The Dvinsky forest is one of the last virgin forests in Europe. Today it is under siege, like the entire great northern forest, because of the timber and paper industries.
When people think of deforestation, they often picture the Amazon, or the tropical forests of south-east Asia. But there is another green lung under threat today. It is the great northern forest stretching from Alaska to Canada, across Scandinavia and Russia. And it is in this last region that the forest is suffering the greatest losses.
This is revealed in the latest report by Greenpeace, Eye on taiga, which shows how major paper and paper-products manufacturers are linked to large groups that are deforesting one of the last and largest virgin forests in Europe, in the Russian taiga. The report estimates that the rate of degradation is 1.5 times faster than in the Amazon, meaning that over approximately 13 years the rate of loss has been 2.5 million hectares per year.
"This forest is of enormous importance: this ecosystem accounts for 1/3 of all the forests on earth, second in importance only to the tropical forest," explains Martina Borghi, forest campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Italy, reached by phone. "It is an ecosystem capable of storing the largest quantities of carbon on the planet, more than tropical forests, thanks in part to the permafrost and peatlands."
The ancient Dvinsky forest, which covers around 835,000 hectares within the Arkhangelsk region, is part of the virgin forest scientifically defined as Intact Forest Landscape (Ifl). It is an enormous treasure trove of biodiversity, yet a territory coveted by the pulp and timber industries. "The Arkhangelsk region is an emblematic case and a land of bitter conflicts," Borghi continues. "On one side there is the government's commitment which, under the agreements reached, should protect at least 60 per cent of the forest." On the other are the large industries pushing for more concessions. In around 15 years, 300,000 hectares of Ifl — intact forest landscape — have been lost. This is the same habitat where the last specimens of wild reindeer live, along with other species such as the lemming, the wolverine and the pine marten, as well as large predators like the grizzly bear, wolf and lynx.
The environmental organisation names the groups said to be operating on the margins of transparency, in areas that should be protected. Among them is Arkhangelsk pulp & paper mill (Appm), which trades primarily in pulp and paper and is one of the companies obstructing the official protection of the Dvinsky Forest. There is also the Kiev Cardboard and Paper Mill — based in Ukraine but controlled by the Austrian company Pulp Mill Holding GmbH — which sells its products to well-known brands such as McDonald's, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelez and Auchan. "All of this happens because demand for single-use products is very high, particularly in Europe and the US," explains Borghi. "Products such as paper, tissues, packaging paper, timber and low-cost furniture are driving demand up. That is why we are calling on the major timber and paper industries to make their concessions public and declare the origin of their raw materials."
This is why international supply chain and sustainable forest management certifications – such as FSC and PEFC – can be a valuable tool for reducing illegal logging. Unfortunately, "in the Arkhangelsk region, large-scale industrial logging is often disguised under the pretexts of sustainable forestry and sanitary felling," the summary of the report reads. "For this reason, forest certifications found on pulp, paper, timber and derived products originating from this area do not guarantee respect for and protection of forests."
One positive example is certainly the agreement reached last year regarding the protection of the Great Bear Forest in British Columbia. Supported by Greenpeace, Forest Ethics, Sierra Club British Columbia and forestry companies, it enshrined the protection of three million hectares of forest – a territory roughly the size of Belgium, and the habitat of wolves, grizzlies, marbled murrelets, salmon, frogs and the extremely rare kermode bear. "The Great Bear Forest agreement represents a global model for large-scale forest conservation," the organisation writes in a press release. "In protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and the fight against climate change."
The great forests of the planet's boreal region are and remain core habitats that are fundamental to the protection of biodiversity, the sequestration of carbon and the mitigation of climate change. This is why we cannot afford to lose them or to cut them down indiscriminately for a scrap of paper.