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Satellite monitoring of Russian forests
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Space imaging is a new method of getting data about the Russian forests. The interest to the space imaging data is currently increasing due to an active introduction of the Russian forest resources into the world economy, as well as due to the activity of the international and Russian nature protection organizations. Typical signs of globalization are the appearance of major foreign timber companies on the Russian market, introduction of international certification standards, and involvement of Russia in the process of illegal logging control, especially within the frames of the Big Eight.
Basically, all the urgent problems of the forest sector (leasing relations development, certification, old-growth forest protection, illegal logging control) require the most up-to-date and independent information about the forest for decision-making. There are very few sources of such information. Topographic maps are updated less than once in 10 years and contain almost no data about the forests, whereas detail maps at the scale of 1:100 000 and larger are still "classified". Similar forest inventory data on many regions is desperately obsolete, since even during the Soviet Union the forest inventory was performed once in 10-20 years.
In some regions even these terms were exceeded. Fresh forest inventory data (in case it was recently performed) is not accessible for its users — forest business enterprises, local authorities, scientific and nature protection organizations. Typically, even forest administration authorities can experience problems with receiving forest inventory data (especially electronically). In this situation satellite imagery turned out to be in great demand and the most accessible kind of data. Which features make satellite images in the demand in the current Russian conditions in the first place?
Objectivity. Each space image is a document, reflecting actual condition of the area for the time of imaging. For example, the size and direction of the logging area detected by the image are independent on the land allotment in the leskhoz in subject. Image falsification is a useless effort, because many other operators are making their own images of the same spot and the "faked images" can be easily revealed. Basically, satellite imagery gives an opportunity of an independent cross check of the forest sector by different Russian and international organizations, including the Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage) and Rosleskhoz (State Forest Service).
Urgency. Satellite data can be obtained for the images of different acquisition dates. As a rule, the archive history of the middle resolution images (around 1:25 000) for the Russian forest territory does not exceed 1-2 years. Middle and high resolution satellite imagery can be usually ordered within several weeks.
Immensity. Modern general scale imaging enables to take the image of vast territories in quite high details. Thus for example, the size of one scene of the new IRS-P6 satellite is 740x740 km. Such scene covers almost half of the European North of Russia, whereas the 55 m resolution images enable to detect the cutting areas starting from 5-10 ha.
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Exterritoriality. Imaging areas are not bound to the state or administrative borders; no permits are required for imaging. All this allows the operator to receive unified data on the forest status in different leskhozes, federation subjects, on "this" and "that" side of the border.
Accessibility. This is perhaps the most important reason of active use of satellite images for the past years. (In the former Soviet Union times, images were accessible only to a narrow circle of specialists of the closed high-security organizations). Currently, all the data on satellite images with 2 m resolution and lower is free to use. The procedure to order and to obtain such images is simple and is described in details in the internet on the sites of the internet service providers.
In 2005, remote sensing monitoring of the forest use covered over 52 mln ha of forest within the areas of intensive logging on the territory of seven federation subjects. Around 16 000 fellings were inspected, about 100 000 ha of large-scale ground truth aerial photo surveys performed. According to the press-service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, the total amount of revealed penalty costs constituted 900 min rubles, with 500 min rubles claimed by December. The offenders volunteered to pay off 50 mln rubles of the total. In 2006 Rosleskhoz is planning to cover the entire territory of the intensive logging in Russia by aerial survey and satellite-based monitoring (about 100 mln ha of the forest fund).
Federal budget is allocating 200 mln rubles for this purpose. Satellite imagery has the lowest costs in remote sensing monitoring - in 2005 satellite imagery expenses did not exceed 12% of the total project funding. The most important result of the year 2005 was the fact that for the first time Rosleskhoz obtained the data on the main types and volumes of infringements directly after the independent interpretation of space images, rather than via their own local authorities and leskhozes. In most cases the results were shocking. Flagrant violations are made both by logging operators and leskhozes. For example, in Permsky Territory a random inspection of leskhozes revealed the absence of logging plans, nonconformity of logging cycles (up to one third of all logging sites) and of logging area condition to their certification acts. To the credit of Rosleskhoz leaders, all these facts are taken into account and serve as guidance for response actions.
"Pictures", showing the frontal moving of the logging operators onto the intact frontier taiga in Arkhangelsk Region made a dramatic impression on the forest inventory officials and forestry executives. Greenpeace representatives were demonstrating such images many times before. However, only after the start of their own remote sensing monitoring program the forest inventory enterprises performed the analysis of leased areas and cutting sites location, showing how the manipulations with the annual allowable cut are resulted in extensive and destructive ('concentrated') clearcuts within a few years in terms of their scale. Consequently, the question of changing the annual allowable cut definition rules was put in the nearest plans of the Russian Forest Agency.
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Monitoring of illegal logging program became the first acting governmental high-resolution remote sensing monitoring program in the country, in this respect putting the importance of this project far beyond the frames of the forest sector proper.
FOREST USE IN RUSSIA
Forestry is a type of human activity that includes all aspects of interrelations between humans and the forest. The major interests of forestry are: studying and inventorying forests; forest reproduction; fire and pest control; forest exploitation; and control over forest exploitation. A specific feature of forestry is a long production cycle (more than 100 years) that is largely determined by the growth of the forest type. Forestry in Russia has been based on the principles of stability and sustainability. There are about 20 general criteria for sustainable forest exploitation. The major ones are:
- maintenance of productivity;
- maintenance of appropriate sanitary conditions;
- maintenance of the protective functions;
- biodiversity conservation and maintenance of forests in the global carbon cycle;
- maintenance of social and economic importance;
- availability of legislative instruments for forest conservation and sustainable forest management.
Forestry is regulated by the "Forest Code of the Russian Federation", forest codes of subjects of the Russian Federation, and other legislative and technical documents. The forest reserve is the object of forestry. Forests of the country are held as Federal property according to the Forest Code. However, the legislation does provide an opportunity to transfer a part of the forest reserve to ownership of subjects of the Russian Federation. Forest management is to a greater extent concentrated at a regional level. The major unit of forestry management in Russia is a regional unit -leskhozes (about 8,000 exist) that in its turn is subdivided into forest districts - lesnichestvos (there are about 8,000). During the past decade, the total number of the employees in this sphere has been about 200,000 (60% of them, state forest guard).
The system of forest works in Russia includes forest management and the inventory of forests by means of remote sensing, monitoring, and various types of investigations (e.g., forest-pathological investigation). Forest management includes periodical inventory of forests (at intervals of 10-15 years) and development of long-term plans of harmonious forest exploitation for regional forest units. Inventory of forests by means of remote sensing is performed in distant sparsely populated regions. Forest areas covered by the inventory have decreased sharply; they made up 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 hectares annually during the past decade.
The objectives of monitoring are the situation tracking of the forest status and tendencies of forest development, the prevention of and control over natural and man-induced disturbances in the by an undesirable change in tree composition. For example, such pioneer species as birch and aspen can move into the burnt-out or felled areas that had been primarily occupied by dark coniferous tree species. Forestry has worked out a considerable number of procedures to further natural afforestation.
It is of the greatest importance to conserve the young forest generation, i.e., the undergrowth, when cutting the mature standing trees. This can be achieved through the implementation of special kinds of cuttings (selective or gradual) or progressive technologies that conserve undergrowth under final cutting. Southward, in the forest-steppe and semi-desert zones, natural afforestation usually does not take place. Man-planted forests are required in that case. Forest plantations are formed mainly by means of seedlings.
In 1960-2000, afforestation was performed in Russia within an area of 1.6 to 1.8 million ha, including sowing and planting of forests within 600,000 to 700,000 ha. The quality and integrity of the plantations were not always satisfactory. In 2005, only 15.36 million ha of the forest plantations were maintained. In addition to afforestation, forest planting on barren lands and lands of low productivity beyond the area of the forest reserve was performed within an area of about 100,000 ha, mainly with a view to protecting agricultural lands. In the past years, areas of afforestation and forest planting have decreased significantly. For example, in 1996-1997, these operations were performed annually within an area of 1,100,000, ha including annual sowing and planting of the forest crops within the area of not less than 300,000 ha.
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Forest fire control and forest management control are losing ground. In 1988, 1,910 km of forest roads were built; in 2003, this number was only 0.480 km. The scope of irrigation and drainage construction was reduced by ten times and the planting of forest shelter belts on agricultural lands decreased by four times over the same period. The number of aircraft used for forest protection decreased from 598 in 1988 to 378 in 2004, and the number of flying hours shrank by 5.4 times over this period.
There are fire, forest-pathology, and other kinds of monitoring. There are 44 forest expeditions belonging to 13 state forest management enterprises which perform inventory of the forests. The first pan-Russian inventory of forests was made in 1957. Data on the state of all forests in Russia are presented in the materials of the State Inventory of the Forest Reserve that are performed each 5 years.
Multi-purpose forest exploitation includes complex utilization of all forest resources and numerous environmental and social utilities of forests. Use of forest resources includes the harvesting of timber, galipot, auxiliary wood, medicinal raw materials, wild fruits, nuts, mushrooms, berries and also side utilities such as hay making and hunting. Timber is harvested by means of final felling (felling of the mature forest, about 85% of total volume of the harvested timber) and intermediate felling (thinning and sanitary felling). Final felling is performed only in the forests under exploitation. The quota of the sustainable final felling is set on the basis of the annual cut that, in turn, is determined by dominating species within the regional forestry unit. Over the past years, the annual cut has slightly exceeded 500,000,000 cubic meters. Actual felling made up about 300 to 350 million m3/year of saleable wood in the 1970s to 80s. In the past decade, only 20% to 30% of the annual cut has been used because of economic crises. This fact caused great social and economic problems, especially in the regions, where forestry was a major sector of employment. Thinning is of the greatest importance. In 1988, thinning was performed in an area of 1,270,000 ha. In 2002, this operation covered only 610,000 ha.
There are great prospects for harvesting the non-wood resources. About 2,500 of the more than 20,000 vascular plants growing in Russia are of medicinal importance, and about 300 of them are included in the state pharmacopoeia. The potential reserve of food is in the range of hundreds of thousands of tons. However, currently an insignificant part of these reserves is used. In 1998, forestry enterprises harvested 16.8 million tons (t) of wild fruits and berries, 1,800 t of mushrooms, 2,600 t of medicinal herbs, and 7,000 t of honey. In years past, the volumes of these products have been reduced by three to ten times and even more in some cases. At the same time, actual volumes harvested by the local population have increased, especially in the distant forest regions, where these resources are of survival importance.
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Afforestation on the deforested areas (fire sites, cleared spaces, etc.) is one of the most important objectives of forestry. Afforestation can be natural, through seeds and springwood. The intensity of natural afforestation depends on the specific region, forest type, causes and areas of disturbances, availability of seed sources, and ecological features of the tree species. In the forest zone, especially in taiga, natural afforestation is completed successfully.
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