Forest tourism as an integral part of sustainable development

Primeval nature and forest areas are important for hiking, camping, glamping, bird and animal watching, biking and other tourism-related activities and events for tourism. The fact of exploring forests and other wild, pristine places contributes to a better understanding and appreciation of nature by people, which in turn contributes to the environment protection. Forests feature prominently in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2017, supporting the livelihoods of about 1.6 billion people. “Protection and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems and promotion of their rational use, rational forest management, combating desertification, halting and reversing the process of land degradation and halting the process of loss of biological diversity” is Sustainable Development Goal 15. The article considered the sub-indicators of SDG 15 related to the sustainable forest management of the Russian Federation. The research results obtained by is based on data for the period of 6 years provided by the Report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the Global Forest Resources Assessment and the Federal Forestry Agency of the Russian Federation. As a result of the study, the author has determined the dynamics of achieving SDG 15, has compared the visitation periods for ecopaths and routes on the reserved territories, has determined the level of investment in the protection and rational use of land, forest resources and nature conservation areas of the Russian Federation.