PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 32: Forest disturbance regimes in the circumboreal forest zone: Natural variability and implications for forest management and biodiversity conservation
Organizer(s): S Gauthier, T Kuuluvainen, and D Kneeshaw
Wednesday, August 10, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 516 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Natural disturbances and current forestry practices in European Russia.

Yaroshenko, Alexey^*,1, ¹ Greenpeace Russia, Moscow, Moscow, Russia

ABSTRACT- Natural disturbance regimes of European Russia are severely affected by land use practices of the last several thousand years, and especially of XX century. Agriculture and logging were major practices that affected the natural disturbances regimes in forests of European Russia. In the southern and middle boreal forests almost all suitable forest lands were involved in slush-and-burn agriculture or were cleared in XV-XVIII centuries. In the southern boreal more than a half of existing forests is represented by first or "first+" (transition to second) generation of trees on the abandoned agricultural lands. At least 3/4 of all forests are represented by stands of first generation after clearcuts, agricultural clearings or other human stand-replacing activities. The natural dynamics here are suppressed. Not more than 25% of all forests of European Russia have more or less natural disturbances regimes: about 15% - as large intact forest landscapes that still exist in northern parts of European Russia and along Urals, and the rest 10% - as scattered old-growth patches. In north-western part (Baltic shield) the most typical dynamics is related to repeated fires, with dominance of the multi-cohort stands of Scots pine. All other regions are characterized by long fire-return intervals, and forests here are dominated by spruce. The fire patterns seriously changed after 1920-1930 as a result of decline of slush-and-burn agriculture and change in the population structure in the North. The Russian forestry practices are designed mostly for even-aged stand management, with dominance of clearcuts. The stand management practices are overregulated, "untraditional" activities are not allowed and usually lead to high penalties. This is the reason why the special management practices aimed to biodiversity protection or imitation of natural disturbances are carried out only as small-scale experiments.

Key words: Natural disturbances, European Russia, forestry practices