Forests of the Pechora River Basin: Resources, Productivity, Prospects for Use

The paper reports on the resource potential of forests in the Pechora River basin according to the data of the state recording of forests and the state forest register of 11 forest districts, the Pechora-Ilych Biosphere Reserve and the Yugyd Va National Park. It analyses the changes in the forest fund of the Pechora basin from 1998 to 2021. For this period, the forest-covered area changed by 2% and became 16.8 million hectares. The stand of timber per hectare increased by 7% mainly due to the increased ratio of mature and overmature stands. The potential timber resources on the territory of the Pechora River basin equaled 1448,8 million m3 in 2021. They mainly consisted of coniferous tree species, by 90% (normally spruce and pine). The forest fund dynamics of the basin was associated with a reduced volume of timber logging over the past 30 years. The Upper and Middle Pechora forest-economic districts include the main exploitation forest fund amounting to 679,6 million m3 timber. 83,8% of it are mature and overmature tree stands. In this forest fund of the Pechora basin, the percent of commercial timber is 78 in coniferous and 50 in deciduous stands. The authors have evaluated additional forest resources as stumps, roots, branches, bark, needles, and leaves of tree plants and shrubs (373,6 million tons in the exploitation forest fund of the Pechora basin). 58 million tons of phytomass or 27 million tons of carbon accumulate annually in the forest phytocenoses of the Pechora region. 63,5% of this value is sequestrated by stands, mainly by coniferous trees. The forests of the region are rich in secondary forest resources (mushrooms, berries, medicinal and honey plants, forest pastures, hayfields, etc.). 54% of the forest-covered area of the Pechora River basin is protective forests. This index is relatively high as compared to a number of well-developed regions of Russia. The importance of the environmental and protective functions of the Pechora forests is highlighted, especially for the most vulnerable northern territories of the Pechora region known for extraction, transportation and processing of raw hydrocarbons. The paper concludes on the prospect of using an intensive forest management model for the forests of the Pechora River basin.

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