Systemic Interventions to Promote Institutional Change in the Russian Forest Sector

Abstract

Institutions govern the behavior of all actors in a society. The Russian transition to a market economy is mainly a matter of reshaping society's institutions to make them more conducive to a market efficient behavior. But how can suitable institutional changes be achieved? This article discusses the experiences gained through a series of policy exercises with stakeholders in the Russian regional forest sector. The purpose of the exercises was to initiate a participatory policy process leading to the elaboration of implementable proposals for a new regional forest policy. The prospects of such policy exercises to make an impact are best if the systemic interventionist manages to affiliate with active regional stakeholder groups and if support from the regional authorities and external financial sources can be secured. Such support will establish an effective incentive structure that will contribute to the legitimacy of the policy process. In the current Russian situation there is a lack of organized stakeholder groups with whom to conduct a dialogue. Copyright 2006 by The Policy Studies Organization.

Reliability and Integrity of Forest Sector Statistics—A Major Constraint to Effective Forest Policy in Russia

“…The reasons for the current state of the Russian forest sector are discussed in the literature [17]. First of all, the Russian government is poorly involved in sector regulation [18][19][20][21]. In recent decades, there were several changes of sector legislation, but they never brought positive institutional development, neither implementation of sustainable forest management practices.…”

“…In recent decades, there were several changes of sector legislation, but they never brought positive institutional development, neither implementation of sustainable forest management practices. Most of Russian commercial forests are governed under the predatory regime where clear cuts are not balanced with appropriate reforestation and afforestation activities [18,19].…”