Russia has the world’s largest forest area, making it a key country in global forest sector in many ways. However, the Russian forest sector has not been able to unlock its socio-economic potential. The opportunities presented by the Russian forest sector to the country itself, and for the EU, are clearly much higher than the present day activities provide. Thus, there is a mutual interest for both parties to better understand why these potentials are not fully utilized, and how they could be enhanced in the future. Given the above context, it is crucial that the opportunities between the European and Russia forest sectors are unlocked more efficiently than in the past. To this end, there is first a need to better understand and anticipate both the short-term impacts and the long-term opportunities that the changes in Russian economy, society and forest sector are creating.
Objectives of the study
• Improve the understanding of the existing, emerging and future international economic, policy and governance environment affecting Russian forests and the forest-based sector, and its impacts to Nordic countries and EU forest sectors
• Synthesize and generate new information and analyses regarding the current and future forest products and forest bioenergy markets and trade between Nordic countries, EU and Russia
• Analyze the impacts of Russia’s WTO membership for the European and Russian forest sectors
• Analyse the impacts of the EU timber regulation on the timber trade between Russia and the EU, as well as the opportunities offered by the long experience of control of wood procurement origin in timber trade between Russia and Nordic countries.
The study is relevant and timely in the context of:
• The ongoing Nordic countries and EU cooperation with Russia, where economic issues & the environment is a priority policy area
• Strengthening forest sectors and the economic opportunities the Russian, Nordic countries and EU forest sectors
• The membership of the Russian Federation in the World Trade Organization
• The impacts of EU Timber regulation on Russian timber and timber product exports into Nordic countries and EU
• The ongoing discussions for a new Forest Policy in Russia
• The ongoing Intergovernmental Negotiations for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe (INC) where the Russian federation is actively participating as a Bureau member
• The new EU Forest strategy which emphasizes the need for a better coordinated International policy vision/actions