Impact of Russia’s National ‘Ecology’ Project on Forest Loss Reversal

Abstract

Restoring forest resources is becoming a challenge for many countries. Although Russia has the largest forest area in the world, it suffers from high forest losses due to fires and logging. When formulating the National Development Goals in 2018, the Russian government chose forest restoration as one of the key priorities. In this article, I examine the extent to which the National ‘Ecology’ Project has been able to reverse the trend of forest loss in Russia. Calculations, statistical comparisons, and panel data econometric modeling based on information from government statistics and satellite data from the Global Forest Watch project show that the Federal ‘Forest Restoration Project’ contributed to a more than 1.5-fold increase in annual reforestation rates in the country but did little to prevent forest loss due to natural disturbances and logging. The meager budget of the national project, which amounted to less than 10% of the federal government’s annual expenditure on forestry, was mainly sufficient to renew the fleet of specialized forestry equipment. The national forest restoration program should be continued, and its objectives should be expanded and adequately funded.