Timber-rich countries. Countries - world leaders in timber reserves

Graduated from the biological faculty of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. He defended his Ph.D. thesis on the forests of the Basegi reserve. Since 1997, a staff member of Greenpeace in Russia and head of the forestry department. News editor of the Greenpeace Forest 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, sought the creation of the Kalevalsky and Onega Pomorie national parks. Fights destructive tendencies in the 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 incalculable troubles to the forest sector, led to fire disasters of 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 a vacant and unprotected territory, and to other similar consequences.

The myth about Russia's fabulous forest wealth is formulated in different ways: "our country has the largest forest resources”, “we account for a quarter of the world's forests”, “the available forest resources can bring revenues to the country's budget comparable to those from the oil and gas sector”, etc. During the years of the development of the new Forest Code, the speeches of most officials devoted to forest topics were full of such incantations. The Forest Code of 2006, 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 felling of the once intact forest.

In reality, our forests in their state of the art, and in the future for the coming decades - this is a resource at best of regional importance, important on the scale of Russia itself and neighboring countries, but having no chance of world leadership. This is due to the changes in the forest sector of the world that have taken place over the past decades and are taking place now. The extraction of timber from natural forests, which prevailed in the world until the first half of the 20th century, was gradually replaced by timber harvesting in intensively grown forests, which, in turn, is gradually losing ground to timber production in forest plantations, mainly in the tropics and subtropics. But we are basically stuck at the stage of timber extraction, and our current forest 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 until mankind has learned how to quickly grow in intensively cared for forests or on forest plantations. There is no particularly valuable tropical timber 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 has been growing for centuries in special natural conditions and which at one time gained world-class fame (“White Sea pine”, “Angara pine”, “resonance spruce”, etc.) close to exhaustion. The main part of the remaining forest resources is quite ordinary wood in quality, more or less comparable to that which is easily obtained from plantation forestry, and, as a rule, is significantly inferior to that which is 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 commercial wood during the felling of our forests is constantly decreasing due to the increase in wood of “wood” quality (which is a consequence of the chronic lack of forestry). And firewood quality is not yet in demand on the world market enough to justify a significant increase in forest management in neglected secondary forests in a country with a harsh investment climate, sparse and bad roads, numerous officials and an unpredictable future.

As a result of all this, Russia is already losing heavily in terms of the volume and dynamics of forest management both to northern countries with developed forestry, which have long been concerned about the reproduction of their forest resources, and to large southern countries developing plantation forestry. In 2011, 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. Of the world's total recorded timber harvesting (3435 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 the entire harvested "worles" (about 40-60 million cubic meters) to the official volumes of timber harvesting in our country, this will not change the overall picture of the matter.

Our country has a gigantic potential, but this potential cannot be realized quickly (faster than in 20-30 years), and it is basically impossible to realize it under insane legislation, total corruption and in a collapsing state.

The fact that the forests of Russia as a resource have only regional significance and are by no means unique on a global scale, means that investors in the forest sector will always have a choice, and at the first major cataclysm in Russia, they will generally prefer to switch to calmer countries. This has already happened in the recent past: the introduction of the Forest 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 into resources of regional or local significance to an even greater extent.

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) forestry on vast areas of hopelessly abandoned agricultural land, combined with agroforestry in a sparsely forested zone, could again make Russia one of the forest leaders in the world. But this potential cannot be realized quickly (faster than in 20-30 years), and in principle it is impossible to realize it under insane legislation, total corruption and in a collapsing state.

Therefore, for now it remains only 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 were mostly depleted, and opportunities were mostly missed. It will take at least two or 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 forest legislation and very large-scale measures to support intensive forestry.

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, is only when the object of the economy, in this case the forest, loses the property of unlimited and accessible to all utility and becomes a value." Ideas about fabulous forest wealth contribute to the attitude to the forest precisely as to unlimited and accessible utility, which at the state level is most clearly manifested in the virtual absence of state forest protection, disregard for the protection of forests from fires, pests and diseases, and in almost the lowest in the world at rates of payment for the use of timber forest resources. In fact, the forest is not yet perceived by the state as a value.

How does Russia look compared to other countries with tangible forest reserves? Scientists of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Forestry and Forestry Mechanization (VNIILM) took care of this issue, who conducted their own analysis of the processes taking place in Russia and abroad. The scientists used the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Global Forest Resources Assessment databases as the basis for the study.

The list of countries selected 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 cause controversy in the scientific world, since the calculation methods used in different countries often do not coincide, and therefore do not allow for correct analysis. 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 unified system coordinates. The result is the following picture.

The total area of ​​the Earth's forests is just over 4 billion hectares. The top three richest forest powers are Russia, Brazil and Canada. Moreover, the forested areas in Russia are 1.5 times the area of ​​the Brazilian jungle.

If we talk about how forest areas are changing, then one of the most dynamic countries is China. From 2000 to 2010, the area of ​​forests has increased here by 30 million hectares. But Brazil during this period lost 26 million hectares of forest. the Russian Federation demonstrates rare stability: over the past 20 years, the numbers have not changed either in plus or minus.

“The high level of wood imports to China has increased the pressure on natural forests in neighboring countries,” Russian scientists say. As a result, in 2000-2005, 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 highest forest cover (73%), followed by Sweden (69%) and Malaysia and Brazil (62%). The situation is worse than others in Uruguay (10%). Russia, with 49% forest coverage, 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 indicator has increased, especially over the past five years.

According to the latest estimates, the global wood supply is 527 billion cubic meters. Brazil leads 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 three leaders account for 60 percent of the world's timber resources. While in other countries this figure shows stability, in Brazil over the past five years it has increased by 64 percent. VNIILM specialists attribute this to the completion of the forest inventory process, carried out according to the FAO methodology. Most likely, experts from VNIILM believe that after the completion of the first stage of the state inventory of forests in Russia, this indicator will also rise.

The largest wood stock per 1 hectare was 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 occupies the ninth position. According to Russian scientists, the excellent school of forestry and the high quality of forest plantations created after the Second World War allowed Germany to break into 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 has decreased. The largest forest areas under state protection are in Brazil, where protected areas cover 89.5 million hectares. In Russia, according to international organizations, protected areas occupy 17.5 million hectares. But these are only parks, reserves and reserves federal significance. If we take into account all the forests with limited forest use, this is almost 25 percent of the entire forest fund area of ​​Russia.

The state of the forest industry is characterized by the volume of timber harvesting. For many years, the United States has been the leader in this matter. Against the backdrop of global economic crisis in America and Europe, there is a drop in logging, with the United States falling by 59 percent. The crisis has affected the change of leader, which in 2010 was India with a logging figure of 332 million cubic meters. Slightly behind, the United States is in second place, while Russia traditionally holds the fifth position.

But if everything is not so bad with the volumes, then the efficiency of logging is “lame” 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 such a low efficiency indicator. According to Russian scientists, main reason similar situation— a limited number of economically interesting forests, which leads to the need to increase the area of ​​logging.

But in some ways we are still the first. According to the FAO, it is Russia that 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.

Not all countries can boast that they have a river basin at their disposal, which does not need to be shared with other states. There are countries that are best provided with water resources, and there are those where there is already an acute shortage of drinking water. Why is an independent position important?

The following example will help you understand the situation better. The Irtysh is the largest tributary of the Ob River. Its source is located on the Mongolian-Chinese border, then the Irtysh crosses China.

The length of the river in Chinese territory is five hundred kilometers. After that, it flows through Kazakhstan (more than 1700 km long) and then crosses the border of Russia, where the distance to the confluence with the Ob is almost 2000 km.

Earlier, there was an agreement between the countries on the division of the Irtysh flow. According to it, half (and this is about two billion cubic km of water) is taken by China, and half of the remaining flow is taken by Kazakhstan. This cannot but affect the full flow of the river in the section belonging to Russia.

If the river flowed through the territory of only one state, its water supply would not depend on how honestly the neighboring country. When several states participate in the division of a resource, things may not be very good.

If you look at the map of the world, it clearly shows which countries the rivers flow through, and which of them depend (or do not depend) on their neighbors. There are many more states sharing the water resource. Because of this, they are almost completely dependent on water supplies:

• Egypt, Turkmenistan, Kuwait - from 95 to 100%.
• Bangladesh, Moldova, Mauritania, Hungary - from 90 to 95%.
• Netherlands, Niger - 86–88%.

Among countries post-Soviet space water addiction looks in the following way:

1. Turkmenistan and Moldova - more than 90%.
2. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan - about 75%.
3. Ukraine, Latvia - more than 52%.
4. Lithuania, Belarus, Tajikistan - from 31 to 37%.
5. Tajikistan, Armenia - more than 31%.
6. Russia, Estonia - less than 5%.
7. Kyrgyzstan is completely independent.

If we compare water resources in terms of reserves, there are states that occupy leading positions.

Peru, Venezuela, Burma and many other states may not fear that they will be threatened by a decrease in transboundary flow.

Changes in the use of river waters

Water is needed not only for drinking and irrigation: rivers serve as transport arteries, which is very important in places where it is impossible to build highways. In addition, rivers can be a place for fishing and recreation for people, a means for generating electricity.

All is well when the rivers are all right. But this is not always possible. For example, water arteries can carry pollutants from upstream countries to downstream countries.

Due to the deterioration of the quality of river water, not only people, but also land can suffer. Vegetation, animals, birds begin to die on the banks of polluted rivers.

First of all, trees that grow near the coast die. But this does not mean that forests located remotely will not be affected. Pollution will spread either over the soil surface (during spring-autumn floods) or in its depths (by groundwater).

Significant changes in the volume or quality of river flow can result from:

1. To a change in agricultural activities and the inability to use land resources. The lack of water or the inability to use it for watering plants due to pollution will make it impossible to grow many crops for food or industry. In addition, water problems can lead to pasture drought. And the lack of animal feed will force the number of livestock to be reduced or completely destroyed. All this can eventually lead to food shortages due to the impossibility of full land use. This situation can be observed in many countries where there are no rivers.
2. To the death of forests. Forests occupy 30% of the land. In the north, coniferous species predominate, in the southern belts - tropical. Many of them grow near rivers. One such example is Brazil. More than 60 rivers flow in the vastness of this country, among which is the longest Amazon in the world. The territory of the state is covered with dense vegetation - tropical forests. Without availability the right amount moisture, in particular, rivers, it is unlikely that forest areas would be so dense. And Brazil, like other countries endowed with forest resources, occupies a leading position in terms of water reserves.
3. To global climate or environmental changes. The death of fish and animals is only part of what awaits polluted or depleted rivers. Due to the lack of water, their banks turn into a swamp, the floodplains dry up. If polluted rivers flow through settlements, the ecological situation in them deteriorates sharply.

Conclusion: today the world economy faces an acute problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. The case concerns rational use waters, especially fresh waters. It just seems that there is a lot of water on the planet.

In fact, the picture is as follows:

1. 96% of the planet's waters are in the oceans.
2. Groundwater - 2%.
3. Glaciers contain less than 2%.
4. Surface water (fresh) is about 0.03% of the total. These include river, lake and swamp waters.

If we take into account the entire volume of water, then only 0.6 percent of them is fresh water. Every year, humanity uses more than 3.5 thousand cubic meters. km of water. This number includes used for the needs Agriculture(about 66%) and for industry (more than 20%). The water of the oceans is not used either for technical needs or for drinking.

World Ocean

The oceans of the Earth contain 96% of the water reserves that are used by all countries located on their shores. Accordingly, the reserves of the World Ocean are very important for the development of the productive forces of states.

The world ocean contains:

1. Bioresources. These are phyto- and zooplankton, fish.
2. Mineral raw materials. Moreover, at the bottom of the oceans, minerals are found in large quantities.
3. Fresh water is a valuable resource that is becoming increasingly scarce. It is obtained by desalination.

In addition, the waters of the oceans:

1. They are transport links.
2. Represent energy potential.
3. They purify the substances of various origin entering them.

If humanity can fully develop the resources of the planet's oceans, it will be able to solve many problems that are currently global.

Already today, the resources of the ocean shelves are widely used. It's about about oil production. Thus, 32% of the produced oil has offshore origin, in - more than 85%. But Australia in this regard is the least rich: it receives only 50% of oil from the ocean floor.

Forest area is the area occupied by trees of natural reproduction or planted stands, according to at least, 5 meters high. Garden areas, other trees for agricultural purposes, trees of 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 in Russia less than 50% of the area is covered with forests, due to the large area of ​​the country as a whole, it is Russia that is the world leader in forest resources. However, the regions of Central Africa and South America are the most forested. 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 data source below is , which collects data from national statistical agencies and profile international agencies on the protection and accounting of the world's forests. When compiling the current table, data from two tables were used World Bank: « Forest area (% of land area)" and " Forest area (sq. km)". All data on total forest area are as of the end 2016 year (the most recent data at the moment). Also attached below is a map of the forests of Europe and a map of the forests of the world.

The article gives an idea of ​​what the concept of "forest resource" includes. The material explains what belongs to the category of non-timber forest resources. An idea is being formed about the consequences of uncontrolled deforestation.

forest resource

Forest resource - the most important species potential reserves of the biosphere. Forest resources are divided into wood and non-wood resources.
The first ones include:

• wood;
• cork.

The second type includes:

• mushrooms;
• berries;
• fruit;
• nuts;
• medicinal plants.

Since ancient times, the wood potential has been actively exploited by man as a building material and a source of fuel. And in our time, 1/2 of all harvested wood goes to making handicrafts and kindling.

The area of ​​forests in the world every year is reduced by two tens of million hectares, or by 0.5%.

Often forest plantations are called vegetable or green lungs of the planet. Thanks to forests, the earth is provided with oxygen, and also a person has the opportunity to use the gifts of nature free of charge.

TOP 1 articlewho read along with this

Depending on the species composition of the forest, tiers or classes of forest resources are distinguished. Forest resources can also be classified according to the area in which a particular type of wood is used.

Rice. 1. Ship scaffolding.

It has been proven that a spruce forest is capable of retaining up to 99% of solar radiation, and a pine forest - up to 96%.

The forest resources of the world form two belts of significant length - northern and southern.
The northern forest belt lies in the zone of temperate, cold and subtropical climate. It accounts for 1/2 of the world's forests.

Rice. 2. Forest belts of the planet.

The southern forest belt is located in the area of ​​influence of the tropical and equatorial climate. It accounts for the same part of all forests from general stock wood. Within the boundaries of these belts, the states are localized, which are characterized by the largest volumes of forest areas.

• Russia - 810 million hectares;
• China - 195 million hectares;
• Brazil - 580 million hectares;
• Australia - 165 million hectares;
• Canada - 310 million hectares;
• DR Congo 135 million ha;
• USA - 305 million hectares;
• Indonesia 116 million ha.

security individual countries forest resources is not the same. Many states of the world are actively exporting timber, especially tropical.

Global problems of mankind

The main problems of the forest are recognized as the reduction and degradation of plantations under the influence of atmospheric pollution and soils in countries with developed economies and industries.

There is a massive drying of the tops of trees, as a result of exposure to acid rain.

The rapid growth in the number of inhabitants has led to an increase in the exploitation of wood as a fuel. In the states of Tropical Africa, up to 9/10 of the inhabitants use only firewood. The territories of the southern forest belt lose more than ten million hectares of forest land every year.

Rice. 3. Tropical deforestation.

The problem of deforestation in the tropics deserves special attention. Only sustainable management of the use of forest resources will allow humanity to avoid a possible catastrophe. Vast forest lands are still used by man for arable land.

What have we learned?

We found out for what purposes the bulk of the wood harvested around the world goes. We learned which countries of the world have the most extensive forest areas. We understood what exactly negatively affects the tropical forests of the planet. They clarified the consequences of mismanagement of human activity. We received information about which of the species of coniferous trees are capable of delaying the highest percentage solar radiation.

Topic quiz

Report Evaluation

average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 280.