Arctic Forests and Forestry

(by Arnfinn Jørgensen-Dahl)

In 2005 the world had just below 4 billion hectares of forests that covered about 30% of the world’s total land area. The situation is much the same today. Russia, Brazil, Canada, US and China together account for more than half the total forest area¹ . Among the Arctic states, Russia alone has 20% of the world’s forest area, Canada another 10%, and the US in excess of 7%.

But only 20% of the forests of the Arctic states are in their Arctic territories. Arctic Russia has 90% of the wood volume of the Arctic with somewhat over 5% found in Alaska. In parts of Siberia and elsewhere in Russia production of wood is partly or totally prohibited for reasons of habitat conservation. The situation is similar in Alaska where large areas have been declared nature reserves for the purpose of biodiversity and ecosystem protection. Alaska nevertheless has a small forestry industry with exports worth $133 million in 2008.

Nevertheless, the story about Arctic forests and forestry is overwhelmingly a Russian story.   

Russia has by far the largest forest resources of any country in the world, with almost 50% of its land area covered by forest, amounting to 809 million hectares of forest. The northwest of Russia is one of the country’s most important forestry regions. Forests cover about 86 million hectares of the region, or about 10% of the Russian total. The forest industry constitutes a dominant component of the economy of northwest Russia.

Table 3.19 shows the mix of products of the Russian forestry industry as well as the composition of exports. Whilst Russia is the top world exporter of round wood (unprocessed logs), the share made up by value-added forest products is low by comparison and also by international standards. This is also reflected in the value of exports of forest products which in 2004 made up only 4% of global forest exports despite the large proportion of world forests found in Russia.

The export destinations of Russian forest products are divided almost equally between Europe and Asia. This is partly a function of the geography of Russia which has significant forest resources both in Europe and Asia. About 22% of Russian forests are in Europe and 78 % in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Europe and China account for about round wood 40% each of round wood imports² . Wood pulps exports from Russia are almost evenly divided between the two markets, Europe and China. By comparison, most of the other value-added products, sawn wood, and wood based panels and paper and paper board, are exported to Europe.

Russian exports of forest products make up a significant proportion of all exports from the country. Forest products account for about 3.5% of the value of all merchandise exports. Due to the abundance of forest resources, Russia has a big natural advantage in the production of forest products. This potential production far exceeds what the domestic market can absorb which means that future growth in the forest sector is most likely to come from exports of forest products. Growth, however, does not depend only on high levels of investment in capital and labour but also in the production of more processed and value- added products.

Table 3.19:  Key Russian Forestry Sector Statistics

Source: This table is taken from Kilman and Whiteman (2006), p. 2.

Arnfinn Jørgensen-Dahl, 2010, Arctic Forests and Forestry, CHNL.©