Forests, forestry & FSC: striving for sustainable timber production in Russia

--- GERMAN VERSION BELOW ---

Russia is one of the most forest-rich countries in the world. Recently, the vast Russian forests have come under pressure driven by global demand for timber as well as climate change and forest fires. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide. Consumers are expected to buy FSC-certified and labelled timber in order to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. Is FSC certification a solution to the problems and threats to Russian forests? What is the current discourse and practice of sustainable forest management in Russia?

Tatiana Yanitskaya is certification manager and Deputy Director with the Russian National Office of the Forest Stewardship Council. She stays in Eberswalde to participate in a joint workshop with researchers from Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development and WWF Germany in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the sustainability label.

Pierre Ibisch is co-director of the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. The professor for Nature Conservation holds one of the first research professorships in Brandenburg and works on 'Biodiversity and natural resource management under global change'.