Deforestation in the 

Russian Taiga

Solution III - Promote the purchasing of forest friendly products, recycled and reused wood and paper products.

           The largest exporters of paper and wood material (including raw wood) are Canada, Russia and Finland.¹ The taiga or boreal forest is endangered due to a rising demand for wood and paper goods that are derived from virgin ancient forest pulp. Trade timber is composed of 80% processed product which is considered to be sawn material, wood panels, cellulose pulp and other products. Twenty percent of timber exports are round timer which is virtually unprocessed and considered a raw material. Processed timber includes paper and cardboard as well as cellulose pulp which is made in preparation for paper production.² 

          There is a high demand in developed nations for new paper because the quality is said to be better and often new product is cheaper than recycled. In order to achieve a competitive price in the paper market quality is sometimes compromised. In addition the recycled paper products of the past have given a negative stigma that these products are of low quality. In reality technology for recycled products has come a long way and there is more readily available post-consumer paper product than the recycling industry can process. The problem lies in the low demand.

The composition of recycled paper varies in material. "There is no legal definition of the term 'recycled paper.' Some recycled papers contain pre-consumer waste which is paper recovered after the paper making process, but before being used by a consumer."³ For example, the scraps that are left from producing a ream of paper in the factory are reused. 

Post-consumer paper includes paper that has already been sold on the market where once used, it is taken to a recycling center and turned into a different form of paper. One example of this is taking old newspapers and turning them into new greeting cards. The aim of recycling is to use the most of products with the highest post-consumer recycled content. Using this type of recycled product uses no trees to create everyday items ranging from newspaper and stationary to cardboard boxes and posters. According to Greenpeace international, recycling one ton of newspaper:

- saves 17 trees

- saves enough energy to power an average home for 6 months

- eliminates three cubic meters of landfill

- saves 31,780 liters of water

- takes 43 percent less energy than producing a ton of paper from virgin pulp⁴

Although recycling has a vast number of environmental benefits, there are other ways of producing products without destroying ancient forests. Russian logs accounted for 44 percent of China’s total log imports and virtually all of Japan’s log imports.⁵ South Korea ranks Russia as its third largest source of wood, although demand is on the rise due to the high quality product from the RFE and Siberia . There have been numerous attempts to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable development yet these endeavors sparked by conferences, NGOs and regulations have been hampered by the high demand in developing and industrialized nations. 

Non-wood paper and non-timber forest products (NTFP) are another way of dealing with high demand. People look for high quality, new products and these needs and wants can be met by creating the same products from a different raw material. Plants such as kenaf, bamboo and hemp are all plants that can replace timber for many products. Paper is one product that can be easily made out of the above resources and grow much faster than trees.⁶ Where attempts to provide new trees in deforested areas fails because of slow growth rates and difficult ecosystem changes, alternative plant harvesting can be the solution. Not only can the local population harvest the plants and make a living just as valuable as the lumber market, the crops yield more volume and can be harvested each season in many cases.

Contact Information 

Email: Jill Wittenberg