«CURRENT EVENTS»

TIMBER INDUSTRIALISTS LOBBY FOR NATIONAL PARK
AND NATURE MONUMENT IN MURMANSK REGION

On May 15, 2002, the directors of the five largest timber industry enterprises in the Murmansk Region wrote to Governor Y.A. Yevdokimov asking him to support the creation of a PNA to protect forests of high conservation value.

The five enterprises involved – Priroda, Polariya, Ogni Karal, Severmurmanles and Allakurtinsky Forest Industrial Enterprise – account for over two thirds of the timber felling in the Murmansk Region. In their letter to the Governor the directors of these enterprises noted that the absence of measures to ensure the conservation of undisturbed forests in the region had already created certain difficulties for the timber industry, and in future the losses could be bigger.

The impact of Murmansk forest industry enterprises on the social and economic situation in the Kolsky and Kandalakshsky districts of the Murmansk Region is enormous. To a large extent, the forest creates jobs and employment. For the region’s forest sector to function, the export of timber products to markets in Western Europe must be stable.

At the same time, if Russian timber products are to enter ecologically sensitive Western European markets, they must be competitive and they must meet the requirements of sustainable forestry use. A number of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian timber industry companies – such recognized world leaders as Stora Enso, UPM Kummene and Metsalitto – have imposed a moratorium on felling and purchasing timber from many forests in Karelia and the Murmansk Region. The moratorium won’t be lifted until measures are taken to protect forests of the highest conservation significance, including valuable massifs of undisturbed forests through the establishment of protected natural areas.

The absence of measures to protect highly valuable forests in Murmansk means that the Murmansk timber industry sector may lose traditional markets for its products in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Thus, the social and economic situation in the region, unstable even now, runs the risk of becoming critical. Hundreds or even thousands of people could be left without jobs.

Proposals to establish PNAs have been drafted at the Institute of Industrial Ecology Problems of the North (Russian Academy of Sciences) and have the support of conservation NGOs. Most important are the Kutsa nature park and the Laplandsky Les nature monument proposed by the Kolsky branch of the Biodiversity Conservation Center.

The future of the people who voted for Governor Yevdokomov of Murmansk’s unique natural areas now depends on the Governor’s decision.

<< | contents | top | >>