At a meeting in Moscow, members of the National Programme Advisory Committee reviewed the activities implemented in Russia over the past 6 months.

Increasing efficiency of planning and monitoring

During the past half a year, FLEG II experts completed a number of analyses in this area. They studied economic efficiency of developing drying forests, damaged or dead trees; made a report about the condition of tree nurseries in Russia; developed approaches on forest fire zoning; analyzed deficiencies of the legal practices concerning forest protection; updated the data on illegal logging, etc.

The study of the dependency of forest communities on forest resources became the highlight of the Program in all participating countries. In particular, it determined that the households in the villages covered by the study, in all Russian regions, get about 30% of their income from the forest. Besides, FLEG II made specific steps to increase the profits of these communities and save the forests. Program experts are collecting best sustainable forestry practices on specially designed websites (www.fleg-infobase.ru, лесопользование.рф) and analyze their geographic viability, environmental safety, economic efficiency and sustainability.

Strengthening human resources

Many studies carried out by the Program will be used to update the tutorial Improving Law Enforcement and Governance in the Forest Sector of the Russian Federation.

“The tutorial requires a lot of editing due to vast government efforts implemented in the forestry since 2011 when it was first published”, said Marina Smetanina, World Bank's FLEG II Program coordinator in Russia. “We will therefore update it and will publish the second edition for FLEG anniversary, because this tutorial is in great demand at professional trainings and high schools”. ENA FLEG will celebrate its 10th anniversary in November 2015.

Introducing FLEG to leading forest companies

Another important research assessed the knowledge of Russian forest companies on EU regulations aimed at combating illegal logging. The research showed that the majority of Russian companies (94%) are aware of the new European regulations. However, only about half of them know any details, and just 40% introduced the required procedures confirming legality of wood origin.

“To summarize, everyone heard “something” about the procedures, but very few can give any details”, sais WWF's FLEG II Program coordinator in Russia Nikolay Shmatkov. “It is obvious that additional efforts are needed to inform the businesses about the regulations, and we hope, that eventually the results of this research will help increase the quality of the implementation of the EU regulations, and most importantly, it will help eradicating illegal logging in Russian forests”.

Ensuring the rights of citizens and small business for legal use of forests

FLEG II tests and implements sustainable forestry models for rural communities. The Programme organized a series of trainings on sustainable forest use for local communities of three regions, supported introduction of the model in Loknyansky district of Pskov region and developed “road maps” for two villages in Khabarovsk Krai.

“In total, over 150 village residents took part in these activities. They represent at least 20 villages with a total population of over 4,000 people. Maybe it's not that many, but it initiated the creation of a net of growth points”, said Andrey Zaitsev, IUCN's FLEG II coordinator in Russia. “The economic sustainability and potential of the model in different geographic and socio-economic conditions have already been proven. The Programme does not provide any financial support for the launch of these models, the local people successfully find the funds themselves”.

Increasing transparency and awareness

Starting from last year, one of the main priorities in this direction have been activities aimed at school forestries and young people.

The importance of this goal was highlighted at the meeting by Alexander Panfilov, national coordinator of FLEG in Russia, deputy head of the Federal Forestry Agency: “The results of the work that FLEG implemented in the second half of 2014 have already been useful to the Federal Forestry Agency and Russian regions. In particular, on March 5, 2015, the Government of Russia issued an order and such activities as school forestry meetings were included in the mandatory list of scheduled events”.