Forestry trough war
Second week of war and terror in Ukraine is counting, we witness the unfamiliar results that anyone could have barely expected.
Some insights related to forestry perspective.
Results of western sanctions are kicking the industry. Russia is quite a player, with 1/5 of the worlds forests and leader of raw material export. This means millions of cubic meters per year.
Position of the Western world is clear – buy no products from and sell no products to aggressor country. All the biggest forestry machinery providers ( i.e. Ponsse. Komatsu, Tigercat and others) discontinues provision of their products and parts. This could drastically decrease the productivity. As for manual tools -biggest producers Husqvarna and Stihl stated that all shipments and investments to Russia is stopped. Hopefully all of producers will also put Belarus in embargo list. Obviously back doors are open because there are pro-Russian countries that could provide necessary equipment as a middle man.
Additionally. trading wood sourced or linked to Belarus and Russia is prohibited by the biggest timber and supply chain certification systems PEFC states it as a 'conflict timber' and FSC suspends all trading certificates, so it can not be used as a matereal for certified products.
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European Arborist Council joined international protest – halted activities and certifications postponed until the war is over.
On one hand the drop of demand and rising obstacles to keep producing the timber could lead lower cutting rates, chance for living nature to strive, on the other – the reckless ambitions to keep the sector going without the necessary equipment and sustainable guidelines could be devastating.
What amazes me the most – foresters form Ukraine are not stopping spring season reforestation. Millions of trees will be planted in regions (that are not yet directly touched by war). The will of Ukrainians is best inspiration to do the best we can on our daily job, so we could keep supporting them during the dark times.
Slava Ukraini!