Illegal logging in the Russian Far East and Siberia

Abstract

The vast forests of the Russian Far East and Siberia represent one of the last great forest wildernesses in the world, containing large expanses of boreal and northern temperate forest types. These forests are of global importance as habitat for rare and endangered species, for the richness of biodiversity in areas such as the SikhoteAlin Mountain Range and Sakhalin Island, and to help mitigate against the effects of global climate change. They are also home to tens of thousands of indigenous peoples for whom the forest is a spiritual as well as physical space and which also provides traditional livelihoods for many thousands more forest-dependent people. However, despite the seeming vastness of the forests in the Russian Far East and Siberia, research has shown that they are becoming increasingly fragmented, particularly in the accessible southern areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East (Global Forest Watch Russia 2002), and much of this fragmentation is as a result of industrial forestry. Illegal logging in the Russian Far East and Siberia