Economy, Forestry

Russia is a major producer of lumber and wood products. Most timber production comes from conifers, mainly pine, fir, and larch. The principal commercial hardwood tree is birch. The primary areas of timber production are northwestern European Russia, the central Ural Mountains, southern Siberia in the vicinity of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and southeastern Siberia. During the Soviet era the most accessible and valuable stands of timber in European Russia were heavily harvested. Because of the lack of adequate forest management, these stands were depleted, and less valuable tree species have become dominant in many areas that were once prime forestland. As a result, logging has gradually moved eastward; Siberia produced one-third of the country's sawn lumber in the early 1990s, compared with one-quarter of the total in 1970. Major unexploited forests remain in less accessible areas of Siberia and northern European Russia. Large-scale harvesting of these forests has not occurred because they contain a high proportion of larch, which is difficult and expensive to process, and because of their remoteness. Technological improvements and changes in the world timber market could make the logging of these forests more economically attractive.

The forestry industry has been heavily affected by the depressed economy. From 1990 to 1996 the production of timber and cellulose plunged by a reported 66 percent, and the proportion of enterprises operating at a loss in 1996 was greater than in any other economic sector. Russian timber production was particularly disrupted by the collapse of markets in Eastern Europe and the other former Soviet republics. The industry, especially its Siberian component, was also depressed by the sharp increases in domestic transportation costs that followed the liberalization of prices in the early 1990s. As a result of these factors, the industry was unable to increase its exports, which averaged less than 5 percent of total Russian exports between 1992 and 1996.