Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Belarus
    1280563690
       

    FOREST UTILIZATION

    General principles of organization of forest exploitation in Belarus


    Principles of organization of forest exploitation in Belarus are determined by the following normative documents:
     Forest Sector Development Conception till 2015.
     Forestry Sustainable Development Conception till 2015.
     Forestry Development Strategic Plan till 2015.
     National Strategy of Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of Republic of Belarus till 2020.
     Forestry Development Program for 2007-2011.

    Above mentioned documents fix the following objectives of forest exploitation management:
     rational, sound, continuous forest utilization;
     ensuring of relatively constant forest exploitation;
     realization of ecologically oriented forest exploitation.

    For achieving of these objectives the following tasks are accomplished:
     Forest exploitation management according to forest functions: taking into account stand groups and categories.
     Science-based determination of discount cutting area through accomplishment of basic forest regulation.
     Observance of multi-purpose and complex forest exploitation principles, what means rational use not only of timber but also of food and medical resources.
     Guaranteeing of forest regeneration and further reproduction.
     Observance of ecological principles in organization of multi-purpose forest exploitation: preservation of forest habitat and biodiversity, minimization of ground cover damage.
     Gradual optimization of forest species composition according to modern economic needs, conditions of vegetation, economic and ecological requirements.
     Optimization of assortment structure according to economic needs of republic and world timber market.
     Gradual optimization of cutting ages and intervals as technical instrument for production of the most valuable assortments, achieving the highest economic indexes of forest exploitation.
     Use of forest recreation potential.

    Forest Harvesting

       During the January-November 2008 harvested timber volume in all kinds of felling came to 7791,7 ths m3, including 2020,5 ths m3 in final felling, 4451,1 ths m3  – in selective, 1320,1 ths m3 in other kinds of felling.
    2008 organizations of the Ministry of Forestry sold the harvested timber by auctions. From the total volume 56% made industrial wood and 44% fuelwood.
       During the 11 months of 2008 enterprises of Ministry produced 4902 ths m3 of wood fuel.
    Annual purchase of main kinds of special-purpose forest harvesting technique and equipment allows to execute planned replacing of the out-of-date and depreciated technique by modern multiple-functional harvesting machines in short terms and mechanize wood harvesting and transporting processes. Today in the organizations of the Ministry there work more than 10 thousand engineering units of modern forest technique, including energy wood harvesters and transporters, forwarders, log tracks, tractors, loaders, chippers and other technique and equipment.
       2008 organizations of the Ministry bought about 400 engineering units of forest harvesting technique.
       The modernization of existing woodworking industries and shops is realized, which contributes to the more complex and effective wood utilization and job creation in the regions. On the basis there is organized the production of high quality saw timber, regularized round timber and articles made of it, wood semimanufactures, wood chips and pellets and hard leaved wood processing. New enterprises are also created to serve the needs of local population and organizations for wood production. The total annual volume of woodworking will make nearby 250 thousand m3. In the forestry enterprises in Stolbtsy and Zhitkovichi there work factories on pellet production with total capacity14 thousand tones of pellets.
     

     USE OF WOOD FUEL RESOURCES
       One of directions to increase the effectiveness of forestry is extension of use of wood fuel resources, creation developed infrastructure for harvesting and transportation of wood fuel to consumers, including mini heat power plants under construction.
       As the fuel there are used:
    1. Woodworking residues, which are left in wood shops and saw-mills of forestries.
    2. Firewood of planned fellings
    3. Felling residues
    4. Dead fallen wood and standing trees, which are harvested by waste removal.

    Ministry of Forestry
    of the Republic of Belarus

    39 Myastnikov str.
    Minsk 220048
    Belarus
    Tel: +375 (17) 2004601
    Fax: +375 (17) 2004497
    Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Belarus