |
| 186 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 42,31% | 110 |
| 187 | Antigua and Barbuda | 22,27% | 98 |
| 188 | Palestine | 1,52% | 92 |
| 189 | Tonga | 12,50% | 90 |
| 190 | Liechtenstein | 43,13% | 69 |
| 191 | Barbados | 14,65% | 63 |
| 192 | Kuwait | 0,35% | 63 |
| 193 | Djibouti | 0,24% | 56 |
| 194 | Virgin Islands (British) | 24,13% | 36 |
| 195 | Isle Of Man | 6,07% | 35 |
| 196 | Oman | 0,01% | 20 |
| 197 | Bermuda | 18,52% | 10 |
| 198 | Maldives | 3,33% | 10 |
| 199 | Tuvalu | 33,33% | 10 |
| 200 | Bahrain | 0,78% | 6 |
| 201 | Aruba | 2,33% | 4 |
| 202 | Malta | 1,09% | 3 |
| 203 | Greenland | 0,00% | 2 |
| 204 | Faroe islands | 0,06% | 1 |
| 205 | Qatar | 0,00% | 0 |
| 206 | San Marino | 0,00% | 0 |
Graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. He defended his PhD thesis on the forests of the Basegi Nature Reserve. Since 1997, full-time employee of Greenpeace in Russia and head of the forestry department. News editor of the Greenpeace Forestry Forum, the most important independent discussion platform for Russian forestry. He worked on the creation and development of the concept of the first maps of the largest tracts of wild forest nature, and sought the creation of the Kalevalsky and Onega Pomorie national parks. Fights destructive trends in Russian forest legislation and forest fire lies.
6 minutes 06/07/2018
It was this myth that brought the greatest troubles to our forestry, becoming the ideological basis for the development of a new Forest Code in 2003-2006, which caused untold troubles to the forest sector, leading to fire disasters in the last three years, the loss of several hundred thousand jobs in the country’s forestry sector, the transformation of the main part of the country's forests into an abandoned and unprotected territory, and other similar consequences.
The myth about Russia’s fabulous forest wealth is formulated in different ways: “our country has the largest forest resources in the world,” “we account for a quarter of the world’s forests,” “the available forest resources can bring revenues to the country’s budget comparable to revenues from the oil and gas sector.” , etc. During the years of development of the new Forest Code, the speeches of most officials devoted to forest topics were filled with similar incantations. The 2006 Forest Code, which basically killed forestry, somewhat sobered up officials in terms of assessing forest resources, but clearly not to the extent of understanding the real situation.
Clear cutting of what was once an intact forest.
In reality, our forests are in their current state, and in the future for the coming decades, this is a resource of regional importance at best, important on the scale of Russia itself and neighboring countries, but which has no chance of global leadership. This is due to changes in the world's forestry sector that have occurred over the past decades and are occurring now. Timber extraction from natural forests, which dominated the world until the first half of the twentieth century, has gradually been replaced by timber harvesting from intensively farmed forests, which in turn is gradually losing ground to timber production on forest plantations, mainly in the tropics and subtropics. We are basically stuck at the stage of timber extraction, and our current forestry legislation is almost entirely focused on timber extraction, and not on the development of forestry.
The forest is not yet perceived by the state as a value.
At the same time, we have very few resources of any particularly valuable wood, which humanity has not yet learned to quickly grow in intensively maintained forests or on forest plantations. There is no particularly valuable tropical wood at all for obvious reasons; Wood reserves of valuable heat-loving hardwood species (oak, beech, ash, elm, maple, walnut, etc.) were initially small, and now they are almost completely ruined; reserves of especially valuable coniferous wood, which grew for centuries in special natural conditions and at one time gained world-class fame (“White Sea pine”, “Angarsk pine”, “resonant spruce”, etc.) also close to exhaustion. The bulk of the remaining forest resources is quite ordinary in quality wood, more or less comparable to that easily obtained from plantation forestry, and, as a rule, significantly inferior to that obtained as a result of long-term intensive forestry in the northern countries. At the same time, the yield (possible and actual) of even such industrial wood when cutting down our forests is constantly decreasing due to the increase in wood of “firewood” quality (which is a consequence of the chronic shortage of forestry). And firewood quality is not yet in sufficient demand on the world market to justify a significant increase in forest use in unkempt secondary forests in a country with a harsh investment climate, sparse and poor roads, numerous officials and an unpredictable future.
Russian-Finnish border. As a result of all this, Russia is already significantly inferior in terms of volumes and dynamics of forest use to both northern countries with developed forestry, which have long been concerned about the reproduction of their forest resources, and large southern countries developing plantation forestry. In 2011, the volume of recorded timber harvesting in Russia amounted to 197 million cubic meters, while in the European Union - 429 million, in China - 291 million, in the USA - 324 million, in Brazil - 272 million, in Indonesia - 114 million. In the total volume of recorded timber harvested in the world (3,435 million cubic meters in 2011), our country accounts for only six percent, and this share is likely to decline in the coming years. Even if we add to the official volumes of timber harvesting in our country all the harvested “worles” (about 40-60 million cubic meters), this will not change the overall picture of the matter.
Our country has enormous potential, but this potential cannot be realized quickly (faster than in 20-30 years), and in principle it cannot be realized with insane legislation, total corruption and in a collapsing state.
The fact that Russia's forests as a resource are only of regional importance and are by no means unique on a global scale means that forest sector investors will always have a choice, and at the first serious cataclysm in Russia they will generally prefer to switch to calmer countries. This has already happened in the recent past: the introduction of the Forestry Code of the Russian Federation in 2006 led to the fact that all real projects for the construction of new pulp and paper mills in Russia were frozen or canceled, and large “core” investors preferred to invest in the development of similar enterprises in South America and Southeast Asia. Most likely, this is not the last such case, and such shocks will further reduce the attractiveness and competitiveness of our country’s forest resources on a global scale, turning them even more into resources of regional or local importance.
Lazovsky Nature Reserve in Primorsky Krai. Our country has enormous potential: intensive forestry in “old-developed” forests in the most convenient and accessible areas of our country, as well as intensive (up to plantation) forest growing on vast areas of hopelessly abandoned agricultural land, combined with agroforestry in sparsely forested areas, could again make Russia one of the world's forest leaders. But this potential cannot be realized quickly (faster than in 20-30 years), and in principle it cannot be realized under insane legislation, total corruption and in the conditions of a collapsing state.
Therefore, for now, all that remains is to state the fact that our country once had the largest forest resources in the world and the greatest opportunities for the development of non-plantation forestry - but these resources have been largely depleted and opportunities have been largely missed. It will take at least two to three decades to correct the situation - but in order for the situation to even begin to improve, a lot needs to be done, starting with the introduction of reasonable forestry legislation and very large-scale measures to support intensive forestry.
Clear cutting in an intact forest in the Arkhangelsk region. The myth of Russia's fabulous forest wealth is directly related to the state's catastrophic underestimation of the importance of forestry. According to Professor M.M. Orlov, “forestry, like any other, appears only when the object of the economy, in this case the forest, loses the property of unlimited and accessible utility to everyone and becomes a value.” Ideas about fabulous forest wealth contribute to the attitude towards the forest precisely as an unlimited and accessible utility to everyone, which at the state level is most clearly manifested in the virtual absence of state forest protection, a disregard for the protection of forests from fires, pests and diseases, and in practically the lowest in the world rates of payment for the use of timber forest resources. In fact, the forest is not yet perceived by the state as a value.
