Introduction

GFMA allots its territory for several kinds of use: harvesting timber, collection of birch bark and birch sap for production of tar and birch juice, collection of spruce and fir foliage for production of oil, gathering of firn (fiddle-heads), wild garlic, mushrooms and berries, digging of roots of eleutorokokk, collection of medicinal plants. There are 24 entities leasing forest area and paying royalty for each withdrawn forest resource. Residents of GFMA are also entitled to use the forest for their own consumption (not for commercial use) free of charge, in accordance with existing laws. The non-wood raw materials are processed in the Regional Consumer Cooperation which has the appropriate facilities to produce packed honey, salted fern and wild garlic, various juices and jams based on local birch sap and berries, fur skins, and wild animals’ meat. Sawlogs are partly marketed as round logs and partly processed into lumber products.

The Forest Stock of Russia is federal property. So any use of the forest resources is regulated by the Federal legislation. The main forest law is the “Forest Code of the Russian Federation”, approved by the Russian Parliament (“Duma”), January 22, 1997, and which is valid along the whole territory of Russia, that of GFMA including. There is also the local “Forest code of the Khabarovsk krai”, approved by the Khabarovsk Duma, December 25, 1998, which provisions agree with the Federal Forest Code. In disputable cases the Federal Forest Code prevails.

Final cuts are regulated by the “Rules of Harvesting Timber in the Far East Forests” approved by the Federal Forest Service July 30, 1993. Intermediate cuts are regulated by the “Directions for conducting of cuts of care in the Far East Forests” approved by the Federal Forest Service, November 29, 1993. Burnt forests are harvested in accordance with the “Sanitation rules in the Forests of the Russian Federation” approved by the Federal Forest Service, December 11, 1993.

There are also Regulations concerning gathering non-wood products, such as honey, mushrooms, etc. The Executive Board of the GFMA conducts the activity for education of the residents.