Forest 2.0 – FAO and Rosleskhoz celebrate International Day of Forests

On 21 March, the FAO Moscow Office celebrated the International Day of Forests (IDF) with two events: a press conference at TASS and a scientific and practical conference on Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World at the UN House.  

Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Moscow Office, presented the world’s best practices in forest management: “This is, first of all, the use of satellite remote sensing technologies to assess the dynamics of forest cover. This is the digitalization of the forest industry, from planting seedlings to sustainable harvesting and use of forest products. This is the selection of new species of trees and shrubs using, among other things, the latest genetic methods. This is an integrated approach to pest control.  

The innovative systems, that FAO is currently suggesting implementing, stop deforestation and forest degradation, help restore forest ecosystems and fundamentally change the way societies use forest products – FAO estimates that the planet loses about ten million hectares of forest each year to deforestation and about 70 million hectares to fire.  

Examples of emerging technologies include cloud-based data access and analysis, mobile communication, unmanned aerial vehicles, high-resolution hyperspectral lidar imagery, artificial intelligence, and digital dashboards. In particular, they include the Open Forests platform, a range of open source software solutions designed to help countries monitor and report on the use of land and forest resources.  

It is also a global forest resources assessment platform, a geospatial data platform, under FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which have opened new opportunities for experts and practitioners to use advanced methods and up-to-date data for forest monitoring, measurement and assessment.”  

“FAO, together with UNEP, plans to create a global platform for fire management that will provide, firstly, access to high-quality, real-time data, as well as information and tools to prevent and address the negative consequences of damage caused by wildfires,” concluded Oleg Kobiakov.  

“Happy International Day of Forests to all! An important date for the whole world. Forests know no borders. Forests provide a gigantic number of eco-services to all inhabitants of the Earth, absolutely not dividing them by race, nationality, religious beliefs,” said Ivan Sovetnikov, Head of the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz), in his welcoming speech. 

“More than a fifth of the world’s forests are in the Russian Federation – that’s 1.2 billion hectares. Forests in the Russian Federation are very diverse– from subtropical forests, which grow in the south of Primorskyregion and Krasnodar, to the Arctic flora of ice deserts in the north. And, of course, such diversity and such a huge area of forests cannot be preserved without using modern technologies,” emphasized the head of Rosleskhoz.  

Ivan Sovetnikov noted that the Russian Federation is rightly proud of its innovative methods of protecting forests from fires. Thus, for many years already, the ISRM-Rosleskhoz system has been detecting forest fires even in the most remote areas 24 hours a day using satellites. In addition, space images are used to identify forest disease hotspots, forest insect pests, and to use safe and modern means to combat them.  

“Already today, the Russian Federation has a Federal State Information System of the Forestry Complex, and forest services are being digitized. And our task is to ensure that forest management and all state services are digitized as much as possible, ideally without human involvement. After all, the main objective of digitalization is to free forestry employees from routine work, so that they deal with forests, their conservation, protection and reproduction, while machines do the paperwork, helping quickly and efficiently get leases on forests and submit forest declarations. We are convinced that digital solutions will allow us to bring forest management to a new level,” said Ivan Sovetnikov.  

“Today, the movement of every logging truck, every load of forest is transparent and open,” Ivan Sovetnikov said in conclusion. “This allows us to fight illegal logging. I suggest that we adopt our experience in order to effectively and transparently eliminate risks and fight illegal forest use”.  

The basis for today’s innovations is primarily formed by the digitalization of the forestry sector. Its basis was laid back in 2021, when there were large-scale changes in the forest industry,” said Oleg Lebedev, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. “We have smoothly approached the regulation of the timber traceability system, as well as the unified state forest register.”  

Previously, regions often compiled their registers on paper, with no control over the movement of timber, which hindered the implementation of an effective forest management model. “Thanks to digital technologies, there are a lot more opportunities. For example, today there are already more than 300000 users working digitally,” Oleg Lebedev continued. “At the same time, the volume of illegal logging has significantly decreased, including through the use of modern forestry equipment.” 

“Last year, a strategy for the development of unmanned aviation was developed, which is considered as one of the promising services in forestry. Monitoring with the help of UAVs is one of the most effective tools for obtaining up-to-date information,” the State Duma deputy emphasized. “We will take the next step forward when we mobilize artificial intelligence (AI), including thanks to the systemic measures that are being taken within the framework of the national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence until 2030 approved by the President.”  

“Human activities have already degraded much of the Earth’s surface. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification summarizes the issues of land degradation. One out of every five hectares of land is already showing a trend of decreasing productivity,” said Vladimir Moshkalo, Head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Office in Russia. “But that’s not all. The loss of biodiversity, combined with the effects of climate change, is only exacerbating soil health and land productivity due to unpredictable seasonal rainfall, increasing water scarcity and flooding at the same time, as well as extreme temperature regimes. These trends are having the most negative impact on the lives of about 2.5 billion people on the planet.”   

In addition, Vladimir Moshkalo pointed out that UN experts attach great importance to the interdependence between ecosystems and water resources. Water scarcity has a negative impact on global food security. Irrigation technology is used to produce 40% of all food products. Three out of every four inhabitants get their drinking water from forests. Today, approximately 40% of the world’s 230 major watersheds have lost more than half of their forest cover, and more than two billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.  

“How can we meet these challenges? How can we untie the Gordian knot of land degradation, climate change, which affects food security? The answer lies in the word ‘restoration’,” emphasized Vladimir Moshkalo. “The period of 2021–2030 has been declared the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. Within this period we need to stop the degradation of ecosystems and start their restoration for the sake of achieving global goals – neutralizing the negative effects of climate change, reversing the loss of biodiversity and guaranteeing people’s livelihoods.”  

An FAO video for the International Day of Forests 2024 was broadcasted at the TASS press conference.  

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The discussion about sustainable forest management and innovation in the global forestry sector continued in the UN House at the scientific and practical conference that brought together over 200 collective and individual online participants and 25 speakers present in the UN House Fireplace Lounge.  

Zhimin Wu, Director, FAO Forestry Division Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Director, UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, welcomed the participants.  

“Life on Earth, of course, came from the ocean but made forest its home,” said Oleg Kobiakov, Director, FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, in his welcoming remarks. “In Russia, forest is a backbone of life, the economy, nature, and culture. Moreover, the health of the forest, indeed, directly affects the health of people, the health of the nation.  

Even though FAO is a sort of a global rural council, its scope goes beyond just agriculture. Our mandate also includes forestry, fisheries, and primary forest products. FAO is the only international intergovernmental organization with a global mandate in the field of agriculture and forestry. To achieve our statutory goals, we rely on a wide range of partners and on interaction with Rosleskhoz in the Russian Federation.”  

“With the key theme of science and innovation, the global community, including Russia, is focused on digitalization, forestry mechanization, the use of artificial intelligence tools, new developments in the area of alternative use of wood, study, and assessment of a wide range of services provided by forest ecosystems,” said Alexander Panfilov, Deputy Head, Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz). “The most important tasks here are the proper implementation of theoretical solutions into the practice of forestry and the forest industry, and reliance on relevant practical solutions.”  

Alexander Panfilov noted that the forest fire season had already opened in a number of Russian regions at the end of March, even though the concept itself had essentially lost its meaning today. “Climate change, an increase in average temperature, changes in precipitation, enhanced thunderstorm activity, and increasing human impact lead to wildfires and forest fires happening throughout the year.  

The Remote Monitoring Information System of the Federal Forestry Agency(ISRM-Rosleskhoz) has been recording the occurrence of heat points for many years. Prompt detection of fires using video surveillance, surveillance with aerial monitoring, and rapid response are the keys to extinguishing fire in the initial stages and preventing large-scale fires that are devastating to forests.  

Russian forest firefighters are equipped with advanced domestic machinery. Rosleskhoz controls its timely updating and replenishment. In 2024, implementation of the Federal Project for the unmanned aircraft system begins. The drone fleet is to be expanded not only in Rosleskhoz but also in all Russian regions. These vehicles proved their efficiency in 2022–2023. They were used to extinguish forest fires in 16 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.”  

“To identify violations in forest management, we use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Last year we expanded the fleet of quadcopters, which are operated not from a remote control but from a laptop, where the flight route is mapped out,” said Ilgizar Zaripov, First Deputy Minister for Forestry, Republic of Tatarstan. “We will actively use these drones to monitor logging sites and control forest users so that they do not go beyond the boundaries of the allocated plot. We will also monitor forest restoration, including the survival.”  

China pays special attention to the “comprehensive monitoring and accurate management of forest resources. Our scientific and technical innovations include terrestrial and aerial sensing systems,” said Liu Xin, Deputy Director General, Department of International Cooperation, National Forestry and Grasslands Administration (People’s Republic of China). “The implementation of unmanned aerial vehicles and hyperspectral sensors ensures remote tree disease detection.”  

“This innovative approach has facilitated the analysis of diverse data sources: satellite images, data gathered by drones, etc. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also widely used in forest management. An AI-based forest monitoring system is used at the National Nature Reserve near Shenzhen in Guangdong province.  

In response to the challenge of detecting, locating and putting out forest fires caused by lightning, we have created a monitoring system with three-dimensional visualization that can conduct high-precision multi-faceted assessment of the situation and determine critical parameters for timely warning of the forest fire threat.”  

“As for the national policies aimed at monitoring and sustainable management of forests and biological resources, India has been able to increase its forest area, estimated to be almost 35% of the total territory of the country,” emphasized Sushil Kumar Awasthi, Additional Director, Forestry Department, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Republic of India). “India carries out assessment of its forest every two years. In order to do that, the Forest Service of India uses state-of-the-art remote sensing satellites.”  

“As for biodiversity conservation, we have a vast network of over a thousand protected areas. About 40% of mangroves are protected. India has launched a five-year mangrove restoration programme covering the area of 540 square kilometres across all Indian states.  

In addition to that, India has started the implementation of an ambitious programme to restore almost 1.5 million hectares of lands for reducing desertification,” added the Indian expert.  

The scientific and practical conference in the UN House lasted over four hours. Other participants included: Vladimir Dmitriev, Head of the Department of science and international cooperation, Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz); Alexander Dragun, First Deputy Minister of Forestry (Republic of Belarus); Vladimir Kuznetsov, Director of the UN Information Centre in Moscow; Bakyt Yrsaliev, Deputy Director of the Forest Service (Kyrgyz Republic);Shiroma Sathyapala, leading forestry expert at FAO; Ismail Belen, Chief Inspector, General Directorate of Forests, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Türkiye); Hodzhimurat Talipov, Chief Specialist, Department of Afforestation and Reforestation under the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change (Republic of Uzbekistan); Sveltana Morkovina, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovation, Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies named after G.F. Morozov; Oleg Solontsov, Deputy Minister for Natural Resources, Forestry and Ecology of the Perm Region; Nikolay Ivanov, Vice-President for GR, Sustainable Development and Forestry Policy, PJSC Segezha Group; Victoria Sapozhnikova, Deputy Director of the Department of Analysis, Methodology and Development of Industrial Safety, Labour Protection and the Environment, PJSC Rosneft Oil Company; Vsevolod Gavrilov, Director of the Directorate for Project Management in Energy Conservation and Environmental Management, Sberbank; Mikhail Nikitin, Section Director, Department of Forestry and Industry Digitalization, PJSC Rostelecom; Lubov Yaroshenko, Head of Department, Directorate for International Cooperation, En+ Group. 

BACKGROUND 

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF). This day celebrates all types of forests and raises awareness of their role. Every International Day of Forests is aimed at supporting local, national and international efforts of countries to organize activities involving forests and trees. The Collaborative Partnership on Forests chooses the main theme of each International Day of Forests.  

The theme for International Day of Forests 2024 is Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World.  

Innovation is advancing ecosystem restoration as a powerful nature-based solution to global challenges. Innovative approaches under the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, including restoring forests and planting trees on degraded land, can contribute up to one third of the total climate mitigation measures needed to limit warming to below 2°C by 2030, while boosting food security and ensuring more sustainable livelihoods.  

Research and science are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with wood and other forest products. Technological innovations can empower Indigenous Peoples since they will help to map and secure customary land. Indigenous Peoples are custodians of much of the world’s remaining intact forests.  

You could find the presentations of the speakers here.

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