Asia

"Major reasons of deforestation and degradation of forests in the Sikhote-Alin region by example of Krasnoarmeiskii District of Primorskii Territory"

Non-government Organization "Bureau for Regional Public Campaigning" Primorski Regional Association of Indigenous People - PRAIP

By Anatoly Lebedev (BRPC),
Ivan Kyalunziga and Pavel Soldatov
July, 1998.

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA IND ITS FORESTS

Krasnoarmeiskii District of Primorye is located in the central part of unique eco-system of Sikhote-Alin Range, remarkable by combination of both sub-tropical and boreal flora and fauna elements. At 40 and 50-th the area, by its most valuable cedar-broadleaf forests, had been a part of Sikhote-Alinskii Biosphere Preserve. District of 20000 square km is inhabited with 27000 people, which includes only about 125 persons, representing indigenous Iman river group of udege.

The basic type of District resource-oriented economics is represented by two key industries of Primorye - logging and mining. For territory, covered by forests on 90 %, their extensive activity in Soviet period had been completely destructive, as oriented to mostly resource trade, than processing of them. Destructivity of such economics is obvious even now, when its almost gone, although certain amount of creaks and rivers are still kept pristine. Forest resource use practices, traditional for local and indigenous people, also used to be successfully developed here in the past, and brought not only some revenues, but also enough jobs for people.

Failure of Soviet economic relations during last 10 years happened in this district stage by stage. And, early appeared environmental movement on the area, provoked by ambitious plans of Soviet monopolies, play quite specific role in this failure. Industrial plans had been consisted of huge dam construction in the middle of taiga on Iman river (currently Bolshaya Ussurka) with 40000 hectares of forests to be submerged, new city appeared and electric power sold to China. Following idea, came very soon from other monopoly, brought to locals suggestion to present to them nuclear power plant instead of the lost peace and forest.

Fortunately, almost all the population protested, and, the deepest reason of such entireness may be discovered in the specific combination of unique taiga complex and indigenous culture on the same territory. Just at that time, late 80-th, significant attention started to be paid on udege community, its conservation and restoration, required, first of all, extraction of the most valuable pristine forests from industrial logging plans. From just that time, process of protected territories development, forest protection and traditional resource use restoration became entire in public opinion.

But, while we can watch obvious success in environmental activities - part of territory had been given back to Sikhote-Alinskii Preserve, korean pine logging got legal ban, Tayozhnii Refuge kept its territory and renewed legally, Sredne-Ussurskii National Park justified, - there is practically nothing done for protection and support of udege community. The only real hope to make udege future more prospective may be found in the plans of national park creation, which has a broad and complex ethnic program for tourism and sustainable resource use.

Territory of future national park is located on the part of Dalnekutski and part of Pikhtovi sections (lesnichestvo) of Roschinskii leskhoz (local forest service), and has 100000 hectars, currently taken off use regards to park creation. By the type of forest and vegetation this territory is a part of East-Siberian coniferous-broadleaf region, its Middle Sikhote-Alin province. Forest cover lands are shared among types of forest by the following pattern:

• Coniferous group occupies 86.9 %, including
  korean pine - 57.4 %
  spruce-fur - 28.6 %
  larch - 0.9 %

• Broadleaf group of forest types occupies 13.1 %, including
  ash-elm - 5.9 %
  oak - 4.4 %
  other - 2.8 %

Forests are presented on the territory by 3 basic formations: cedar (corean pine) - broadleaf, spruce-fur and larch. First one extends up to 900 m elevation. Lower level of spruce-fur formation is located on 250-400 m, upper level often coincide with the upper level of forest as it is. Larch generally occupies river valleys.

Among cedar forests most regular are mountain ones, including maple, oak, lime and yellow birch (46.8 %) and located on gently and middle - steep slopes. Endemic bushes as siberian ginsen (eleuterococc), shizandra and other wines are regular under canopy. Grass cover is good and strong.

The most regular among broadleaf forests are ash-elm type. They occupy, usually, river valleys and are quite diverse, presenting almost all vegetation of the area - manchurian nut, yellow birch, poplar, lime, corean pine, spruce, fur etc. Poplar-willow types occupy mainly riversides and carry water protective function.

Indigenous types of forest are formed by cedar, spruce, ash and oak. They occupy optimal soils and are quite productive. Most of forests of Krasnoarmeiskii District and park had been industrially logged selectively or relatively-clear. Pristine forests are preserved on the steep slopes, water-protective zones and other lands of 1 group.

Territory of Sredne-Ussurskii park and whole District have a big set of natural and culturally-historic attractivities. There are 70 birds species, including 9 rare and endangered, 25 mammals and 31 species of plants, 10000 species of insects. 41 archeologic monument has been registered.

2. COMMUNITY: INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL

Iman group of udege exists last 10-15 years in the condition of constant destruction and assimilation as a compact ethnic community. Simultaneously, ancient sustainable culture of forest use is disappearing, based upon respect of the live forest power as a ground for traditional household and land management. This process, intensified by destructive resource extraction (ore mine "Vostok", gold mines, biggest in Primorye cedar-oriented Melnichnii lespromkhoz, produced formerly up to 1 million cu metres, logs floating by river, banned in late 80-th only) produced total ruin in the heart of Ussuri taiga, on the former lands of SikhoteAlinskii Preserve.

Series of efforts of district authorities to support and restore ethnic community in the site Ostrovnoye (Sanchikheza) could not bring any positive result by the general economic problems and absence of support from regional and federal authorities. Primorski Regional Association of Indigenous People (PRAIP), created in early 90-th in the neighbour Pozharskii District (Krasny Yar town of Bikin group of udege), also could not cover Iman and other udege groups (Samarga) with its activity. That groups become free either prosper or die themselves.

If Samargian udege still have enough natural resources, able to provide reasonable quality of life without making damage for the territory (except of recently recreated plans of industrial logging), their ethnic brothers on Iman have almost nothing. Even though meaning of traditional resource use become more and more flexible, and replaced often by more contemporary and less ethnic oriented - sustainable one, including, for example, not traditional tourism. Which also needs healthy environment. Fish had been gone from Iman in the years of logs floating, forests and wildlife are destroyed by off-rules logging, poaching and portages across the slopes. Migration ways of animals are crossed by logging roads, inhabited in last 7-8 years with thousands japanese second-hand cars, droven by basically unemployed citizens, looking for any sort of job and revenue. Udege town Ostrovnoye lost everything, differing people's dwelling from the point on the map: no transportation, no shop, power, road, dying houses.

Hunting rules of Primorskii region, based upon the federal legislation, seems to give udege real privilege for free hunting in their traditional areas. But, quotas for these free udege lysences are established by the same Hunting department, directly interested to sale more lysences for self-financing and authorised for hunting control as well. The more, resource assessment for quotation has been provided also by them, interested to artificially increase quotas to get more money by selling lysences. In time of hard budget hunger, same for all federal entities, this disbalance turned even more dangerous for wildlife resource as it is. Result for "free" indigenous hunters is obvious: they are tried to be passed in time of quota sharing, are pressed off the forest by russian hunters, if not legally, then practically, by the criminal collaboration of udege hunting competitors with power structures and inspectors. Russians, leaving in the forest in the same condition as udege, consider themselves as equally deserving the same free licences. Besides these, there is one more, legal problem, never solved by government in time of adopting the list of indigenous people, having exclusive rights for free hunting licences. Udege families and kids are growing, and some young representatives of them try to live and work out of community. But, they still seem to have that free hunting rights. Amount of cross marriages is increasing and produce set of people of doubtful ethnic belonging: this is especially characteristic for Iman community of udege, dissolved among the rest of general population, which pay no attention on ethnic issue. All rights of those half-udege youth for free hunting come to the hands of district wildlife manager. The more, distribution of existing free licences become also a problem inside community. Lets add here increasing over-hunting ,needs of former loggers, turned unemployed after failure of their enterprises in the same forests, and we get a picture of total poaching, stimulated by stupid governing and management of territories and resources. As a result, udege prefer often to forget any rules and regulations, and go for appropriate hunting and harvesting in appropriate season, relying their ancient experience.

3. STRUCTURES AND MOTIVATIONS

In the time of failure of traditional logging enterprises (lespromkhos), while new loggers still has not and could not become civilized firms due to governmental tax policy, destructive for native producers, the main danger for the forest comes from plenty of small businesses, use to get logging licence anyway, for any kind of logging, any species in any area. There more than hundred of them in Krasnoarmeiskii. They need any document just to enter the forest for logging whatever thay want, and demonstrate any lysence to the most botherful inspectors, not available to be bribed. But, there are less and less of them in the taiga now. There is quite demonstrative recent example in Krasnoarmeiskii, where local militia suddenly cancelled its inspecting point on the main road, responsible to brake exit of illegally cut logs off the area by checking of special docoments. Such point and documents were established all over the "Northern Primorye" Assocoation to keep all the logging site legal data until export point for its checking (there is no power on the regional level to enforce customs to do it ityself on Chinese border gates and seaports). So, as green activists of group "Taiga" counted, more than 2000 cu metres, mostly illegally cut ash and cedar, had been taken off the area in time of absence of the checking point. Mainle such illegal cut use to be done under the label of interim ones salvage, maintenance, lightening logging etc. Or simply by criminal way in the night, next to roads. In a few night hours one group of 4 guys may log and take off couple trucks of timber, getting for them hard currency from the wholesaler and exporters. Even if forest of environmental inspection catch such a thief with a timber consignment, punishment can't be serious, in comparison to awaited revenue, by the small amount of timber and its high value on the market. Much more serious fines use to be paid by the big companies, trying to log legally, for they violate a lot of regulations anyhow.

Its remarkable, that failure of Japanese economics and stagnation on the main consumer market of Siberian timber there almost had not hurt small criminal business. Vice versa, once more traditional basic loggers had been hurt, trying to trade timber legally, and permitted to violate regulations not more than by wrong sorts (usually lower), put into the official contract - to get some more revenue out of taxes. Small businesses keep transfer timber to China by cash (they would prefer to sale to local factories, if get the same price), keep developing by this Chinese processing industry and destroy native environment.

4. TRIALS TO STOP DEGRADATION

Its very difficult to oppose the process of forest degradation in the time of non-manageable market. Some efforts to control process by militia on the roads, combined forest riding of Goskomecologia, Hunting and forest inspections bring some result, but need long time enthusiasm and money. In time of very weak and reducing funding in turns even more complicated. The more, that forest bandits are successfully protected by federal legislation by the reason of free business support. There are some efforts to develop real small businesses for NTFP wholesale and processing - nuts, ferns, roots, mushrooms, berries, honey etc. But, such activity needs small start investment into equipment and legal privilege by local tax cut. It requires specific qualification, which is unfortunately absent on the district level. Nevertheless, such activities use to be initiated and promoted by local environmental group "Taiga" and District Committee of Environment, looking for foreign sponsors and investors.

Creation of Sredne-Ussurskii national park, coming soon to the final stage of governmental adoption, gives to District and dissolved udege families sort of last chance to save compact ethnic community, develop its traditional activity and tourism over park and adjacent territories. Among them the most attractive are rafting river Armu, famous for all former Soviet tourists, Sikhote-Alinski meteorite craters site and other sites on the Siberian tiger area, where the famous taiga researcher Vladimir Arsenyev spent years with his friend and guide udege Dersu Uzala. Town of this name, Dersu, included into national park, where tre rest of old-believers are leaving up to now, may also become on more touristic attractivity. All this seems a real chance for creation balanced resource economics of District, based upon small business, and for protection of unique ethnic and natural shape of the area in the market conditions of 21-th century.

Association "Northern Primorye", trying to brake illegal logging and timber export from the most forest reach north territories of Krai, had been brought special document to the practice of timber carriage, including information from the logging lysence. For their control two years ago special militia control points had been established on the main timber roads. But, having been recovered after the first shock, interested criminal groups started contradict. They began to scare and bribe heads of administrations, local forest service, militia and environmental protection officials. That documents were protested by prosecutor as effort to limit business rights. Militia inspectors on the control points become being often bribed by live money, and somewhere, as it told above, militia took its posts off.

Right now, three District forest services are going to put into practice principally new for Russian forestry ideology and methodology of timber certification in the forest, in accordance to governor's decree and Russian government’s resolution. As soon as Federal forest service spread special methodology, based upon the world practice of volunteer and obligatory certification, full information about logging site and technology, species and sortage of timber will accompany any track from the logging site to customs, independently on amount of intermediate wholesalers. Although there still many problems on the way of this practice, it has to brake any illegality seriously.

5. DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR CAUSES AND REASONS

To summarize, we can extract at least three group of reasons, challenging forest degradation in Sikhote-Alin and certain District.

First group of reasons, defects of legislation and governmental strategy, particularly:

• mistakable (increased) establishing of allowable cut and limits, caused by old fashioned methodology of forest evaluation and lack of funding for forest research institutions;
• predominant principle of the most solvency of pretendent for logging rights in bidding procedure to the detriment of the more environmental reasonability;
• absence of EIA procedure in the process of forest leasing (timber sales);
• economic failure of former selpromkhozes, challenged unemployment and pushing people into small, illegal forms of forest use;
• different regulations and size of water protective zones, provided by fisheries, forestry and water use legislation;
• preservation of commercial secret principle for export operations and contract timber prices;
• absence of federal, environmentally reasonable strategy of forest use and impossibility to realize such approaches in the process of economic development;
• access of small private forest users to full size rights of logging, and absence of real possibility to control their activity;
• failure of the system of fire protection and fire fighting;
• governmental opposing to regional efforts to ban ash export from Primorye, adopted by regional administration and protested by prosecutor.

Second group of reasons, initiated by violations of forestry rules:

• permanent violation of logging technology in former times (mainly arrangement of portages across the steep slopes, initiating fast erosion in time of strong monsoon rains, disturbance of young trees, lack of reforestation);
• continuing getting out of traditional, sustainable forms of forest use, regular for indigenous people;
• industrial logging under the label of salvage, intermediate, maintenance etc.;
• delivery of logging licences for the species by the priority of market demand, to the detriment of forest sustainability;
• delivery of illegal licences and other documents by bribes;
• logging without any licences - stealing of timber;
• re-trust of logging rights to other loggers.

Third group of reasons, caused by violation of customs and financial rules:

• wrong list of timber sortage and prices in comparison to real consignment;
• artificial reduction of contract price in comparison to really paid one, and, as a result, induction of increasing amount of logging;
• signing of fictitious contracts, providing no real payment to exporter's account and, bringing no revenue to the territory, which is nesessary for logging industry recreation and renovation, for reforestation and fire fighting;
• export of more timber, than it's provided by contract.

6. STRATEGIES AND GOALS

As it's getting clear from the list above, there are practically no governmental control, inspecting, environmental and enforcement entities more, able to guarrantee 100 percent following of legistalion and terrestrial interests in the process of forest use and export. Especially after adoption of the new Forestry code, with appearance of entire regional strategy in forest use, Districts lost their last little rights of resource management and chances to get some revenue from forest use. Meanwhile, income of local forest services not always, and the more seldom now, are used for the real needs of territory and its development.

Legal violations exist everywhere - in regional office of Ministry of the Foreign Trade, where export contracts have to be registered, in customs, protecting exporter's interests first (even if criminal), but not interests of territory or country. They exist in militia, often already as a rule, which officers use to be caught as a loggers themselves; in environmental protection Committees, enforced to forgive the most impudent infringers, as if with closed eyes; in local forest services (leskhoz), delivering salvage logging licences to anyone for any volume. Certainly, a lot of violations may be found in logger's activity, in legislatures, never finishing their legal ideas by the adopted documents, in municipal offices, trying to get forest lands off for municipal and private construction.

Specific donation to the process of deforestation is brought by Asian timber market. Chinese timber processors, with a help of Russian government, easy strangled far-eastern colleagues in Russia, received no governmental investments to renew their enterprizes and enter real world market of timber products. Together with raw logs export, bravely protected by Russian government and banned in SouthEast Asia, it is stimulating increasing of cut volume first in formerly non accessible, pristine sites, having a forests of extremal value. Recent example of bidding and delivery the licence for industrial logging on Sukpai river (Khabarovskii krai) to Malaisian company "Rimbunan Hijau" for 50 years on the territory of traditional resource use of indigenous people (udege) - its only beginning of the new process of creation huge completely foreign logging enterprizes in the last pristine forests of Sikhote-Alin. Next awaited step of that company may be request on logging in other udege territory of Samarga river.

If joint-venture "Svetlaya" failed by the efforts of different shareholders to overreach each other and Russian laws, new loggers, coming to the taiga under the new Forest Code, need no cunning. If they are Russian, everything they need is to get lasvage logging licence from forest servive, and start to log whatever they want for making maximum money. And to take off as much as possible, reporting legally as less as possible. And, by that, give nothing to any local needs and budgets. Officially delivered forest plots may be logged in this case a little, just for demonstration.

There is another pattern of acttivity for other companies on Sikhotealin. Their investments and activity make any sence only in the case of huge amount of timber, going to the market. Often, they dont log all the officially permitted amount of timber, as in Siziman Bay of Khabarovskii krai, trying to avoid too many taxes and prefer to wait. "Svetlaya", having not received all permitted territories and quality of timber, start to keep money by its own way: korean shareholders sold cheep timber to their korean colleagues first, which re-sold final products on the world market. But, it had no attitude to just Svetlaya area. This example obviously became pretty attractive. The same manner was taken into practice by the leaders of former lespromkhozes, having no other way to safe their companies. They start create small "daughter" companies, giving them up the best forest plots and creating high life level for the narrow circle of entrusted people and relatives, including forest service officials. Naturally, this life had been based upon cash money, passed legal financial reporting. And, they fluently developed timber processing in China, where understanding of development was much more reasonable.

To summarize, as soon as money become the first, if not only priority in resourse use management of territory, the last features of balanced development of taiga, belonged to former communist management, had been gone. Despite all the problems with centralized financial supply of forest complex in soviet times, local officials together with logging leaders understood, that their plans of industrial development have to include reforestation, infrastructural and social development and fire protection. And those plans used to be implemented. Now nobody use to think about people of taiga, their towns and kids. People are free to survive by the very wild manner, by the middle centuries laws, and to be exploited hardly, as slaves. Any work being done on logging has been paid symbolically and seldom, for half of that revenues has to be given up for Moscow bureaucracy support. So, governmental tax policy subdivide forest community by two opposing camps: that who is dependant on money and their dividing, and that who is simply slave, enforced to survive by the wild forest harvesting.

All the talks about environmental priorities in such conditions may sound somehow as sort of mockery for regular taiga inhabitant. He need to be explained constantly, that these times are only times, and such order can not exist too long, and many things depend on taiga inhabitants themselves, their self consciousness, their skills to get together in their fighting for common rights.

Low citizen's consciousness, absence of will to look for legal ways for survival and creation of new NTFP market - all this become a good soil for establishing destructive current patterns of forest use on the all levels. Significant role in changing situation to the better could play local NGOs, appearing on the area at that time. Greenpeace action on Svetlaya in 1992 demonstrated their opportunities: people, getting realised, that its quite easy to brake forest destruction, produced by rich koreans, raised their spirit, supported action, even though joint-venture brought a good new life to many of them.

But local NGOs turned too scientific and separated from real life. Most of them start to educate narrow circle of people and kids, production of pretty programs, databases, paid by foreign grants. Real forest protection become a duty for only one, the first RFE NGO - environmental group "Taiga" in Krasnoarmeiskii District. Thanks to its activity very significant and historical steps had been done cedar cut broken all over USSR (1989), Iman dam construction banned, NTFP processing firms created, Sikhote-Alinskii Preserve territory increased, "Tayozhnii" refuge saved and re-created, national park came to the stage of adoption. Recently Armu river had been announced as a zone of peace.

7. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Given examples confirm that even in really bad conditions, which Sikhote-Alin forest complex came to with a whole district, there are still enough opportunities for reasonable work for a future, for forest protection and restoration, for development of small business and recreation of traditional indigenous resource use culture. Krasnoarmeiskii district became just pioneer area for a broad distribution of modern timber processing complexes into practice of logging companies. Remarkable, that it was initiated by district authorities, could to enforce companies to get environmental priorities as a basic ones in the process of forest leasing in 1995-1997. Finally, about 10 firms in district got modern timber processing equipment and bring lumber of world quality to the market. Important support for this had been given by "Terneiles" holding, able to adapt most of involved firms to new market conditions.

As soon as modern technologies of logging and processing mean serious cut of jobs, they don’t delete, but provide intensification of NTFP and hunting products use, which is traditional for indigenous people. So, resolving of the basic district economics problems stay deeply connected to development of program for traditional resource use of indigenous community and certain families, and to development of all types of forest use control.

Some basic goals in this field may be formulated here, which have a good ground for being implemented in Krasnoarmeiskii District.

SHORT TERM AND CONSTANT

• organizing of public checking points on the roads with militia by initiatoive of administrations and Gopskomecologia.
• insert of ecological and forestry priorities into regulations of forest plots bidding.
• mass media campaigning in favour of positive patterns of taiga community development and contradiction to destruction of the forest as a base of local economics and indigenous survival.
• creation of inter-institutional task forces for forest protection with involvement of forest, hunting and environmental inspection, militia and community.
• NTFP marketing.

LONG TERM ACTIVITIES:

• attraction investments into activity of the small companies, dealing with NTFP harvesting, wholesale and proicessing: nuts, berries, needle, ferns, mushrooms, wines, herbs etc.
• promotion of creation small timber processing factories, producing the googs, attractive for local market: parquet, mouldings, laths, souvenires etc.
• development of tourizm - ecological, sporting, scientific.
• creation of ethnic-cultural center and community mould of forest use for udege.
• creation of legal proposals and regulations for local and regional parliaments for the goal of creation privileges for small businesses, concerned to sustainable resource use.
• broad propaganda and support of forest service, loggers and environmental protection staff to insert volunteer and obligatory certification of timber into practice of forestry.
• active work of environmental NGO "Taiga" and others to move NGO candidates to local and regional legislatures.
• legislating initiatives of environmental activists together with Association of indigenous people and regional Duma for legal adoption of privileges for indigenous people in their resource use rights (release of regional and local taxes, requests for federal Duma, priority in bidding independant on solvency etc.)

In Krasnoarmeiskii District such goals may be supported by environmental NGO "Taiga", small NTFP processing business "Ecos", District Committee for Environmental Protection, udege farm of Lyudmila Grigoryeva, Association of Indigenous People, experimental complex hunting association in town Melnichnoye. Initiative will be supported by local administration, forest services, Associarion "Northern Primorye", District Duma.

Logging companies, some specialists of forest services, militia, providing biggest amount of poachers everywhere in Primorye, and, somehow, "Tiger" task force of Goskompriroda, making money and image thanks to poaching, may oppose listed activities, leading to forest sustainability. Even some udege may be opposing, so far as they are tired with a series of plans, programs and promises of ethnic development, their support and privileges, never being implemented.

The more important, although very complicated, will be the process of slow creation the model of collaboration national park administration, its ideology with udege community. Process is delicate, and may not be based upon juridical ground. Legistalion created series of artificial and crazy social and legal abysses between representatives of one community and town. But, its impossible to create new society and keep wealthy environment for it without commonwealth. It has to become start point in time of any activities in the taiga - collaboration with obligatory keeping in mind priorities of indigenous people, protected by international Conventions, but not enough by Russian legislation.

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