Exploratory assessment of a company's due diligence system against the EU timber regulation: A case study from northwestern Russia

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Atlas of the forest sector in Ukraine with the focus on wood fuels

Layout: Anne Siika, MetlaThis is a review of the current situation of the forest sector in Ukraine by considering a collection of maps. The cartographic information is grouped in the following way: forest resources, silviculture, wood harvesting, production and the most important producers of wood-based products, forest education and research and the potential of wood energy. This review serves the information needs ofdifferent stakeholders and of those interested in the forest sector in Ukraine

Finnish forest energy know-how and technology to the developing Russian market

Perspectives for promotion of intensive forest management practices in Russia (emojulkaisu)201

Malozatratnaja vysokotochnaja tehnologija inventarizatsii lesov na osnove oblachnoi obrabotki dannyh s bespilotnyh letatelnyh apparatov

Perspectives for promotion of intensive forest management practices in Russia (emojulkaisu)201

About intensification of forest management in Russia

Perspectives for promotion of intensive forest management practices in Russia (emojulkaisu)201

Assessment of Compliance with PEFC Forest Certification Indicators with Remote Sensing

The majority of Finnish forests (95%) are certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). It is a worldwide leading forest certification scheme. The aim of this study is to analyze the Finnish National Standard of PEFC certification and identify the indicators that can be reliably estimated with remote sensing (RS) techniques. The retrieved data are further verified with a chosen geographical information system (GIS) application. The rapid increase in certified areas globally has created a certain level of mistrust that makes the evaluation by certification bodies (CB) questionable. Firstly, the area of the field audit is limited, and the verification results are based on sampling techniques. Secondly, the evaluation of the indicators of sustainable forest management (SFM) is based on auditor expertise and thus is prone to bias. Thirdly, the actual condition of large forest stands in Eastern and Northern Finland are not easy to determine and verify. Thus, PEFC certification in Finland, in particular, faces numerous challenges in regard to the quality of field assessment due to the intensive forest management model with a high number of annual felling sites. At the same time, small scale and scattered harvesting sites are difficult to assess. Our proposed approach combined with remote assessment reliably verified 18% of the standard and could substantially reduce the costs associated with field audits in Finland. The results from our verification analysis are spatially explicit and geographically referenced and can be published in open access portals for interested parties. Moreover, it provides improved transparency in field assessments for the PEFC certification. The novel approach proposed here requires further investigation at larger scales (e.g., national level).201

Correction: Trishkin, M., et al. Assessment of a Company’s Due Diligence System against the EU Timber Regulation: A Case Study from Northwestern Russia. Forests 2015, 6, 1380–1396

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [1]: The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused to the readers by these changes.[...

Assessment of attitudes towards bioenergy by forestry experts in the Republic of Karelia

The Republic of Karelia is situated in the northwestern part of Russia and represents approximately 1 %of the country’s territory. Forests cover 53 % of the total area, with 70 % of the total forest area availablefor harvesting. The bioenergy sector is relatively significant as it contributes 10 % to the total energy supplyin Karelia, which as a fossil fuel deficient region is highly dependent on imported energy resources fromother regions of the country. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to assess the role and position ofbioenergy in the Republic of Karelia. It was done by exploring the perception of forestry professionalsand forestry students towards bioenergy production in comparison with other forest uses. The role andposition of bioenergy was identified through the assessment of the importance of landscape elements,ranking of adverse environmental effects on surrounding landscapes, input to the local economy andimportance in planning principles. The results indicate that bioenergy production is perceived to have alow negative effect on the surrounding environment but also a low economic input to the local economyof the region. In addition, bioenergy is perceived to have a low influence on planning principles accordingto the opinions of the respondents. Statistically significant differences were found between the opinions ofrespondents with different occupations in regards to the main factors that negatively affect the surroundingenvironment. In general, the respondents indicated that bioenergy production is of moderate importance,although more research is needed in this field