Types, patterns and volume of forest utilization in the Russian Federation

Forests in forest resource lands are a key asset of multiple use that is practiced with or without provision of forest lands, with or without withdrawal of forest resources. The following types of forest resource lands use are effective: permanent (unlimited) use, free terminal use, buy\sell of stands, provision of lots for geographical survey of mineral resources. Prevailing forest use type - forest land lease holding, it accounts for 97% of the total area in utilization. Land lease holding is a dynamically evolving type of the RF forest resource land use. Leased land area is constantly growing. Its share in the RF forest resource land area is 19.9%. Management of forest lands leased by organizations or citizens covers the whole range of forest use types. Key forest land use pattern - timber harvesting. In 2012 total timber harvest was 192 million m3 and leased lands accounted for 142 million m3 (74%0. These lands are specified by higher intensity of estimated allowable cut application (53-60%) which is approximately twice higher the specific one in the whole forest sector (25-29%). In 2012 there was a growth of areas used for: agriculture (almost 1.5 times), recreation (3 times), processing of timber and other forest resources (almost 10 times). Negative trends in forest use - growing share of forest use default payments, decrease of real timber harvest\allowable harvest ratio. Positive trends - growth of leased forest land share in total forest resource land area.