Analysis of Forest Use (Including Forest Income Generation) in the Context of the Existing Regulatory Framework

Abstract

The relevance. Trends in achieving sustainable development of the forestry economy and determining future prospects for the industry set clear goals for decision-making, which is possible with reliable and complete information about the achieved indicators of the forestry sector. There is a need to analyze the use of Russian forests, as well as consider the main directions of forest management, the dynamics of budget revenues, the ratio of payments for the lease of forest areas and the cost of products of industries that use forest resources in their activities. The purpose is to study and analyze the use of forests in the Russian Federation (including the generation of forest income) under the existing regulatory framework for the period 2016-2021. The objectives is to justify the need to modernize existing approaches to determining the value of forest resources. Methodology. When conducting the study, we used official statistical reference books of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, materials from reports of the Ministry of Economic Development, and materials from periodicals. Results. Based on the analysis described above, despite the steady increase in payments to the budget system from the use of forests, their share relative to the cost of products and services of enterprises using forest resources remains insignificant and weakly correlates with changes in activity volumes. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of the use of forests in the Russian Federation (including the generation of forest income) under the existing regulatory framework, it was established that only in a number of federal districts is there stability in the share of forest leases in the structure of the cost of placement. The current situation demonstrates that there is a discrepancy between the assessment of rental costs and the benefits that forest users receive from the exploitation of recreational resources. The presence of negative values actually demonstrates an increase in the benefits of forest users, which is not commensurate with the fees for the forest plot.