Russia's share of global forest products output declines
ULAN-UDE. April 11 (Interfax) - Russia may have more forested area than any other country in the world and its timber reserves are the second largest, but its share of the global market in forest products, measured in terms of processed output, is declining, Novgorod region Governor Sergei Mitin said at a meeting of the State Committee's presidium on Thursday.
"Russia's forestry sector employs more than 1.1 million people at 60,000 enterprises," said Mitin, who headed the working group charged with preparing a report for the meeting.
"For many of these people, the forestry sector is the main form of activity."
"In 45 Russian regions and territories, the lumber and pulp and paper industries account for 10%-50% of all industrial output," he said.
Logging is becoming a less profitable activity with low salaries, which is resulting in a drop in employment in the sector, he said.
One major problem in the industry is the long time - 10-12 months - required to receive forest-use permits.
Another is the lack of precise data on forest land, only 14% of which is included on the cadastral register, Mitin said.
Companies that lease forest resources accounted for 73% of cut timber in 2012, but they are mainly small enterprises that will never be able to pay their way out of debt. "Current indebtedness among the leaseholders on their payments to the budget totals 7 billion rubles," he said.
Meanwhile, Russia is losing forest resources to fire and illegal logging. "Forest resource losses from fire are on an order greater than that from logging," he said.
Employment in the forestry preservation service has declined to 17,000 from 79,000 and employment in other forestry services has declined to 32,000 from 160,000.