Forest Cover Change within the Russian European North after the Breakdown of Soviet Union (1990–2005)

Abstract

Forest cover dynamics (defined as tree canopy cover change without regard to forest land use) within the Russian European North have been analyzed from 1990 to 2005 using a combination of results from two Landsat-based forest cover monitoring projects: 1990–2000 and 2000–2005. Results of the forest cover dynamics analysis highlighted several trends in forest cover change since the breakdown of the Soviet planned economy. While total logging area decreased from the 1990–2000 to the 2000–2005 interval, logging and other forms of anthropogenically-induced clearing increased within the Central and Western parts of the region. The most populated regions of European Russia featured the highest rates of net forest cover loss. Our results also revealed intensive gross forest cover loss due to forest felling close to the Russian-Finland border. The annual burned forest area almost doubled between the two time intervals. The 2000–2005 gross forest cover gain results suggest that tree encroachment on abandoned agriculture land is a wide-spread process over the region. The analysis demonstrates the value of regional-scale Landsat-based forest cover and change quantification. Our results supplemented official data by providing independently derived spatial information that could be used for assessing on-going trends and serve as a baseline for future forest cover monitoring.