Russian forestry export potential amounts to $150 billion

Oct 11 (Interfax) - The export potential of Russian forestry amounts to $150 billion but is not effectively used, Yuri Kukuyev, first deputy natural resources minister and head of the State Forest Service, told Interfax on Wednesday. The Russian national forestry policy must work out new approaches to remedy the situation, Kukuyev said. The international conference to be held at the Moscow State Forestry University on October 11 and 12 will attend to these approaches, he said. Natural Resources Ministry and Industry and Science Ministry officials, representatives of scientific institutions and experts from numerous European countries, the United States and Canada will attend the conference. Russia's revenues from the export of logs and timber will total nearly $5 billion in 2001, an amount comparable to the export of fuel and energy yields, Kukuyev said. Unlike oil, timber is a renewable resource, he said. The amount logged in Russia can be realistically doubled in two or three years, with the export revenue of that industry increasing accordingly, Kukuyev said.