THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION This country report is prepared as a contribution to the FAO publication, The Report on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources. The content and the structure are in accordance with the recommendations and guidelines given by FAO in the document Guidelines for Preparation of Country Reports for the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources (2010). These guidelines set out recommendations for the objective, scope and structure of the country reports. Countries were requested to consider the current state of knowledge of forest genetic diversity, including: Between and within species diversity List of priority species; their roles and values and importance List of threatened/endangered species Threats, opportunities and challenges for the conservation, use and development of forest genetic resources These reports were submitted to FAO as official government documents. The report is presented on www. fao.org/documents as supportive and contextual information to be used in conjunction with other documentation on world forest genetic resources. The content and the views expressed in this report are the responsibility of the entity submitting the report to FAO. FAO may not be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained in this report. Section I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Section I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The forest area of the Russian Federation is 809,090 ha or 20.1% of the total forest area of the world (Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010). The country's forests are mostly natural. Annually artificial reforestation (planting or seeding of native species) is carried out on an area of about 200 hectares, and reforestation by means of promoting natural regeneration (creating condi- tions for rapid stocking of valuable native tree species) is carried out on an area of over 600 hectares, which is very important to preserving/maintaining the genetic structure of natural forests. Forest ecosystems of the Russian Federation, spread over a huge territory, make a significant contribution to the regional and global stability of the biosphere, conservation of forest genetic di- versity, maintenance of global carbon balance, and perform global ecosystem functions such as cli- mate- and water-regulating, soil conservation, etc. Russia's forests play a vital role in conserving the biodiversity of the temperate and boreal regions of Eurasia. The general state of the species diversity in Russia is quite good. In general, it corresponds to the level of biodiversity typical for the 8 natural areas of the country, as all of them have preserved the major floristic complexes. The main tree species of Russia are larch, pine, spruce, cedar, fir, oak, birch. Particularly high level of species diversity and dendroflora endemism are characteristic for Caucasus, Southern Siberia and the Far East. Being relatively few in number the main forest forming species in Russia have extensive and varied growing sites. In the vast areas of woody plants of the Russian Federation a special role in the biology of species belongs to genetic diversity within species, which provides populations of woody plants to adapt to specific habitats by natural selection. 9 Section I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Russia holds about 25% of old-growth forests in the world. These vast arrays characterized by the natural composition, structure and dynamics of population and coenotical mosaics, ensure the spontaneous development of tree populations. Old-growth forests have a natural (background) level of biodiversity and are a kind of sample area for the genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. These forests are important for the knowledge about the natural genetic structure of populations and the dynamics of population genetic processes. Despite the good integrity of natural ecosystems in Russia and the prevalence of the land- scapes undisturbed and low-disturbed by economic activity in general, over the recent centuries the gene pool of individual edificatory tree species in the European part of the country has undergone transformation and erosion as a result of continuous selective and mining logging and periodic cata- strophic fires. Since the 1950s, a series of forest regions of Russia is experiencing the impact of tox- ic industrial waste and contamination. The study of the flora of the country that started in XVIII century continues at the present time and involves the stuff of industry and academic research institutions, universities and botanical gardens. Detailed information about the vascular plants of Russia is presented by S.K.Cherepanov in the Summary Report “Vascular Plants of Russia and the Neighboring Countries” (1995) as well as in the 30-volume (with additions) publication “Flora of the USSR”(1934-1964). Despite the fact that in the country there are teams of qualified professionals the inventory of the plant species di- versity of forest ecosystems has not been completed yet and there is no uniform list of species for the country. The study of the ecosystem, species and genetic diversity in the country has been une- ven. Russian scientists have analyzed (using morphological, karyological and molecular meth- ods) the phylogenetic relationships of species and supraspecific taxa of trees, and have received the quantitative assessment of the genetic structure of populations of some certain species and species complexes. It has been found that the main forest forming species of Russia are characterized by high levels of genetic diversity within the populations, especially in the central part of their areas, local areas close to the ancient refugia and the areas of introgressive hybridization. Most species have a relatively poor spatial intraspecific genetic differentiation in the central part of their areas: 2- 6% of the total variability accounted for the interpopulation component. In the outskirts of the areas the degree of differentiation increases. It has been found that, as a rule, sympatrical pairs of the same species are characterized by the interspecific introgression of genes. Genetic differences in the majority of the studied species are correlated with the geographic distances between populations. The results of the study of the genetic diversity between and within tree populations in Rus- sia are published mostly in the Russian language and are often presented in the publications which are difficult to reach by international scientific readership. In this regard, a special desk review of the data on the genetic diversity between and within species of woody plants in Russia presented in hundreds of Russian scientific sources was conducted especially for this Report. In cases when the genetic diversity values of the selected indicators were absent, they were calculated based on the available descriptions of allelic variation. The results of this large analysis are summarized in Ta- bles IV.3d and IV.3e of this Report, which for the first time summarizes the main parameters of the genetic diversity between and within the populations of woody plants in Russia. Studies have found that conifer plantations represent a hierarchical structure of interconnected subdivided populations, and are not, as is so often appear, panmictic community where all differences are leveled by an un- restricted gene flow. Such hierarchical subdivided structures differ in sizes of the occupied territo- ries and the number of individuals, the types of growing conditions and their proximity to the spe- cies optimum, degree of spatial subdivision, levels of intra-population diversity and inbreeding. Pa- rameters and modes of the functioning of these population systems are determined by the following: the total effective size and the number of individual subpopulations, migration (through open polli- nation with different ways of pollen, seeds and fruit dispersal) and its limitations (different forms of insulation), crossing system (frequency of outcrossing, inbreeding and close crossing, and assorta- 10 Section I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY tive crossing), Pleistocene and Holocene history, and introgressive hybridization with closely relat- ed species. Knowledge received by the Russian science is unique and extremely important for strength- ening the understanding and expanding the knowledge about the forest genetic resources of the world, they will contribute to the development of the international standards and protocols of inven- tory and monitoring of forest genetic resources. The priority areas in the field of forest genetic resources in Russia should be: a large-scale inventory of forest genetic resources with the use of traditional and modern molecular methods, the integration of the genetic diversity assessment ele- ments in the state forest inventory; study of the native genetic structure of tree species in old-growth forests and its re- sponse to climate change; study of the transformed genetic structure of species and its adaptation mechanisms in forests suffered from anthropogenic/radiation damage; study of the genetic structure of the populations of endemic, rare and endangered species, the marginal and small local mountain populations, "ancestral" populations in refugia, and the genome of hybrids with a significant heterosis effect; development of theoretical frameworks, methodologies and practical activity plans of the conservation and management of forest genetic resources at the federal level and the level of the federal subjects of the Russian Federation. Russia has paid great attention to the system of specially protected