WWF website 22 Oct 08;
Vladivostok, Russia – For the first time ever, a partnership between WWF and a for-profit timber company has been awarded a “conservation concession” to restore approximately 10% of the critically endangered Amur leopard’s habitat.
The Forest Department of Primorskii Province in the Russian Far East has leased out a forest area of 45,000ha in the south-west of Primorye, which straddles Vladivostok and the Chinese boarder, to the Nerpinskoye Cooperative Society (also known as Nerpinskii rybcoop) for the next 25 years.
The last remaining viable wild population of Amur leopard, estimated at less than 40 individuals, is found in this area and WWF and Nerpinskii rybkoop plan to implement a project that will increase biodiversity by selectively removing oak trees, which will open the forest canopy and make way for the more valuable and native spruce, Korean pine and Manchurian fir trees.
“Deer and wild boar do much better in a diverse forest with a smattering of nut crops that come into season at different times throughout the year – that’s a good thing for the Amur leopard,” said Dr. Darron Collins, the managing director for the WWF US Amur program. “By recreating the biodiversity of the area, WWF and Nerpinskkii are making it more valuable for humans and species alike.”
Funds generated from the small scale extraction of timber will be reinvested in the fire prevention and careful tending of forest stands required to improve the ecological integrity of these forests. The project hopes to increase the coverage of mixed coniferous and broadleaved forests by 33% over the next 40 years.
“Only lease holders with long term rights to forest resources on forest use would be prepared to invest the time and energy to restore the forest. We’ve been looking for a reliable partner for this project for many years,“ said Denis Smirnov, head of Forest Program of WWF Russia’s Amur Programme. “Nerpinskii rybcoop, a well-known enterprise in Khasanskii district of Primorye, has become such a partner.”
The restoration project will also provide income to local communities in the area through employment in forestry and the sale of Korean pine nuts and charcoal. In such a case, restoration takes on a much larger meaning as forests and communities are restored.
“One of the most important conditions of project success is its economic advantages for the holder,” said Georgii Dmitriev, the chairman of board of directors of Nerpinskii rybcoop. “The project idea is to make forest restoration activity profitable by means of complex processing of low quality wood, coming from tending cutting in Korean pine stands.”
