Market based forest conservation opportunities

Forests of Russia have global ecological significance. They include huge massive of boreal forests, almost a quarter of global area of intact forest landscapes. The global role of Russian forests in inhibition of aridization and land degradation is well known. Development of representative system of forest protection is one of the main tasks of Russian Federation in implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity obligations. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Strategic Goals plan protection of no less than 17% of terrestrial ecosystems’ area to the 2020, especially the sites of high significance for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The main forest protection mechanisms are protected natural areas (PNA), forests with protective functions, and protective sites (PS). PNA contains around 7% of forest covered area. Forests with protective functions make up around 16% of forest covered areas, but the management regimes of many types of such forests are not conforming to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Many of forests with protective functions are under lease for forest management. Since recently the significance of voluntary Forest Stewardship council (FSC) certification for biodiversity conservation is increasing. The standards of FSC certification require from forest companies to implement protection and appropriate use of high conservation value forests (HCVF). Totally there are 46 mln ha of FSC certified forests in Russia, from them around 5–6 mln ha of HCVF received additional protection from certification. One of the most important categories of HCVF are intact forest landscapes (IFL’s). Around 1 mln ha of IFL’s are protected as the result of forest certification, providing significant input into Convention on Biological Diversity. For 35 FSC certified companies the share of identified HCVF’s with nature conservation regimes in their leased forests is comparable with the average share of PNA’s (without certification) on the regional or district level. The main output of the research is that the role of voluntary forest certification for enhancing the system of forest protection in Russia is increasing, which receives worldwide recognition.