The forest environmental frontier in Russia: Between sustainable forest management discourses and ‘wood mining’ practice

• DOI: 10.1007/s13280-021-01643-6
• Publication Date: 2021-10-21T11:02:58Z
• Authors: Denis Dobrynin; Natalya Yakusheva...; Irmeli Mustalahti; Metodi Sotirov; Elena Kulikova; Eugene Lopatin
• Keywords: Sustainable Forest Management; Frontier; Certified wood; Ecoforestry; State forest

With 20% of the world's forests, Russia has global potential in bioeconomy development, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. However, unsustainable forest management based on 'wood mining' reduces this potential. Based document analysis, participant observations interviews, article shows how non-state actors-environmental NGOs companies-address resource depletion primary loss Russia. We analyse two key interrelated discourses driven by actors Russia: (1) intensive secondary forests as a pathway towards sustained yield conservation; (2) intact landscapes priority conservation. illustrate these have been integrated into policy debates, institutions practices discuss their relation to relevant discourses. The concludes that despite successful cases conserving landscapes, there is still frontier between sustainable forestry practice