22
Oct 2008 - Vladivostok, Russia – For the
first time ever, a partnership between WWF
and a for-profit timber company has been
awarded a “conservation concession” to restore
approximately 10% of the critically endangered
Amur leopard’s habitat.
The Forest Department
of Primorskii Province in the Russian Far
East has leased out a forest area of 45,000ha
in the south-west of Primorye, which straddles
Vladivostok and the Chinese boarder, to
the Nerpinskoye Cooperative Society (also
known as Nerpinskii rybcoop) for the next
25 years.
The last remaining viable
wild population of Amur leopard, estimated
at less than 40 individuals, is found in
this area and WWF and Nerpinskii rybkoop
plan to implement a project that will increase
biodiversity by selectively removing oak
trees, which will open the forest canopy
and make way for the more valuable and native
spruce, Korean pine and Manchurian fir trees.
“Deer and wild boar
do much better in a diverse forest with
a smattering of nut crops that come into
season at different times throughout the
year – that’s a good thing for the Amur
leopard,” said Dr. Darron Collins, the managing
director for the WWF US Amur program. “By
recreating the biodiversity of the area,
WWF and Nerpinskkii are making it more valuable
for humans and species alike.”
Funds generated from
the small scale extraction of timber will
be reinvested in the fire prevention and
careful tending of forest stands required
to improve the ecological integrity of these
forests. The project hopes to increase the
coverage of mixed coniferous and broadleaved
forests by 33% over the next 40 years.
“Only lease holders
with long term rights to forest resources
on forest use would be prepared to invest
the time and energy to restore the forest.
We’ve been looking for a reliable partner
for this project for many years,“ said Denis
Smirnov, head of Forest Program of WWF Russia’s
Amur Programme. “Nerpinskii rybcoop, a well-known
enterprise in Khasanskii district of Primorye,
has become such a partner.”
The restoration project
will also provide income to local communities
in the area through employment in forestry
and the sale of Korean pine nuts and charcoal.
In such a case, restoration takes on a much
larger meaning as forests and communities
are restored.
“One of the most important
conditions of project success is its economic
advantages for the holder,” said Georgii
Dmitriev, the chairman of board of directors
of Nerpinskii rybcoop. “The project idea
is to make forest restoration activity profitable
by means of complex processing of low quality
wood, coming from tending cutting in Korean
pine stands.”
