FOREST AND FORESTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS Dmitry Krasovsky 1 Description of the forest fund of the Republic of Belarus Characteristics Unit Total in the Republic of Belarus Including in the Ministry of Forestry Total area of the Forest Fund million ha 9,40 8,04 Forest lands million ha 8,56 7,31 % 91,1 90,9 Forest covered lands million ha 7,96 6,89 % 84,7 85,7 Total stock of forest stands million m³ 1 534,8 1 332,8 Including mature and overmature million m³ 187,9 155,9 % 12,2 11,7 2 1
Age structure of the forest fund 3 Species composition of the forest fund 4 2
Forestry management organization structure The Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Belarus State Forestry Production Associations (6) State forestry enterprises (95) Forestries (822) 5 Forest fund distribution among ministries and institutions Name of the ministries, organizations area, 1,000 ha % of the total area Number of legal entities engaged in forestry management Ministry of Forestry 8 044,7 85,5 95 Ministry of Defense 89,7 1 2 Ministry for Emergency Situation 216,4 2,3 1 Ministry of Education 27,5 0,3 2 President Administrative Department 749,7 8 8 Academy of Sciences 41,2 0,4 3 Local authorities 36,2 0,4 4 Joint stock company Vitebskdrev 198,8 2,1 1 Total 9 404,7 100 116 6 3
Wood harvesting in the forests of the Ministry of Forestry in all types of fellings in 2009 by different harvesters 15% 22% 63% Ministry of Forestry Concern "Bellesbumprom" Other 7 Forest harvesting Total in the Including in the Republic of Belarus Ministry of Forestry Total wood harvesting, thousand m³ 13217,5 11897,6 Including: Harvesting of mature wood, thousand m³ 6033,8 5397,4 Intermediate fellings, thousand m³ 4403,9 3860,2 Other fellings, thousand m³ 2779,8 2640,0 Reforestation and aforestation, thousand ha Plantations of rapidly growing species for fuel and energetic purposes, ha 33,0 29,0 308 306 4
Distribution of the forest standard in the Republic of Belarus to location and functions 9 Socially oriented forestry Population has a right of free access to the territory of forest fund and free of charge collection of wild fruits, berries, nuts, mushrooms, other nutritive forest resources, medicinal and technical materials for own needs, and to participate in events organized on the territory of forest fund. Timber for own needs of rural population is sold on the basis of fixed prices which are lower than market prices. Citizens, public organizations and local authorities have a right to participate, with the help of local referendums, meetings and in other forms, in consideration of issues, which touch upon their interests, of purposive amendment (transformation) of lands under the forest, in case of restriction of forest utilization because of allocation of specially protected territories and in other cases. In the process of preparation of cardinal decisions in the field of organization of forest utilization, marketing of timber, etc., drafts of new documents are discussed with participation of all stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations, public societies, business cycles, private businessmen. 10 5
Problems of the Forest of the Republic of Belarus low specific gravity of mature stands; irrational structure of species in the forests; incomplete usage of allowable cutting due to lack of forest roads of annually, of softwood species because of absence of corresponding equipment for their processing, absence of machinery for collection, transportation and chipping of firewood and logging residue into a fuel wood for the production of heat and electric energy; absence of contemporary machinery for reforestation, harvesting and intermediate fellings in the forests; ineffective structure of forestry management, consisted of the set of production functions, concerned to harvesting, sale of timber and forestry management; not high level of income in the forestry because of low prices on timber. 11 To avoid problems in the forestry it is necessary to align age structure and optimize species structure of forests by the rational forest utilization; optimize the area of specially protected nature territories; involve all available resources within allowable cutting, including secondary resources (nonwood resources); use completely all logging residue, raw waste lumber and processing residue; modernize equipment of forestry enterprises, develop new and existing factories, producing fuel wood; construct not less than 100 km of forest roads every year develop an economic and organizing mechanism of forest management by dividing of industry and forestry activity of forestry enterprises and the system of government control; develop sales of logged timber at the exchange auction; involve investments into development of forestry. 12 6