Ilim shares its experience in timber cruising for forest inventory and makes a proposal on how to make the industry more attractive for investors

On October 10-12, 2019, The Wood Stocktake and Forest inventory for Business and Forest Management Purposes Conference was held in Kazan, bringing together representatives of the government, business and forest inventory community. The conference agenda included discussions on national forest inventory, compensatory reforestation, public-private partnership and legislative initiatives in the forest industry. The conference was attended by Ilya V. Verveiko, Head of Forest Policy of Ilim Group.

Mr. Verveiko spoke on several key parameters of the forest resource information that affect the investment appeal of the forest industry. In particular, he mentioned open access to data, reliability of cruising data ensured by accurate tracking and tracing, relevance of information and its regular update, as well as the market price of forest inventory activities to support competition.

“At present, there are draft amendments to the Forest Code in terms of delegation of the forest inventory authority to the federal level. However there is a risk of forest inventory monopolization, which will trigger overpricing”, said Ilya V. Verveiko. “Forest inventory services should not be monopolized, that is why the law should envisage the possibility for forest inventory to be conducted not only by Rosleskhoz institutions, but also by third-party companies. Of course, there is a need for qualification requirements to be met by the entities that will be engaged in this work, as well as a quality control procedure”.

Ilim Group is one of the leaders in timber cruising and forest resource tracking and tracing. Measurement automation and data transfer to a unified center are Ilim's key priorities to ensure availability of more accurate and better quality information about leased timberlands (inventories, species mix, etc). However the accuracy of data that is available to the state is also important. Today these data, including operable forests data, are 30 years old. Therefore, the tenants have to conduct forest inventory at their own expense. Ilim Group conducts such activities on a regular basis, so that forest inventory data on 90% of leased timberlands is less than 10 years old. Ilim Group develops cutting-edge timber cruising technologies for forest inventory.   In particular, the Koryazma Forest (Arkhangelsk Oblast) has tested forest inventory technology involving lidar survey in addition to aerial survey. In 2020, Ilim plans to test similar technology in its Siberian Forests. This initiative was the basis for the development of proposed amendments to the forest management guidelines to allow commercial application of this cruising technology.

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The Wood Stocktake and Forest inventory for Business and Forest Management Purposes annual conference is initiated by the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz) and supported by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. The conference was attended by more than 300 participants from 40 regions of Russia.

Conference speakers included representatives of Rosleskhoz, Roslesinforg, federal and local government executives, expert community, non-profit organizations and business as well as the members of the State Duma.