Russia’s forests in a global economy: how consumption drives environmental change

AbstractThe forests of Russia comprise roughly one-fifth of Earth's total forest cover and one-quarter of its remaining "frontier" forests. The quality (i.e. natural productivity) of these forests continues to decline, however, with timber harvest a major underlying cause. Efforts to ameliorate forest degradation have been production centric, with a focus on the infusion of technology to improve manufacturing capacity, revision of the Forest code for better forest governance, and strategies to control illegal logging. However, consumption also drives forest change. Using production and trade flow data from 1946 to 2012, this paper assesses the state of Russia's forest resources and demonstrates how sweeping changes ushered in by perestroika and globalization have forged a highly export-dependent forest sector. Once consumed internally (approx. 90% of total production), wood from Russia's forests is now a global resource – the country annually exports approximately two-thirds of its sawnwood production. In tracking these flows through China to US urban centers, with timber becoming furniture and flooring sold in big-box stores, we demonstrate how consumption patterns affect ecosystems and socioeconomic relations in resource and manufacturing peripheries far beyond regional and national borders. The "ecological shadow" of forest change and degradation in post-Soviet Russia, therefore, is a confluence of factors related to both consumption and production: globalized shifting external market demand; the spatial fracturing of the industry; inefficient production; internal corruption; and weak forest governance. The Russian forest case provides evidence that we need to approach complex environmental (and development) issues as a coupled production–consumption dynamic. More broadly, the research is illustrative of how Russia has become embedded within the global economy through a constellation of resource flow linkages and networks.Keywords: RussiaChinaland use changeresource consumptionforestsillegal loggingenvironmentgovernancematerial flow analysisregion Notes1. Approximately, 68% of Russia's forests is composed of coniferous species, with deciduous species (22%) and tundra-type species (9%) making up the remainder. Russia has 1.2 billion ha of forest land, with the predominant species being larch (31% of the total), pine (20%), birch (14.4%), and spruce (13.4%).2. There are exceptions of course. See, for example, Andonova, Mansfield, and Milner Citation2007; Oldfield, Kouzmina, and Shaw Citation2003; Ryzhova and Ioffe Citation2009; and Stokke Citation2000.3. Dauvergne (Citation1997) defines ecological shadows of a national economy as the "… aggregate environmental impact on resources outside a country's territory based on three sets of factors: (1) government policies and practices, especially Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) and loans; (2) corporate conduct, investments, technology transfers, and purchasing and distribution patterns; and (3) trade, including export and consumer prices, amount and type and consumption, and import barriers."4. Numerous scholars have examined economic efficacy of these structural adjustments. See, for example, work by Solberg et al. Citation2010, Simeone Citation2012, Simeone and Eastin Citation2012, and Simeone Citation2013a, as well as studies of their impact on the roundwood market globally by Turner et al. Citation2008, Eastin and Turner Citation2009, Solberg et al. Citation2010; and van Kooten and Johnston Citation2014.5. Forest products are all those that fall under the HS code series beginning with "44." Wooden furniture includes the following HS codes: wooden office furniture (940,330), wooden kitchen furniture (940,340), prefabricated buildings (940,600), wooden bedroom furniture (940,350), and furniture NESOI (940,360). Wooden Furniture NESOI is HS Code 940,360. Plywood is HS Code 4412. Wooden bedroom furniture is HS Code 940,350 and Wood NESOI is HS code 4421.