Russia is implementing a tool of growing private forests on agricultural lands for the first time

New Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1509 of September 21, 2020 “On features of using, safeguarding, protecting and reproducing forests located in agricultural lands” permits forest management activities, including timber harvesting, in agricultural lands; this document changes the Russian forest administration system drastically, making private forest use possible.

According to expert estimates, forests occupy at least 60 million hectares of agricultural lands. This is about 10% of all Russian forests. They are usually located on grounds hardly suitable for agricultural activity but with the most favorable conditions for growing forests.

Involving abandoned agricultural lands, unused and unsuitable for returning to farming, in intense forest growing (creating forest plantations, forest farming, agroforestry, protective afforestation) may yield the annual growth of up to 300 million m³ of wood in the long term and create up to 100,000 new jobs in country’s agricultural regions, according to calculations by Greenpeace Russia.