Forest

Russia

Russia’s wooded areas are shrinking, not growing: between 2000 and 2012, approximately 140,000 square miles of forests in that country were felled.¹ Researchers estimate that as much as one-sixth of the logging is done illegally, with much of the wood being surreptitiously transferred to China.²

Despite those threats, Russia still holds title to more than 20% of the world’s forests, with stands of birch, aspen, and gray alder dominating the country’s West; larch and pine, the East; and spruce and fir, parts of the North.³ Those vast forests are home to animals as common as deer and wolves and as rare as Amur tigers and leopards.

Next: Four Mile Beach

References

1. Dobrovidova, Olga. Russia Tops 2000–2012 Deforestation Charts. Responding to Climate Change. 15 Nov. 2013. Accessed 9 Apr. 2014.
2. Russia. US Forest Service. Accessed 9 Apr. 2014.
3. Russia’s Forests. ForestForum.ru. Accessed 9 Apr. 2014.

Published 2018-06-18