Clarifying the Smokescreen of Russian Protected Areas

Roberto Cazzolla Gatti,Luigi Simeone,Alena Velichevksaya

doi:10.3390/su132413774

Abstract

Although in strictly protected areas no forest management and logging activities should be evident, a preliminary study detected that, even in the 200 areas with the highest protection of Russia, more than 2 Mha of trees have been lost between 2001 and 2018. Nonetheless, a relevant percentage of the actual drivers of tree loss in Russian strictly protected areas was surrounded by uncertainties due to several factors. Here, in an attempt to “clarify the smokescreen of Russian protected areas”, by validating previous remotely sensed data with new high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial images of land-use change, we shed more light on what has happened during the last 20 years. We used the same layer of tree loss from 2001 to 2020 but, instead of intersecting it with the MODIS data that could have been a source of underestimation of burned surfaces, we overlapped it to the layer of tree cover loss by dominant driver. We analysed the main drivers of tree loss in almost 200 strictly protected areas of Russia. We found that although fire is responsible for 75% of the loss in all strictly protected areas, forestry activities still account for 16%, and 9% is due to undefined causes. Therefore, uncontrolled wildfires (including those started before or after logging) and forestry activities are the main causes of 91% of the total tree loss. The combination of wildfires (often started intentionally) and forestry activities (illegally or barely legally put in place) caused a loss of an astonishing 3 million hectares. The fact that ≈10% of Russian tree cover was lost in two decades since 2001 only in strictly protected areas requires high attention by policymakers and important conservation actions to avoid losing other fundamental habitats and species during the next years when climate change and population growth can represent an additional trigger of an already dramatic situation. We call for an urgent response by national and local authorities that should start actively fighting wildfires, arsonists, and loggers even in inhabited remote areas and particularly in those included in strictly protected areas.

Highlights

Russian forests play a crucial role for the climate, representing an important carbon stock, and they are relatively poor in tree diversity, these ecosystems are fundamental for hosting several species, including rare ones, and provide socio-economic benefits to indigenous people [1]
We found that fire is responsible for 75% of the loss in all strict PAs, forestry activities still account for 16%, and 9% is due to undefined causes (Figure 3)
LANDSAT products to detect the area affected by a tree loss that was not due to fire in strictly protected areas of Russia [3]

Summary

Introduction

Russian forests play a crucial role for the climate, representing an important carbon stock, and they are relatively poor in tree diversity, these ecosystems are fundamental for hosting several species, including rare ones, and provide socio-economic benefits to indigenous people [1]. A recent study [3] estimated that from 2001 to 2018, in the whole Russian Federation territory, 66 Mha of tree cover have been lost (≈7.5% decrease in tree cover since 2001) with peaks during recent years. To prevent this huge loss, much emphasis was put by the local authorities on Protected Areas as a fundamental way to conserve Russian wildlife [4]. In strictly protected areas no forest management and logging activities should be evident, it was detected that even in the 200 areas with the highest protection of Russia, more than 2 Mha of trees have been lost between 2001 and

Methods

Results

Conclusion