Development of Forest Sector in the Arkhangelsk Oblast During the Transition Period of the 1990S

Development of forest sector in the Arkhangelsk oblast during the transition period of the 1990s ALBINA PASHKEVICH Pashkevich Albina (2003). Development of forest sector in the Arkhangelsk oblast during the transition period of the 1990s. Fennia 181: 1, pp. 13–24. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010. The Arkhangelsk oblast has long been one of Russia’s most important forest industrial regions. This paper analyses the changes in accessibility of forest resources and forest commodity production during the transition period in the 1990s. Special attention is given to firm restructuring, active roles of domestic capital and the different survival strategies that have been developed by industries in the region. Further analysis deals with signs of economic recovery in the forest sector due to the processes of restructuring, modernisation and self-organisation. Albina Pashkevich, Spatial Modelling Centre (SMC), Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University, Box 839, SE-98128 Kiruna, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]. MS received 12 August 2002. Introduction adoption of a new. Some suggest that this process has been deeply embedded in the nature of The shift from central planning to a market-based the socialist system (Dingsdale 1999; Hamilton economy in Russia culminated with the dramatic 1999) and that the legacy of the communism has economic and political reorientation that began been only partly removed, and instead has mere- in the 1990s. This transition towards a market-ori- ly been reworked in a complex way (Smith 1997). ented and outward-looking economic system led Others say that reforms have actually ended the by private sector has created new challenges and old ‘command economy’ but have instead suc- opportunities. Industries have been affected most- ceeded in the creation of only a very limited mar- ly by changes connected to the process of ‘market-based economy, or have not been able to cre- ket economy building’. It has become clear that ate anything at all (Brodin 2000). the transition from one type of economic system It is clear that the development of a specific to another within forest sector has had a profound political, institutional and societal system is deep- impact on its previously designed socio-econom- ly embedded in the country’s past and is shaped ic organisation, and has been especially hard on by its historical, cultural, political and economic people who are dependent on it as their only experiences and legacies. Such a radical change means of livelihood. The forest sector may not be as a transition to market economy and democra- the biggest contributor to the economy of the cy cannot immediately alter people’s existing per- Russian Federation overall, but it plays a signifi- ceptions, structures and behaviour, derived under cant role in the economy of many of its regions, 74 years of Soviet regime. Yet, clearly one of the particularly in the Arkhangelsk oblast1. It employs positive outcomes of the transition is the removal up to 40–45% of the oblast’s labour force and of the former domination of the centralised state comprises up to 60% of the region’s industrial over its regions and local communities, allowing output. regional actors to become more independent in The analysis of Russia’s period of transition in establishing networks and connections across the the 1990s illustrates the fact that it has been pro- space at all levels (including ‘global-local’ inter- ceeding with a wide range of variations combin- dependence). The transition has resulted in a tre- ing features of the old communist system and the mendous shift in the division of political and eco- 14 Albina Pashkevich FENNIA 181: 1 (2003) nomic power among the state, regional and local Before the October Revolution of 1917, the main governments and other actors (Dingsdale 1999). sawmills were located at the mouths of the main Therefore, different types of strategies have been navigable rivers in four major clusters. There were employed by local or regional actors while tak- no sawmilling activities in the timber harvesting ing into account the advantageous features of the areas and all of the logged timber was transported regional economy and making greater use of es- (floated) to the cities of Arkhangelsk and Onega for tablished and re-established organisational struc- further manufacturing. During the Soviet period, tures and networks (Hamilton 1999). new export sawmills were also set up at the ports After a decade of transition, the forest sector is of Mezen and Narjan-Mar at the mouths of the still undergoing complex changes. Numerous Mezen and Pechora rivers. Traditionally, logging scholars have pursued studies of the economic has been practiced along main transport routes, transition of the Russian forest industry. The Inter- such as rivers and railways, which is why logging national Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIA- activities became increasingly concentrated in the SA) has made one of the most comprehensive Eu- southern and western parts of the oblast. In the ropean analyses of various aspects within the Sus- 1960s, more than 50% of the total harvested tim- tainable Boreal Forest Resources project (Carlsson ber was derived from the basin of the Northern et al. 1999, 2000). The forest sector development Dvina and most of it was free-floated down the riv- of the European North has been reviewed recent- er to the Arkhangelsk industrial centre3 (Layton & ly in several research attempts (Backman 1997; Pashkevich 1999: 35). Other river basins situated Piipponen 1999; Layton & Pashkevich 1999, in the south of the oblast (Vychegda and Viled) sup- 2000; Myllynen & Saastamoinen 2000; Nilsson plied timber that was transported through Kotlas by 2000). Despite regional analyses of forest sector rail to the Kirov and Vologda oblasts, and even to development in the European North since the So- Moscow or St. Petersburg. This pattern is still evi- viet period, very little information exists about the dent today, but there is clearly a shift in logging ac- results of recent development in the Arkhangelsk tivity towards the northeastern and eastern parts of oblast’s forest sector, which long served as one of the region (Serebryannyy & Zamotayev 1997: 204). Russia’s most important timber exporting regions. The output of the Arkhangelsk oblast timber in- This paper analyses changes in the accessibility dustry became very diversified with the introduc- of forest resources and industrial output, includ- tion in the early 1930s and again in the 1960s of ing the spatial organisation of wood-processing the ‘upper echelons’ of the forestry sector – i.e., industries and their current networks. Attention is the main branches of the chemical wood-process- also paid to the variety of interactions between ing industry, such as pulp and paper milling and different economic actors in the process of re- wood hydrolysis (Layton & Pashkevich 1999). shaping the previous structural and spatial organ- During the Soviet period the main centre of the isation of the forest industries. timber industry was Arkhangelsk itself, annually producing some 50–55% of the sawn goods, 55– 56% of the wooden packaging, and about 70– 75% of the oblast’s furniture production (Layton Forest industries before and during & Pashkevich 1999: 36). Other emerging indus- the Soviet period try centres in the oblast included the towns of Severodvinsk, Onega, Mezen, and Narjan-Mar. The 17th century can be considered a beginning The expansion of sawmills and wood-processing of commercial logging activities in the region, the plants were thus brought closer to the raw mate- main centres being the cities of Arkhangelsk and rial bases during the 1960s. Onega. However, the turn of the 19th century was the true starting point for the development of the wood-harvesting2 and sawmilling industries (Lay- Post-Soviet changes and forest ton & Pashkevich 1999: 34). During the 1930s industries today and 1940s, Arkhangelsk oblast began its development as one of Russia’s major forest industry Forest Resources regions as its previous sawmilling capacities were complemented by pulp and paper production For more than 90 years, industries operating in the (Fig.1). region were heavily dependent on the forests FENNIA 181: 1 (2003) Development of forest sector in the Arkhangelsk oblast... 15 Fig. 1. Administrative map of the Arkhangelsk oblast (BASIS 1999). along the main railroads and waterways. In the (Serebryannyy & Zamotaev 1997: 204). How- 1980s, some 23% of all exploitable coniferous ever, in 2000, the growing stock of the Arkhan- forests had been exhausted, especially in those gelsk oblast’s forests was estimated at 2.4 billion forest management units located along the cubic meters, which accounted for almost 2% of Arkhangelsk–Konosha–Kotlas railway (Carlsson et Russia’s growing stock (Chuiko 2000: 7). The ob- al. 1999; Departament... 2000a). Although the last, together with the Republic of Komi, contains extensive taiga forests in the central and south- one-third of the forest resources in the European ern parts cover 19 million hectares, potentially part of Russia (Layton and Pashkevich 1999: 31). exploitable forests are distributed unevenly In recent years, the region has also accounted among the oblast’s districts in areas distant from for a quarter of European Russia’s total wood har- the previously established road infrastructure vest. 16 Albina Pashkevich FENNIA 181: 1 (2003) One of the problems affecting the present de- graphical proximity to the main processing cen- velopment of forest management in the Arkhan- tres, and 2) the impacts of the structural and dy- gelsk oblast (and the Russian Federation) is lack namic organisation of the secondary forests al- of stability in terms of its operational structure tered by long-term harvest operations in those for- (Carlsson et al. 2000: 24; Gubnitsyn 2000: 2). The ests. The physical and economic accessibility of previous system of forest management has been the oblast’s forest resources has been challenged undergoing reorganisation for several years and during the transition period also by the fact that is still not complete.

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