Towards a Sustainable Russian Forest Sector

Abstract

"Russia's forest resources are enormous but despite almost ten years of transition problems are still immense, both in terms commercial output and with respect to forest management. In this article it is suggested that one way of changing the situation is to initiate an introduction of community managed forests. Using the Swedish forest commons as an example it is argued that such a change in property rights will provide an alternative to massive privatization of the forests as well as to an undesirable continuation or strengthening of state forest management. Finally, it is concluded that such an introduction of new property rights regimes will not provide the solution to the problems but contribute to the establishing of a better institutional framework in the Russian forest sector."