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Svetlana Alekseeva,
Chief Editor of "Forest Certification"
Russia

FSC and High Conservation Value Forest in Russia

The declaration of large areas of forest as 'virgin forest' by Russian NGOs is giving rise to more and more conflicts. Underlying this conflict is 'research' into the forest which seems to serve the interests of specific interests. How this works is that NGOs have agreed with large Russian industrial companies about research into the status of virgin forest in some region of Russia, or across all the country. After the 'research', NGOs have published maps of the "virgin" forest for some region. Later on, the maps are used by auditors for FSC certification assessments. It is clear that the virgin forest is High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) according to FSC's requirements (Principal #9). In order to accomplish FSC certification, a forest company should refuse from harvesting in the area, or carry out special protection measures. It is big disadvantage for the company.

The first such Russian project was supported by IKEA in 2001-02. The main executor of the work was Greenpeace Russia. IKEA paid $1m to Greenpeace and they developed maps of virgin forest for Russia. Later on, however, Russian experts found out that many "virgin" forest sites are situated in regions where IKEA has competitors (see "Russian Forest Newsletter" # 23 (49) June 2004). Many Russian forest industrial companies were displeased, but after a few meetings between NGOs and FSC, the conflict was suppressed.

The second conflict happened in 2004 in the Far East region of Russia, concerning the big forest industrial company "Terneyles". USA forest companies paid to Russian regional NGOs about $5m to undertake investigations. The result of this was, as anticipated, 700,000 hectares of forest was defined as "virgin" and should be put 'off limits' for harvesting for the purpose of FSC certification. However, the auditor who carried out FSC certification did not recognize the area as virgin forest. The Russian forest company and auditor (SGS) were compromised after issuing the certificate. NGOs sent a complaint to the FSC. Later on (in June 2006) FSC carried out an inspection but the report of the audit was not published. SGS also carried out two inspections (2005, 2006) but has still not issued the reports. The big project (1.4 million hectares certified forest) became secret. Russian stakeholders could not get information about the results of the inspections.

The third conflict happened in Komi region of Russia between the company "Leskom" and the "Silver Taiga Foundation" in 2006, and continues at present. "Silver Taiga" is organization which was set up by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for development of a "Model forest" project. "Silver Taiga" signed an agreement with forest industrial company "Mondi" and Forest Region Agency for investigating virgin forest in the region. Mondi is the main competitor of Leskom. [FSC-Watch note: and has come under severe criticism for its FSC-certified operations in its home country of South Africa - see here and here]. When Leskom started to undertake FSC certification, Silver Taiga declared a large part of the forest as "virgin". The auditor who carried out certification (Control Union) did not recognize the area as "virgin". Nevertheless, FSC took Silver Taiga's side, and the contradictions intensified as NGOs pressed for the suspension of of CU's accreditation. The conflict now involves many Russian NGOs (including Greenpeace, WWF, etc), auditor companies (Control Union, LesTest, Smartwood) the regional government and other stakeholders.

Now FSC tries to protect NGOs which carried out the works in Russia tendentiously and use FSC certification for that - because the National FSC Work Group, CB's representatives, local experts and reviews of almost of all certification projects in Russia were formed by NGOs. At the present time, FSC has a confused situation in relation to development FSC in Russia. The more the FSC helps to fulfill NGO projects, the more it loses status as an independent and professional certification system. Conflict by conflict, FSC demonstrates itself as an international political alliance. Certainly, in the present moment, FSC has a high reputation in world but there are more than 17 million hectares of FSC certified forest in Russia and the area will increase soon. The loss of reputation in Russia can impact on the reputation of the FSC worldwide.

2007