The development of the national forestry sector: Trends and prospects
<b>Subject.</b> The article discusses organizational and economic processes of the forestry sector and timber products in Russia and some of its regions. <b>Objectives.</b> We trace the prevailing development lines of the forestry sector and timber industry through scientific approaches o setting cross-regional forestry clusters. <b>Methods.</b> Having analyzed foreign practices and existing trends in Russia's forestry sector and natural and regional distinctions in the development of the timber industry, we generalized the cluster approach to operations of the forestry sector, which pursues the cross-regional cooperation and interaction. The study is based on monographs, economic-statistical, graphic and expert assessment methods. <b>Results.</b> Increasing the timber output, fiscal revenue are strategic goals of the development and enhancement of Russia's forestry sector due to fees for forest resource use, satisfaction of the domestic demand and growing exports of added-value wood processing per unit of forestry area through innovation technologies. Intensifying processes of clustering and cross-sector interaction in forestry, emergence and implementation of the new cluster policy for clustering macroregions' economies will help accomplish the above goals. Cross-regional clusters in the forestry sector should be created with reference to the smart specialization model in the spatial development of the country and its regions. As forestry enterprises establish their cross-regional interaction, their economic activity gets more effective, this allowing for large innovative projects, reasonable use of forest resources, and more intensive business activities. <b>Conclusions and Relevance.</b> If the phased model of cross-regional forestry clusters is used at the meso-regional level, there will be the basis for a further plan of actions to intensify the interaction of forestry enterprises and cluster infrastructure entities, enhance the use of their available resources and lucrativeness for investors.