This textbook on Law Enforcement and Governance in Forest Use, Protection and Renewal is an output of the education constituent of the Country Workplan to implement the FLEG II Program (European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance II Program) in Russia.

The education constituent was included in the Country Workplan for Russian at both phases of the program in view of the high priority, given to strengthening the human resource policy to address strategic objectives and to guiding towards the development of the forest sector on an intensive basis. This refers to the development and modernization of forest education, including combinations of its different types and formats for training, retraining and professional development of managers and specialists for all subsectors of the forest sector.

During phase I of the FLEG Program, it was decided to offer capacity building opportunities for forestry authorities and private forest businesses through continuous education in forestry. To this end, a textbook on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance in the Russian Federation was produced and recommended by the Academic Resource Association for Forestry Education for use as a textbook for students of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, group 250000: renewal and processing of forest resources. That textbook was the first module-based training aid for the subjects and disciplines of group 250000 in Russia, and its modular structure enables to use its parts (modules) separately for training and delivery of training programs in continuous, higher and secondary vocational settings. That textbook contained the following modules:

1. Legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks for activities to prevent illegal logging and illegal timber trade.
2. Federal forest oversight arrangements and procedures.
3. Recording of harvested timber under different forest uses.
4. Forest certification and independent verification of forest product legality – market incentives for legal forest use
5. Work with civil society to improve forest law enforcement.
6. Corruption risks, arising from the forest legislation and their economic, environmental and social implications.

That textbook was widely recognized as a good source of knowledge not only for continuous education in forestry, but also for training of skilled personnel through the system of higher vocational education (bachelor’s and master’s degree programs).

However, training modules, included in that textbook, could not fully supply students of higher vocational education programs with the knowledge and skills, needed for sustainable forest management and intensive forestry development practices. An evaluation of the existing human resources of regional forestry authorities revealed the need to strengthen the professional training under forestry-related bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. It defined the contents of this textbook, prepared by Consultants to the World Bank with advisory inputs from faculty members of top forest higher education providers, practitioners and employers, during the second stage the FLEG II Program implementation.

This textbook consists of four modules, providing university students with the knowledge and skills in such a scope which is expected to enable them to get employed in forestry agencies, professionally perform their public functions and provide public services related to forest governance and law enforcement.

1. Governance and law enforcement in forest use.
2. Governance and law enforcement in forest pest management.
3. Governance and law enforcement in forest fire management.
4. Governance and law enforcement in forest renewal.

 Each module includes descriptions of the following aspects:

• Laws and regulations, governing the administrative activities as identified in the title of the module;
• Set of administrative actions, enabling to make managerial decisions; and
• Procedures for managerial decision-making with evaluation of economic, social and environmental performance.

To prepare the training modules, it was necessary to decide which of the following two types of bachelor’s degree programs should underlie their development: programs, focused on developing applied skills, needed to become forest management practitioners, or academic bachelor’s degree programs, regarded as the first step to further training under master’s degree programs. In view of the specifics of the forest estate lands as the managed asset, and the functions of the regional forest management authorities (first of all, forest districts’ personnel), it was recognized that the development of occupational skills should be the first priority for bachelor and master degree programs, i.e. it was decided to focus on applied skills.

The developed training modules provide for high effectiveness of their practical delivery through training networks. The principles of network-based training is established by Article 25 of the Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation. According to this Law, the main goal for network training delivery is to enable students to learn under such a program, using resources of several training providers. It is noteworthy that the most enabling conditions for network-based delivery of training programs are created through collaboration between higher and continuous vocational education institutions: the former ones provide fundamental knowledge and the latter ones provide training to develop occupational skills.

In addition to training under bachelor and master degree programs to supply skills for public administration in forestry, this textbook may be used as an information source for knowledge and skills certification as part of the accreditation of managers and specialists, performing public functions and providing public services. Properly informed occupational accreditation will be conductive to pursuing an effective human resource policy in public administration of forests through ongoing efforts to cause managers and specialists to sustain their occupational competencies which is of particular importance when key powers, related to forest affairs, are executed by regional public authorities while the responsibility for the forest status rests with the owner of the forests, i.e. with the Russian Federation.

It is also expected to be useful from practitioner perspective for managers and specialists of federal and regional forestry authorities, making managerial and administrative decisions, related to forest use, protection and renewal. Private business will not remain indifferent to this publication in view of its need for comprehensibility and predictability of all administrative/managerial decisions, related to forest use, protection and renewal.

The Introduction and sections 1.2, 1.3, and 1.8 of Module 1 were prepared by A.P. Petrov, Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences, sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.4–1.7, 1.9–1.14 of Module 1 were prepared by N. V. Lovtsova; the author of Module 2 is A. N. Bobronskiy; Module 3 was prepared by N. A. Korshunov, PhD in Agriculture, and M. A. Voronov; and Module 4 was prepared by N. E. Prokazin, PhD in Agriculture. The overall academic editing rested with A.P. Petrov. The work to prepare the textbook was coordinated by Zh. E. Gerasimova.

The authors acknowledge and appreciate the cooperation and support from Marina I. Smetanina and Vladislava Nemova from the World Bank Moscow Resident Office to implement this project under the FLEG II (ENPI East) Program (European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance II Program) in Russia.