Surveys of biologically valuable forests
in NW Russian southern taiga

Info-letter 1

January 3, 2007


Start of the project Development and application of survey methodologies for biologically valuable forests south of the taiga

Background
Safeguarding the biodiversity is and will be an important issue in the environment protection field for years to come. In European forest ecosystems intensified logging represent a threat to sensitive forest fauna and forest flora.

To prevent impoverishment of forest biodiversity the network of protected areas need to be improved and the forestry need to develop responsible practice. More than 20 federal protected areas are situated in the North-West Russia; only in Leningrad region the total number of regional protected areas is 37, with the total area 458 818 ha. At present time there is a need of improvement of the protected areas zoning system. On the other side the forestry has taken many steps towards responsible practice through the certification (e. g. FSC).

For both these processes it is necessary to have information on where forests of high nature conservation value are situated and data on these forests. And it is here this project aims to contribute.

What are we aiming for?
Our intention is to contribute to the development of a cost-efficient and fast method to map and describe forests with high nature conservation value south of the Russian taiga. The method will include different ways of pre-selection of potentially valuable forests, criteria and indicators to assess these forests in the fields, ways to document the values and to compile the result. We will in particular focus on biological values specific to southern boreal, boreo-nemoral and nemoral forests. To test the method 7 pilot areas in Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions will be surveyed. In the project we will also train surveyors and survey instructors. The method will be presented in illustrated manuals. We will strive to get the method used and implemented in all relevant levels in forest and protected area management.

Project partners and project organisation
This is a joint Russian-Swedish project with four main partners:

Administration of Leningrad Region, Committee on Natural Resources and Environment Protection
The Federal Forestry Agency, The Forestry Agency for Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg
Baltic Fund for Nature of St. Petersburg Naturalists Society
Swedish Forest Agency

The terms of the participation of the Federal Forestry Agency remains to be specified due to the reorganisational activities in the forestry sector.

The project leaders will be:

Nadia Alexeeva, Baltic Fund for Nature of SPNS
Leif Andersson, Pro Natura contracted by the Swedish Forest Agency

Project managers and assigned responsible persons:

Bo Thor, Swedish Forest Agency
Daniel Thorell, Swedish Forest Agency
Vladimir Dievsky, Administration of Leningrad Region, Committee on Natural Resources and Environment Protection

A Steering committee will be formed constituted by the responsible authorities. To supervise the project activities a Scientific committee will be assigned. The Scientific committee will be constituted by persons with long experiences in forest surveys and other fields of importance for this project. The methodology development will be made by workgroups constituted of specialists.

The project is funded by Swedish Environmental Protection Agency from the Swedish side and from Administration of Leningrad Region, Committee on Natural Resources and Environment Protection and The Federal Forestry Agency, The Forestry Agency for Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg from the Russian side.

Cooperation with other initiatives
Mapping of forests with high nature conservation value has for some years been made in different scales in European Russia. Most attention, at least internationally, is the mapping of Intact Forest Landscapes made by Green Peace Russia, Biodiversity Conservation Centre, Moscow and Socio-ecological Union, Moscow. In Komi a Model forest was established in 1997 and a vast survey of pristine forests has taken place. In Pskov region WWF has also established a Model forest where more rational and economic forestry methods have been introduced as well as a method of key habitat survey. In many other regions there are ongoing initiatives to map forests with high nature conservation value. It is our intention to integrate the experiences made in these projects and as much as possible make our work compatible with their forms and methods.

Contacts
We plan to send out regular info-letters as our project is progressing. If you have questions of any sort you can contact one of the following:

Leif Andersson (leif.andersson@pro-natura.net)
Nadia Alexeeva (nadia_alekseeva@bfn.org.ru)
Lyudmila Pluysch, Administration of Leningrad Region, Committee on Natural Resources and Environment Protection (pluysch77@mail.ru)

If you don’t want these info-letters from the project you can contact anyone of these persons and then we will delete you from the mailing list.

The following persons can also give information on the project:

Bo Thor, Swedish Forest Agency (bo.thor@skogsstyrelsen.se)
Daniel Thorell, Swedish Forest Agency (daniel.thorell@skogsstyrelsen.se)
Tommy Ek, County Board of Östergötland, Sweden (tommy.ek@e.lst.se)
Björn Nordén, University of Göteborg, Sweden (bjorn.norden@botany.gu.se)