The FAO defines a forest as an area larger than 0.5 hectares where 10 percent of the ground is covered by tree canopy.

The Rainforest Foundation said this definition was far too loose. "Ten percent is just land with a few trees dotted around. They are exaggerating the area of forest," Counsell said.

The canopy of a tropical forest often covers almost 100 percent of the ground. Environmentalists say when this figure falls below 50 percent, the forest’s eco-system is wrecked.

But the FAO defended its methodology, saying it was almost impossible to gauge the degradation inside forests, and warned against excessive alarmism.

It said primary forests, which are areas undisturbed by humans, represented 36 percent of total global forests, with some 6 million hectares lost or modified each year.

"It is obviously very sad to lose this amount, but you should bear in mind that it represents just 0.4 percent of total primary forest," said survey co-ordinator, Mette Loyche Wilkie.

FAO said plantations accounted for less than 5 percent of all the world’s forest areas, while 11 percent of forests were official conservation areas — up 96 million hectares on 1990.

Credits should be allocated to all forestry planting, not just to "permanent forest sinks".

"That way there will be a massive amount of planting…

"By 2012 we would probably be back in credit again at no cost to the government."

Tree plantings, which had plummeted to nearly zero, would return to 1990 levels of more than 50,000ha a year.

The Government has nationalised New Zealand’s carbon credits. It has said it might allow carbon credit trading from 2012.

Last week it revealed New Zealand taxpayers faced a bill of at least $500m to buy carbon credits in the first commitment period, 2008-2012, under the protocol.

Mr Dickie said the Government’s policy of carbon credits for "permanent forest sinks" which could not be harvested for 35 years was impractical and did not encourage planting by mainstream plantation forest owners.

"Why don’t they just let forest owners get on with their business?"

The credits would make "quite a substantial difference to the economics of planting a forest", he said.

"We’ve got some figures that suggest the return changes dramatically. It was so huge we decided we’d get them researched by some other independent consultants and we will have those figures out sometime in the next week or so.

"But it looks as though the returns for planting a forest and growing it would more than double. When log prices go down the returns from other aspects like your forest sink credits as a percentage become more important.

"Peopl? are just totally turned off by what the Government has done to the forest owners here. It’s our trees, it’s our credits."

New tree planting had fallen from a peak of 100,000ha in 1994 to 10,000ha last year.

Yesterday Mr Dickie presented the association’s submission to the parliamentary commerce select committee on the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill.

The submission urged the Government to leave the rights and obligations associated with carbon credits to the organisations and individuals who earned them, to require industries and organisations that created liabilities to obtain credits and to provide a mechanism for trading credits.

In November 2004 the investment basis for the construction of the Cherkessk – Adler highway was submitted for the state environmental review to "Rosprirodnadzor" (Russia’s Service on Control of Natural Use Management). The Damkhurts – Krasnaya Polyana part of this road is going to be built through the territory of the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve (World Natural Heritage Site "West Caucasus") and virgin mountain areas bordering it. Building owner of the project is "The Department of Federal Highways in Karachay-Circassian Republic". This project is not accepted for carrying out the state environmental review yet, but it may happen soon.

Not so long ago there were plans to construct the highway through the Caucasian Reserve (Lagonaki Plateau) on Maikop – Dagomys route. Fortunately public protest campaign against this construction was successful and this project was not put into practice. But Adygeya Republic authorities are still planning this road-building, so the danger is not eliminated completely. And now a much more dangerous threat of road construction through the Caucasian Reserve is coming from Karachay -Circassian Republic authorities. The government of this North Caucasian republic, as well as Adygeya’s authorities, wants to get a direct outlet to the Black Sea coast. So Karachay – Circassia leaders have been designing the Cherkessk – Adler highway since 2001. But the only direct way from Karachay-Circassia to the Russia’s Black Sea coast lies through the Caucasian Reserve. This project can severely damage both – the integrity of the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve and its natural complexes.

Nine options for this highway route were considered within the framework of the investment basis for the Cherkessk-Adler highway construction. Karachay-Cherkessia promoted the 6th option most actively. According to the promoted option, the highway is planned on the route: Cherkessk?- Psemen – Rozhkao – Damkhurts – Damkhurts River valley – Tsakhvoa River valley – Kardyvach Lake – Engelmanova Polyana – Krasnaya Polyana – Adler. Total length of the highway on this route is 313 kilometers. Construction of two tunnels with the total length of 12,6 kilometers is planned. So the highway is going to be built on extremely valuable areas in southern part of the Caucasian Reserve near the border of Russia with Georgia (Abkhazia). Virgin areas in both of Damkhurts River and Mzymta River valleys, bordering the Reserve, will also suffer from this.

Here the highway lies also on a protected areas: Sochi National Park, Sochi Zakaznik (wildlife refuge) and Damkhurts Zakaznik. As a result, if this project is realized, huge areas of the West Caucasus wilderness will be deeply influenced by intense anthropogenic impact.

Caucasian Reserve, as well as other unique natural complexes of Russia, is now in great danger. In the last few years, illegal but profitable for authorities projects were widely practiced in Russia and Northern Caucasus in particular. These projects are usually put into practice even despite the heavy opposition from the public.

But the main danger now is that even laws can be easily changed, Deputies of the governmental party "United Russia", make up the majority in the State Duma (Parliament of the Russian Federation) and are changing laws one after another. So it is quite possible that Russian authorities might even change the federal legislation making it possible to stretch the highway through the Reserve.

The areas of the Caucasus Reserve where the road construction is planned are a part of the World Natural Heritage. This fact will hardly become a serious obstacle for those behind this project, unless the international community will raise a question at the highest level about the inadmissibility of this construction.

This problem is very important and calls for active actions from all people and organizations concerned on the conservation of wild nature of The Caucasian Reserve. Russian environmental organizations are starting a public campaign against the construction of the Damkhurts – Krasnaya Polyana highway.

As part of this campaign Environmental Watch on North Caucasus with the support of other local NGOs and also Greenpeace Russia and Biodiversity Conservation Center is preparing to carry out a public environmental review of this project.

Many of these facts and events are accessible on-line now. Please VISIT THE WEBSITE ?Belovezhskaya Pushcha ? 21st Century? (http://bp21.org.by/) AND JOIN OUR EFFORTS TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE THIS FOREST. YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS VERY WELCOME.

Please we do ask you to forward and distribute this information about the new website accessible to your friends and colleagues, as far as possible.

It is also very important that today this is the only website devoting the specially protected natural area in Belarus and widely showing its unique nature and problems.

No country in the world is able to organize effective use and protection of their forests without detailed information about the state of forest landscapes. The previous map ("Forest landscapes of the USSR") issued in 1990, was based on quite old materials and represented the situation of 25-30 years old.

A new map "Forest Landscapes of Russia" has combined four existing maps chosen so that to provide most up-to-date and detailed data.

First of all, the new map demonstrates that most valuable in the industry coniferous forests were preserved only in sparsely populated and difficult of access regions of the European North and Siberia. While in the most fertile forest lands spruce ?nd pine are replaced by the second growth, birch and aspen forests, which can’t be used effectively in the forest industry. At present the territory with the second deciduous growth amounts to 31% of the total forest area in Russia.

The main reason of mass forest degradation is the extensive forest use that prevailed in our country in the last century. This includes large-scaled clear cutting, a low quality of reforestation works and not sufficient care about saplings.

"It’s evident that potentialities of extensive logging in Russia are almost exhausted. – says Alexey Yaroshenko, Greenpeace Russia forest campaign coordinator. – Almost all suitable for logging forests are developed. The further growth of logging volumes of coniferous forests without considerable improvement of the forestry quality is environmentally dangerous and it will lead to further degradation of forest resources."

"To enable the forest industry to develop, the government has to pay much more attention to the forestry", – says Mr. Yaroshenko.

"The presented map is another evidence of how significant "the human trace" in Russian forests is. It presents not only territories, where economic activities caused the replacement of coniferous species by deciduous ones, but also vast areas, where forests are totally destroyed. Such deforested territories take about 15% of "potentially forested" landscapes of Russia.

This competition is a part of program for reduction of illegal hunting and other nature protection violations.

Competition will last until January 20, 2005. Any school student from Amur region may participate. He or she must write a letter to a person practicing illegal hunting or fishing, illegal logging etc. The letter should explain what kind of harm brings such actions to nature and people, how poaching affects planet’s future. Authors of three best letters will receive prizes.

ALL letters will be delivered to the addressees – they will be given to poachers caught by Nature Guards.

"The poaching problem is a serious issue here, especially in the rural areas. We want both children and grown-ups to think about it. May be at least some of them will change their attitude to illegal hunt and other kind of poaching," – says Yana Peretolchina, leader of environmental education team of the Nature Guards.

OJSC Kay became 12 Russian forestry company certified according to FSC certification demands.
OJSC Kay is located in Chus settlement of Verkhnekamsky county of Kirov region and has 124 ha of forest in long-term rent at Kaysky leskhoz territory. Smartwood did certification.
Certification was supported by IKEA. This company has business in Russia and is interested in sustainable and environmentally sound wood and wood-product production in Russia.

OJSC Kay prepared for certification for more than two years. Enterprise had to do a lot of work before it received FSC certificate. Pre-certification assessment was done in March 2003, and number of conditions to comply with were put forward. Certificate was given for five years. Each year OJSC Kay will be inspected for compliance with FSC terms.

WWF, Greenpeace, and the Forests and the European Union Resource Network (FERN) drew up the model legislation as a response to the European Commission?s Action Plan to combat illegal logging and its related trade (FLEGT), whose first package of measures will be discussed by EU Agriculture Ministers on 21 December 2004.

?Our draft Regulation is intended to press the EU to take swift action to stop the ongoing tragedy of forest destruction, which lays waste to vast areas of forest and destroys the livelihoods of millions who depend on them. The EU is clearly implicated in the trade,? said S?bastien Risso of Greenpeace.

The NGO-drafted Regulation recognizes illegal logging and its related trade as an environmental crime, and allows for sanctions in the event of abuse of documents certifying the wood?s legality (eg, no import notification, false declaration, forged documents). It also proposes that sustainability criteria be developed in cooperation with timber-producing countries and progressively integrated into laws to reassure the consumer that timber is both legal and from a sustainably managed forest.

This builds on the Commission?s current proposal, presented in July 2004, which aims to implement a credible chain of custody to ensure the legality of timber imports from those countries that choose to sign partnership agreements with the EU. The European Commission and European Parliament have each recognized that illegal timber imports from countries without partnership agreements will remain a problem, as will crimes associated with the trade, but these concerns have not been addressed to date.

?The timber industry faces an uncertain ?uture if it fails to address the problem of illegal logging and unsustainable wood imports," said Beatrix Richards, WWF’s Forest Policy Officer for Europe. "Europe needs to remove this wood from the market to ensure a level playing field for legal traders and the survival of the world?s forests.?

The statement signed by NGOs calls for civil society to be fully involved in the development of partnership agreements to propose solutions and to promote responsible forest management. It also requests measures in the areas of customs cooperation, investment, and public-purchasing policies.

WWF, Greenpeace, and FERN emphasize that in addition to their draft regulation, the EU will need to deal with the crimes associated with the illegal timber trade, such as bribery and money-laundering.

Notes:

? More than 1.2 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, according to the World Bank?s Sustaining Forests report

? 50 per cent of tropical timber imports into the EU are estimated to come from illegal sources (European League Table of Imports of Illegal Timber, Friends of the Earth), and up to 25 per cent of imports from north-west Russia (Illegal logging in north- western Russia and export of Russian forest products to Sweden, WWF, April 2003).

? The European Commission acknowledged in its Action Plan that for a variety of reasons, some important wood-producing countries may choose not to enter into FLEGT partnership agreements with the EU, despite the advantages outlined.

Large-scale cuttings including illegal fellings of the living wood within the protected area, artificial afforestation and some other activities dramatically changed this forest and its unique biodiversity. Serious social crises and the pressure of local population provided by the administration of the National Park are additional troubles in this region.

Many of these facts and events are accessible on-line now. Please VISIT THE WEBSITE "Belovezhskaya Pushcha – 21st Century" (http://bp21.org.by/) AND JOIN OUR EFFORTS TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE THIS FOREST. YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS VERY WELCOME.

Please we do ask you to forward and distribute this information about the new website accessible to your friends and colleagues, as far as possible.

It is also very important that today this is the only website devoting the specially protected natural area in Belarus and widely showing its unique nature and problems.

"We cannot be satisfied with the primarily raw material orientation of Russian exports (over 80%) [to Finland]," Yakovenko said.

Underlining a positive practical character of our bilateral economic relations, Yakovenko said that, according to the results of the first six months of this year, Russia is Finland’s third largest trading partner, while Finland is Russia’s sixth largest partner in trade with western countries.

According to his data, in 2003 the two countries’ trade amounted to 7.63 billion euros, given a stable tendency towards growth and Russia’s export surplus of 890 million euros.

Yakovenko outlined prospects for intensifying relations in the investment sphere and stressed the importance of creating imports-replacing production in Russia with the Finnish capital’s participation.

It is worth noting that as regards the volume of accumulated investments – over $1 billion – Finland is among major investors in the Russian economy. "This level, however, does not fully conform to the potential of Russian-Finnish relations," Yakovenko said.

Moscow expects practical results from the S?andinavian business forum held in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia) on October 12-13, 2004, and the forthcoming Russian-Finnish conference on cooperation in the lumber industry complex due to be held in Helsinki on October 26.

Valery Roshchupkin, chief of the Federal Forest Husbandry Agency, deems it necessary to involve Finnish lumberers in high-level timber processing in Russia. He made a statement to this effect at a press-conference at RIA Novosti held Friday and devoted to the forthcoming conference in Helsinki.

"We believe a shift should be made towards Finnish lumberers’ more intensive transfer to the Russian territory with their production," Roshchupkin said.

In his words, Finland meets 20% of its timber requirements by Russian raw timber. Roshchupkin believes that it is necessary to create new conditions for attracting Finnish companies to start high-level timber processing in Russia, not just buy Russian raw materials at low prices.

"Some preferences should be provided for companies engaged in high-level timber processing in Russia," Roshchupkin stressed.

He also pointed out that the new Forest Code of Russia which takes due account of this issue would be adopted in March-April 2005.

In Roshchupkin’s words, the Helsinki conference will also examine the problem of illegal wood- felling.

According to the data of the Federal Forest Husbandry Agency, illegal wood-felling accounts for 5% of the 130 million cubic metres of annually harvested wood (according to the data of Russian public organisations, illegal timber turnover accounts for 20% of the total).

"We have information that some Russian organisations supply illegally felled wood to Finnish official organisations," Roshchupkin said. He stressed that "both sides must always be held responsible; not only the side which illegally felled wood, but also that one which purchased it."

Roshchupkin underlined that uniform criteria were necessary for assessing illegal wood-felling. "What is regarded as illegal wood-felling in Russia, may not be considered as such in some other countries. Therefore, uniform assessment criteria are needed," Roshchupkin added. In his words, in September 2005, Russia will host an international conference for fighting illegal wood-felling. "We intend to raise the issue of the two sides’ responsibility – of the sellers and buyers," Roshchupkin stressed in conclusion.