But today the forest complex is experiencing serious problems. Among them is the low quality of the resource, its low concentration. The available raw material base has been undermined by fires and numerous clearings. Because the quality of the forest leaves much to be desired and the reserves are very modest, the cost of production is very high.
In the meantime, there must be large companies in the industry, because they can save costs with a large scale of activity. But they need a huge amount of raw materials, which will provide not less than one or two years of work, but at least 20-30 years.
Therefore, in the southern belt regions of the Far East, it is necessary to develop artificial reproduction of the forest on an industrial scale, leaving the promotion of natural restoration in the northern territories. The world has been engaged in this type of artificial reproduction for a long time, dating back to the beginning of the last century, when logging was severely limited in several countries. To date, a forest market has been developed there, where you can sell both a ready-made resource and 20-year-old plantations. The one who will exploit them will buy, albeit in 50-60 years. At the same time, the owner protects his premises from fire and takes care of them.
In the Far East, the annual growth of trees per hectare is just over one cubic meter per year. In Finland, for example, – six or seven or more. Because? High quality planting material with a high density per hectare is used. These areas are supported by sanitary cuts, which are carried out two or three times over 60-70 years. The cutting is not removed, but goes to the humus. The system gives excellent results: the yield of commercial wood is almost one hundred percent.
Of course, we also plant forests. But this is only in the framework of promoting natural reproduction, a kind of band-aid, it requires minimal financial resources in the long term and does not save the situation. Serious investments are needed: in the cultivation of forests, their protection, thinning, which is absolutely necessary in our poor soils. Everything is money, and lots of money! They will begin to bring returns only after 60-70 years. But after this time there will be a forest with resource reserves not of 120 or less cubic meters per hectare, as now, but of 500-600. And the production of commercial wood, which it will provide, will no longer be 70 percent, but 95-98.
I repeat, we need a radical transition from promoting purely natural reproduction of the forest, which will remain in hard-to-reach areas, to artificial on an industrial scale in the south of our macro-region. One mechanism could be the creation of plantations. For them, species with soft wood, fast-growing, up to 40-50 years old, are used. No construction lumber can be made from that wood, but it can be used in the pulp and paper industry.
In the south of the macro-region, a radical transition is needed from promoting natural reforestation to artificial reforestation on an industrial scale.
There is one more point. In the southern Far East, much land has been transferred to the category of agricultural use. At the same time, they are not adapted for agricultural production, but huge budget funds are invested in them, diverted from other important projects. This is irrational. It is necessary not to bury the money, but to act in accordance with the laws of economics and return the land (and finance!) to the forestry sector.
The process of transition to the industrial scale of artificial reforestation is not only expensive, but also complex. Numerous nuances related to ownership, rental relationships, and population culture will emerge. But if we don’t start today, the extraction of wood will cost us more each year and we will lose the forest industry as a natural base for regional reproduction.
