THE IMPROVEMENT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: PROBLEMS AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTIONS
The article is devoted to research of current situation in the forest sector of Russia in aspect of assessing the key problems of forestry and the forest management system. In terms of environmental degradation, huge attention should be paid to the principles of natural resources sustainable management. Implementation of approaches and principles of sustainable forest management allows the exploitation of forests without causing enormous damage to the environment. In Russia it is necessary to solve a number of key forestry problems for transition to sustainable forest management. In the article the role of forestry in the economy of the country was reviewed and the most pressing issues in the present forest management system were identified. It was determined that the annual allowable cut applies on a small scale in the Russian Federation. It was revealed that the poor involvement of soft-leaved species in the annual allowable cut is caused by the lack of necessary facilities for their deep processing in the domestic forest industry. The age structure of the forest fund of Russia was characterized and compared by federal districts. The main reasons of forest area reducing were identified, and the dynamics of the forest fires area and the volume of illegal logging were considered. To assess the situation in the field of reforestation, the dynamics of volumes and areas of reforestation works were given on the example of the Irkutsk region. It was noted that the imperfection of the Russian forest legislation determines the current state of this field. There is a need to implement the principles and tools of sustainable forest management in the forestry of Russia, which requires the development of mechanisms for the transition to an effective forest management system.