Forest Protection as an Important Component in the Preservation of

Ecology

L. L. Gishkaeva

and M. I. Kitieva

Chechen State University, Grozny, Russia

Ingush State University, Magas, Russia

Keywords: Forest, carbon sequestration, environmental protection, principles of green economy, ecology, ecological

framework.

Abstract: The article deals with the problems associated with the peculiarities of modern nature management and the

need for greening of production activities, according to the principles of sustainable development. The

necessity of transition to a green economy that promotes the growth of public welfare and social justice while

significantly reducing the risks to the environment and its degradation is pointed out. The main threats to the

natural processes of climate regulation leading to global warming are identified, among which human

production activities associated with greenhouse gas emissions into the environment play an important role.

It is noted that forests have the greatest importance in carbon sequestration, and this is determined not only

by their predominance in area, but also by the current state of forests. Today, the problem of afforestation is

becoming more and more urgent, especially in Western European countries, while in Africa the problem is

the reduction of tropical forests. The problem of forest conservation is also important for Russia, especially

in connection with the widespread illegal logging, which, according to experts, reaches 20-30%. Therefore,

the preservation of forest wealth is one of the most important areas of state policy.

1 INTRODUCTION

Modern nature management is considered as a

megasystem of interaction between nature and

society, in which the biosphere, atmosphere,

pedosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere are second-

order systems for nature, and the social and economic

spheres are society systems. The process of nature

management means the unity of anthropogenic

impact on nature and the response of nature to it.

Each stage of people's activity in nature

management had its own principles. Thus, the

criterion of economic efficiency until the second half

of the 20th century was the receipt of material

benefits. This model of environmental management,

led by the "economic principle" lasted until the 60-

70s of the last century. At the same time,

environmental activities were distinguished by a

charitable nature at the mercy of the conqueror of

nature - man and were reduced to separate

environmental measures. Meanwhile, man-made

environmental impacts have become akin to natural

disasters in their scale.

The overall goal of modern environmental

management is the greening of human activity,

according to the paradigm of sustainable

development, that is, bringing it into line with the

developed environmental laws and regulations

(Reimers, 1994). This goal includes the problems of

optimizing the interaction of society and nature,

taking into account the interests of future generations,

the preservation and restoration of biosphere balance,

meeting the needs of society for natural resources

based on their rational use, protection and

reproduction, conservation of biological diversity,

creation of a healthy habitat for people.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the course of this scientific research in the field of

the development of environmental protection and the

green economy, the works of well-known both

Russian and foreign scientists interested in the

problems of modern nature management were used.

Thus, according to Reimers N.F., the greening of

modern production and bringing it into compliance

with the adopted environmental laws and regulations

210

Gishkaeva, L. and Kitieva, M.

Forest Protection as an Important Component in the Preservation of Ecology.

DOI: 10.5220/0011568700003524

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Methods, Models, Technologies for Sustainable Development (MMTGE 2022) - Agroclimatic Projects and Carbon Neutrality, pages

210-214

ISBN: 978-989-758-608-8

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

should be the goal of modern environmental

management.

Kiryushin V.I. points out the high importance of

forests in the modern practice of creating an

ecological framework, based on the various

ecological and socio-economic functions they

perform, including maintaining the composition of air

in the atmosphere.

As noted by Vasilyuk A., Kolomyshev G., the

creation of forests on upland lands is a very

complicated and difficult task, due to the

contradictions of the aborigine and the newcomer.

According to Yanitskaya T.O., in Russia it is

important to solve the problem of degradation of

exploited territories, since an extensive approach with

the use of mostly clear-cutting prevails in forestry,

which does not contribute to the development of

forest growth processes in young forests.

In the works of Kulik K.N., the essence and

content of such a category as the forest-agrarian

system is defined, presented as a combination of the

territories of forest plantations with flora, fauna and

population located on it.

The replacement for the extensive model of

forestry management, according to Romanyuk B.D.,

should be an intensive forestry model based on high-

quality reforestation, with less loss of forest resources

during forest fires, from diseases, pests and directed

against illegal use of forest wealth.

During the work on this article, such scientific

methods as functional analysis, statistical analysis,

comparative analysis, as well as methods of positive

and normative analysis were used. The scientific

research was conducted in accordance with the

problem-chronological principle, the principles of

consistency and scientific objectivity.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In Rio de Janeiro, within the framework of the UN

conference "Rio+20" in June 2012, a declaration

entitled "The future we want" was proclaimed, which

marked the transition to the development of a green

economy, the goal of which is to increase the well-

being of people, social justice while reducing

emerging risks for the environment and the processes

of its degradation. The conference addressed issues

related to the importance of economic systems in

modern environmental management, which should be

aimed at preserving natural resources, while

balancing the needs for growth and fair use.

Biogeophysical functions and mechanisms play

an essential role in climate regulation, including:

regulation of energy flows observed between the

Earth's surface and its atmosphere in the form of

albedo, heat flows, wind speed; reduction of wind

strength by vegetation and damage from hurricanes

and storms; regulation of moisture flows between the

surface and the atmosphere in the form of influence

on cloud formation processes, the amount of

precipitation.

Biogeophysical climate-regulating functions of

ecosystems can have a strong influence on the climate

at the regional and global levels. The main threats to

the natural processes of climate regulation are:

inadequate forest management strategies,

unauthorized logging and forest fires, burning of

steppes, drainage of peat bogs and peat fires,

extensive agriculture with excessive tillage and low

yields, irrational use of fertilizers. At the global level,

these problems are complemented by many others,

but the heavy "breathing" of industry, energy and

other types of management associated with

greenhouse gas emissions is particularly harmful.

The main climate changes result in global

warming, when the average annual temperature on

the planet increased by about 0.8 °C in the period

from 1880 to 2010 and 2/3 of this warming occurred

after 1975, since then its growth rate has reached

0.15–0.2 °C in a decade (Pachauri, 2007). An increase

in atmospheric temperature by 2 °C is considered as

a tipping point, after which the change will be

catastrophic. This value has been adopted as a

guideline in the framework of international climate

policy. On Earth, according to the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change, from 20 to 30% of all

available species of flora and fauna may disappear

with an increase in the average temperature of its

atmosphere by 1.5-2.5 °C (Pachauri, 2007).

According to the majority of scientists dealing

with this problem, the negative climate change is

largely affected by the production activities of the

society, leading to greenhouse gas emissions. And

although there are experts who do not consider

production to be the main cause of warming, the

presence of a consensus that assigns great importance

to the anthropogenic factor in the ongoing changes on

the planet is not excluded.

Forests make the greatest contribution to the

carbon sequestration, which is due not only to the

predominance in area, but also to the current state of

forests. Forests in the modern practice of creating an

ecological frame of the territory (EFT) are considered

as a basic category by the number of ecological and

socio-economic functions that they perform in these

frameworks:

- ensuring biodiversity;

Forest Protection as an Important Component in the Preservation of Ecology

211

- maintaining the composition of air in the

atmosphere (oxygen production, absorption of

excess CO

);

- climate-forming function;

- water protection and water-regulating

functions (water regulation of lakes, rivers and

other water bodies, ensuring protection of river

banks, hydrologic behavior of watersheds,

etc.);

- protection of soils from water, wind erosion

and other types of degradation;

- recreational functions;

- sanitary and hygienic functions;

- aesthetic functions;

- preservation of unique natural complexes

(Kiryushin, 2021).

Some of these functions can be used as ecosystem

services, provided an adequate market is created.

According to this condition, the following 4

categories of ecosystem services are defined as the

most promising:

- regulation of water resources, air quality,

climate, erosion prevention;

- biodiversity conservation services

(preservation of unique ecosystems, plant and

animal species, genetic diversity);

- preservation and use of the values of the

aesthetic and cultural view of landscapes;

- carbon sequestration.

The latest ecosystem service has a solid global

market.

The functions of natural forests are more or less

inherent in forest plantations, especially large tracts

of restored and planted forests, although to a lesser

extent this concerns biodiversity. In cities, towns,

recreation areas, the influence of forest plantations on

reducing the level of air pollution with dust and gases,

reducing noise levels, wind speed is particularly

increasing, the sanitary role of phytocenoses is

actively manifested here. The problem of

afforestation is becoming more widespread,

especially in Western Europe, while in Africa the

problem of reducing tropical forests does not lose its

relevance.

The report of the UN Conference on Environment

and Development in 1992 focused on the need to

expand the area of forest cover through reforestation

and artificial planting of trees and forests on

unproductive lands affected by degradation and

deforestation. In recent years, this task has been

motivated by the need to reduce CO

in the

atmosphere and curb global warming. To this end, it

is planned to double the forest area of Ukraine,

Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and France

through forest plantations on treeless lands.

In this regard, the danger of afforestation of the

preserved virgin areas of the steppe gives cause for

concern. Many environmentalists rightly insist on

excluding them from afforestation plans. As for mass

afforestation in the steppe zone, especially in the dry

steppe, its possibilities are limited by forest-growing

conditions characterized by additional surface or

ground moisture. These are sections of the

hydrological network, ravine-beam complex, etc

(Kiryushin, 2021). On upland lands, the creation of

forests is an extremely complex and difficult task

associated with the contradictions of the aborigine

and the newcomer. The fall of sod grasses forms

steppe mat, which contributes to the wet deposition,

which is used by them more effectively than by wood

ones. As a result, woody vegetation on watershed

areas covered with steppe turf falls out quickly. This

is the difference between steppe ecosystems and

ravine and floodplain forests, confined to moistened

and shaded relief depressions and river valleys.

Steppe cereals cannot exist for a long time under the

closed canopy of a deciduous forest. In the forest

plantations of the steppe zone, trees are in sharply

unfavorable environmental conditions, so they are

almost always weakened and are characterized by

increased vulnerability to pests and diseases. Because

of these reasons, the canopy does not form or quickly

falls apart. There is a gradual return of sod cereals,

followed by rapid degradation of forest plantations

and, eventually, the restoration of the steppe

ecosystem (Vasilyuk, 2002).

Forest management and its sustainability today

represent a rather acute and controversial problem.

The definition of the sustainability of forest

management was given in 1995 in the draft

declaration of the Ministerial Conference on the

Protection of Forests held in Helsinki, which is the

management of forests and their areas, as well as their

use, contributing to their biological diversity,

productivity, the ability to renew, as well as the ability

in the present and in the future to perform various

functions of social, environmental, economic nature

without negative impact on other ecosystems at

different levels (local, national and global).

In the Russian Federation, according to various

estimates, the forest cover of the land reaches from

about 48% to 51%, which is significantly higher than

the global average of 27%, which was 70% in pre-

agricultural time. Today, the use of the potential of

Russian forests is characterized by low efficiency. In

Russia, with its approximately 1/4 of all world forest

resources, world forest products account for only

about 3%, less than 25% in general, the size

MMTGE 2022 - I International Conference "Methods, models, technologies for sustainable development: agroclimatic projects and carbon

neutrality", Kadyrov Chechen State University Chechen Republic, Grozny, st. Sher

212

determines the permissible size of the use of the forest

of the estimated cutting area. The amount of income

that the state has from the use of forest resources does

not reach even half of the budget funds spent for

forest protection and forestry in the country

(Chernov, 2015).

The forests of the state forest fund in the country

are divided into three groups, according to the forest

legislation of the country and in accordance with their

importance for the national economy, location and

functions performed (Kiryushin, 2021). To a greater

extent in modern Russia, the forest cover is

represented by secondary forests of different stages of

restoration, thereby contributing to the high activity

of the processes of their carbon deposition into the

Earth's atmosphere.

The problem of degradation of exploited

territories is quite acute in the country, since the forest

management system is far from optimal. In the forest

industry, for the most part, there is an extensive

approach based on clear-cutting, which is not very

suitable for reforestation on young forest lands.

Undisturbed forests in this case act as the most

important resource for the needs of industrial forest

management and forestry development, and care is

not fully provided for productive young plots, as well

as for middle-aged and maturing forests. On average,

the area of deforestation in low-disturbed forest areas

in the European part of the country from 2000 to 2004

reached 19,700 hectares annually. The area of low-

disturbed forest territories is reduced by 1.2-1.9% per

year (Yanitskaya, 2008).

A significant amount of mature and valuable

forests, mostly located in the southern territories, are

used in industrial forest management on the principles

of long-term lease. The sad picture of industrial forest

management is aggravated by the widespread illegal

logging. The share of illegally cut wood in the

country is estimated by experts at 20-30% (Kiryushin,

2021). Illegal logging is especially dangerous for

forests with high biodiversity and for protective

forests adjacent to roads and settlements. The

requirements of the Forest Management Standard of

the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are often

ignored locally.

According to the FSC standard, there should be a

program at the enterprise that assumes a transition

from clear-cutting with a large volume of areas to

strip cutting, gradual (multi-intake) and/or selective

logging, the withdrawal of cutting areas along the

natural boundaries of landscapes, taking into account

the prevention of their degradation, conservation of

biodiversity, recreational attractiveness and

economic feasibility. Of particular importance is the

creation of forest-agrarian landscapes in areas prone

to desertification. Dagestan, Kalmykia, Tyva stand

out among them, where almost the entire pasture

territory is classified as desolate, up to 1.2 million

tons of food units annually losing forage productivity.

Only economically efficient intensive and

environmentally sustainable forest management,

when a balanced approach is used to solve socio-

economic problems, preserving a favorable

environment and natural wealth of the state, meeting

the needs of both present and future generations of

Russians (Decree of the President of the Russian

Federation No. 440, 1996), can give the country's

forest-industry complex the necessary

competitiveness in the world (Dobrynin, 2013).

The market, and especially the wood processing

market, dictates the need to switch to an intensive

type of forest management in this area, in which there

is a significant increase in both the volume, quality

and cost of the resulting wood. To a greater extent,

this method is effective for secondary forests, leading

to the formation of a developed social infrastructure,

the necessary raw material base, and an increase in

the need for labor resources. Farms per unit area at

the division level receive wood per year using an

intensive forest management model, despite the need

to constantly improve the road network and make

more costs per unit of forest area with this method,

about four times more in cost. In countries such as

Sweden and Finland, where intensive forest

management in the modern sense originated, they

have high results from its application in the form of

obtaining more timber and income (Romanyuk,

2013).

The All-Russian Research Institute of

Agroforestry (VNIALMI) has developed ecologically

balanced forest-agrarian ecosystems for certain

regions of the country, presented as a combination of

forest plantations with cultural and wild vegetation of

various life forms located on a certain territory, as

well as animals and population living on it (Kulik,

2006).

For various natural conditions, there are several

types of forest-agrarian systems developed, the main

of which are:

1. agroforestry (agricultural crops and woody

vegetation);

2. agro-silvo-pastoral (pastures, agricultural

crops, woody plants and animals);

3. silvo-pastoral (woody plants, pastures,

animals).

Agroforestry ecosystems of the country are

mostly observed in the subhumid zone and in the

provinces of the semiarid zone with its systematic

Forest Protection as an Important Component in the Preservation of Ecology

213

irrigation, while agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystems - in

the semiarid zone and in the arid zone - are silvo-

pastoral systems. Within the areas of dominant

ecosystems, ecologically and organizationally-

economically related forest fruit (woody forest and

cultivated plants yielding edible fruits and berries),

aqua-forest (stocked water bodies among tree

plantations), entomo-forest (tree plantations as an

object of beekeeping and rearing of silkworms),

recreational forestry (forest phytocenoses for forestry

exploitation with intermediate types of forest

management - berry picking, mushrooms, tourism,

recreation, etc.) (Kiryushin, 2021).

As a result of the activities of VNIALMI, it

became possible to replace the traditional design of

protective forest plantings (PFP) systems with

automated design of adaptive landscape systems for

agroforestry development of the territory (CAD).

A necessary condition for the development of a

multi-purpose forest management system is

landscape and ecological planning - environmental

management planning based on the balanced use of

all types of natural resources and a minimum of

negative environmental consequences. Such planning

should provide a basis for the adaptation of forestry

to the natural conditions of a particular area.

Ecological and economic assessments in

landscape and ecological planning are among its key

elements. Not so long ago, they were considered only

to assess the value of wood, and sometimes non-wood

products of the forest. With the development of the

concept of common economic value, which proposes

to evaluate not only the material benefits represented

by the forest, but also a large number of other types

of services such as biodiversity, recreation, tourism,

ecosystem and environmental protection functions

performed by forests, the situation has radically

changed (Kiryushin, 2021).

4 CONCLUSIONS

Today, sustainable forest management is considered

to be the most important factor in economic and social

development, environmental protection and, in

general, the system of maintaining life on the planet.

In the Russian forest industry today, it is necessary to

actively introduce an intensive production model,

which is more efficient and less resource-intensive

compared to the extensive one. Using economically

sound planning, new regulations, especially in the

logging system, based on the control of results rather

than processes, the intensive model motivates

producers of this sphere to a greater extent to

sustainable and long-term forest management

(Romanyuk, 2013).

REFERENCES

Reimers, N. F., 1994. Ecology (theory, laws, rules,

principles of hypothesis). Young Russia. p. 367.

Pachauri, R., et al., 2007. Climate Change 2007: Sinthesis

Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to

the Pourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernment

Panel on Climate Change. Geneva: IPCC.

Kiryushin, V. I., 2021. Ecological fundamentals of

agricultural landscape design. 2nd stereotype edition.

St. Petersburg: Quadro LLC. p. 576.

Vasilyuk, A., Kolomyshev, G., 2002. Steppes as part of the

State Forestry Fund of the Luhansk region. Steppe

Bulletin. 34. p. 27.

Chernov, S. N., Chernova, T. I., 2015. Forest legislation of

Russia and Finland. Comparative characteristics. St.

Petersburg: Law Center. p. 384.

Yanitskaya, T. O., 2008. Practical guide to the allocation

of forests of high conservation value in Russia.

Moscow: WWF.

Dobrynin, D. A., Sungurov, R. V., 2013. On the problem of

identifying forest areas where economically efficient

intensive and environmentally sustainable forest

management is possible. Intensive sustainable forestry:

barriers and development prospects: collection of

articles. World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Moscow: WWF

Russia. pp. 21-44.

The concept of transition of the Russian Federation to

sustainable development: Decree of the President of the

Russian Federation No. 440 of April 1, 1996. Collection

of Legislation of the Russian Federation. 1996. № 15.

Art. 1572.

Romanyuk, B. D., 2013. Requirements for standards for an

economically sound model of forest management.

Intensive sustainable forestry: barriers and

development prospects. World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Moscow: WWF of Russia. p. 214.

Kulik, K. N., 2006. Effective technologies for the formation

of agroforestry landscapes. Problems of intensification

and ecologization of agriculture in Russia. Collection

of materials of the scientific session of the Russian

Agricultural Academy. pp. 124-137.

MMTGE 2022 - I International Conference "Methods, models, technologies for sustainable development: agroclimatic projects and carbon

neutrality", Kadyrov Chechen State University Chechen Republic, Grozny, st. Sher

214