Participation in international forestry exhibition Interles, Part I

Hello everyone,

Summer is here already in Petrozavodsk, since I am not in Joensuu this week and participating in International Forestry Exhibition in the capital of Republic of Karelia in Petrozavodsk. Temperature is just fine, however it is even too hot in here, Monday and Tuesday it was close to 30 degrees, and almost no wind at all.

 Let's come back to the agenda of the exhibition, here are some points which were covered during the plenary session and round table:

-          Use of forest resources in the development of bioenergy  as factor increasing the role of forestry  complex:

o   Tendencies towards wood utilization in energy sector

o   Recycling of wood wastes

o   Use of low-quality wood and wood wastes in bioenergy development as a tool to solve social problems

-          Transportation infrastructure in forest sector: effective technologies and mechanisms of state and public partnership in wood roads construction and exploitation.

-          Major tasks of reforestation: forest selection, forest genetics, improvement of technologies for production of planting materials

o   Infrastructure, problems of haulage roads, “going deeper in the wood, but how?”

o   Introduction of new technologies and modern equipment/machinery as a necessary requirement for a breakthrough

-          New clauses in the EU and the US laws and regulations on timber trade. Are Russian enterprises ready to meet the requirements of external market?

o   Voluntary certification as an important prerequisite for competitiveness

There were many speakers from different organizations: A.P. Hudilainen – Head of the Republic of Karelia (however we did not hear his speech), N.S. Krotov – Deputy Director of Federal Forestry Agency, V.F. Chikalyuk – Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of Karelia, Pasi Poikonen – Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), A.I. Karpilovich – Head of Forestry Department of the North-western Federal District, A.I. Soroka – Director of FSUE Roslesinforg branch, Karellesproekt, N.V. Senko – General Director, Ladenso JSC, B.D. Romanyuk – Chief of SPFRI Laboratory, I.V. Verveyko – Deputy Forest Strategy Director, Ilim Group, N. Shmatkov –WWF Russia Forest Programme.

The most hot topic in Russian forestry based on plenary session speakers are forest fires, its prevention and monitoring; intensification of forest management, approaches to forest inventory; national forest inventory and other topics.