Assessment of illegal turnover of timber products in the south of the Far East

Abstract

 Illegal forest use leads to negative consequences in the field of ecology, forest economics and state forest management, and increases corruption risks, which is evidence of the relevance of research. Their main goal is to assess the level of illegal trade in timber products in the south of the Far East, using the example of the Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories, which was carried out on the basis of the author’s methodology for calculating the balance of harvesting and consumption volumes in the equivalent of liquid wood. Conventional methods were also used – comparative analysis, evaluation and graphic-analytical. First of all, the research results showed that starting from 2019, there has been a significant decrease in the total volumes of procurement and exports. 2023 will see the lowest rates in the last decade. The level of illegal turnover of forest products, in some years, reached 800 thousand m³, but subsequently, starting from 2019, illegal logging of forest plantations was not recorded in a significant volume. This is due to the large number of legislative measures taken in the Russian Federation. In particular, the most important ones are the introduction of electronic accompanying documents for the removal of wood and the preparation of a report on the balance of income and consumption of forest products at storage sites, which make it possible to note their positive impact on reducing the level of illegal logging. This is especially noticeable in the Russian Far East.