On improvement of the Russian forest legislation
Paradigm of sustainable forest management should be the basis of forest policy strategy. Forestry is a branch of production industry in which the rules of a market economy apply. Within this framework, the Russian forest legislation and forest management should be adapted. The exhaustion of economic growth based on extensive exploitation of forest resources is the greatest challenge in the field of forestry from the viewpoint of scientific and technological development. To reform the Russian forest policy and forest legislation should be prompt response to this challenge should be. Scientific and technological conceptual foresight based on the analysis of global trends in forestry development is one of the key techniques for achieving an effective forest management system. At the same time, backcasting of the forest fund for the maximum possible time period is especially important, which makes it possible to identify trends in changes under the natural and anthropogenic factors. The novel forest legislation should be aimed at achieving sustainable use of the entirety of social, environmental and economic functions of forests to ensure meeting the various needs of society. The concept of the draft Basic Forest Law of the Russian Federation are proposed. The new Forest Code should handle forest relations in all forests, not only in the forest fund, and should extend over all forest owners and forest users.