On Results of Meeting

The Russia – Finland working group on sustainable forestry during its working meeting on June 1, 2011 formed a common point of view of effective and sustainable forest management on the North, discussed the 4^th stage of bilateral program of developing sustainable forestry and preserving biodiversity of Russian North – West.

In the meeting took part: Juha Ojala, Director General of Forestry Department, N.S. Krotov, Deputy Head of Rosleskhoz, Matti Anttonen, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Finland, experts of Rosleskhoz and institutions under its jurisdiction. As noted Matti Anttonen, contacts will mean economic benefits for both, Russia and Finland: “Forest sector is one of the most promising ones. It contains enormous opportunities, which we have to use and support”.

The Russian party agreed that it was necessary to support and develop forestry. And International year of forests was actively marked with some measures, such as the First Russia – Finland forest forum for leaders, held in March.

Today Russia undertakes important steps towards modernizing forestry. The goal is to increase competitiveness of Russian forestry products on international markets. Under such circumstances it is important to use positive experience of partners, as achievements of Finland in forestry management are quite obvious. Skills in adopting experience are already available – this moth there will be opened seed production center in Republic of Tatarstan, where Scandinavian technology of growing planting material will be implemented. In the future there will be 33 of such regional centers. A.F. Petrov, Director of VIPKLKh, highly evaluated cooperation in educational sphere: “For Me it’s a great honor to work with Finns. Their system of forest education was recognized as the best in Europe”.