Logging practices. Despite years of intensive industrial log- Whatever happened to Hyundai’s logging ging, 75 percent of the krai remains forested. However, the operation in Svetlaya? composition has changed and the quality of those forests Perhaps no joint venture in the RFE has received more declined considerably. In the past fi fty years, more than half attention from the international community than Svetlaya of the Korean pine forests in the rfe have been destroyed and PRIMORSKY Timber Joint Venture. In 1991, Hyundai Corporation (South replaced by broadleaved species. Overlogging occurs in many Korea) and two Primorsky regional timber enterprises of the ash and spruce forests, most of which are in protected (Primorlesprom and Terneiles) signed a 30-year agree- riverine forest zones, largely in the upper mountain belt of the ment with the Primorsky Krai government. In 1992, the southern Sikhote-Alin. Logging techniques, particularly in Hyundai joint venture tried to get access to log the Upper the spruce forests, have caused profound long-term ecosystem Bikin basin. The Bikin River is the largest old-growth transformations, frequently causing irrevocable changes in watershed in Primorsky Krai. Despite protests from the forest cover. Selective logging, usually in the form of high- Udege and environmentalists, then Primorsky Krai Gover- grading, is the most widely practiced method, conducted on nor Kuznetsov gave rights for Hyundai to log 500,000 cu. 62 percent of the territory and contributing about half of the m annually.9 The Udege protested and won; the Primorsky total timber harvest. By law, under this logging method, for- Krai Duma passed a law overturning the governor’s deci- esters are required to leave intact seedlings up to 10 to 14 cm sion. Svetlaya appealed the decision to Primorsky’s Re- in diameter, which reportedly allows for a natural regenera- gional Court, which favorably sided with the international tion rate of forty to fi fty years. joint venture. The case continued to the Russian Supreme There are signs that the industry lacks accessible timber Court, where the lower court’s decision was overturned in and is making efforts to secure new, formerly undeveloped favor of the Udege. The Supreme Court made a unilateral forestlands. Terneiles, Primorlesprom, and other major ruling based on a Presidential Decree, passed in 1992, companies are targeting the forest areas in the north of the giving indigenous groups the right of formal consent for krai, with strong support from a krai administration ready any encroachment onto their traditional lands. As these groups had granted no consent, the Court ruled that the governor had no legal standing for transferal of additional logging rights to Svetlaya. Despite failing to gain access to the Bikin basin, the joint venture still had considerable forestlands on the Svetlaya plateau, and during the early 1990s, was logging approximately 200,000 cu. m per year and selling the logs, mainly to Japan.10 However, by 1997, logging was scaled back considerably, and since then the joint venture has gone bankrupt. The reasons behind the failure are un- clear. Some point to the failure of the joint venture to gain access to upper Bikin, having clear-cut most of the ac- cessible forests near Svetlaya. Others attribute the bank- ruptcy to the Russian partners, who sought to “bleed” Hyundai into bankruptcy so they could seize the timber harvesters and other equipment left by the enterprise and use the renovated Svetlaya port facilities for their sole purposes. Still others point to general corruption within Russia as the reason for Hyundai’s withdrawal. Regard- less of the reasons, the joint venture’s failure has clearly cooled foreign investor interest in the timber industry in Primorsky; to date only one major forestry joint venture exists—the Terneiles-Sumitomo venture in Plastun. Meanwhile, the Upper Bikin basin issue has not been settled. While the Basin was declared a wildlife refuge (zakaznik) in 1998, there are regular attempts by industry Newell, J.to circumvent2004. thisThe designation Russian and log theFar territory. East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Panichev Alexander — JN Development. McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel.The Udege protested 466 pages Hyundai Corporation’s plans to log the Upper Bikin basin and won. Primorsky Krai Ⅲ 133 to overlook established environmental policy. This has been numerous gulfs and bays suitable for mariculture and coastal made all the easier since the dissolution of the Federal Com- fi shery farms. The most promising species for artifi cial mittee on Environmental Protection and the Forest Service reproduction are Japanese laminaria (Laminaria japonica), by presidential decree in March 2000. Primorsky crest, Pacifi c mussel (Mytilus trossulus), trepang, and salmon. Some of these species have been artifi cially PRIMORSKY cultivated for decades. Japanese laminaria (sea cabbage) has Fishing been cultivated in the krai since 1976. At one stage 5,000 Until the mid-1950s, Primorsky’s fi sh and invertebrate tons were produced a year, with a yield of twenty-six tons per harvest centered along the coast, mainly using a low-tonnage hectare. Today, enterprises lack equipment to produce dry fl eet. But by the late 1950s, the industry had developed a laminaria and, as a result, produce no more than several tons large-tonnage fl eet and greatly reduced the variety of species of this highly valuable product. Cultivation of Primorsky caught, focusing on the most commercially valuable. This led crest also began twenty years ago. Two crest farms oper- to rising fi sh harvests and the concentration of processing ated successfully in Minonosok Cove of Poset Bay and in enterprises in a few large cities, with the subsequent decline of Vladimir Bay. In 1989, 40 -ha plantations yielded 180 tons many coastal fi shing communities. However, with a declin- of crest, but production has since declined. However, there ing resource base in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk, is interest in reviving these farms, and within fi ve to seven where about 80 percent of Primorsky’s companies obtain years, benthic cultivation of crest could produce nearly ten their catch, a new focus is being put on rejuvenating coastal tons. Preliminary estimates show that it may be possible to fi shing and on aquaculture. One of the major initiatives cultivate four thousand tons of Pacifi c mussels yearly. within the Committee of Fisheries is to develop a coastal Trepang has become the most prized product of Primor- fi sheries development plan. sky’s mariculture industry. High demand on foreign markets Harvest fi gures show that during the past fi fty years, the makes cultivation of this species potentially very lucrative. average annual catch in the Russian eez of the Sea of Japan Substances extracted from trepang are used to treat cardio- has been about 180,000 tons. The main varieties included vascular diseases and to slow the growth of some malignant fl ounder, herring, pollock, and sardines. Primorsky’s coastal tumors. The annual production of trepang could rise to waters are inhabited by nearly forty varieties of invertebrates between 300 and 500 tons per year and could reduce pressure that hold promise for future commercial harvest. Primorsky’s on stocks, which are being destroyed by poaching. Trepang coastline is nearly 1,200 km long. The coastal aquatic regions harvesting has been illegal since 1997 because of the alarming are divided into approximately 120 fi shing sites, which under decreases in the catch. The amount of illegal harvest is not current regulation are distributed among eighty companies well known; some put the fi gure as high as 400 tons annu- that are lessees. Lessees can, in addition, catch certain species ally. Also, the distribution of scientifi c quotas of trepang to at other companies’ sites. According to estimates made in the Pacifi c Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (tinro) 1995 by the Pacifi c Institute of Geography, each kilometer of and other research institutes has fueled the harvesting of the Primorsky’s coastline yielded nearly u.s.$4,500 from mari- species, either by the institutes themselves or by the sale of culture activities and coastal fi shing; these estimates include these quotas to commercial fi rms. Most of the illegal harvest fi gures for illegal catches and smuggled sea foods. Never- is exported to China, where one kilogram of dried trepang theless the fi shery enterprises of Primorsky pay too little can command u.s.$60. attention to certain potential catch targets located in the There is also interest in establishing salmon hatcheries in coastal zone. As the 1995 data indicate, only 7 percent of the the krai. In 1994, the Federal Fisheries Committee, tinro, potential catch is actually caught. Fish harvests, as noted, and the Russian fi rm SS Lotiko developed and adopted a represent slightly more than one-third of the total available detailed program entitled “Primorsky’s Salmon,” which called catch. Flounder, pollock, and salmon found in Peter the for the construction of seven fi sh hatcheries and twelve fi sh Great Bay and near the northern coast of Primorsky account farms. There are two small-scale hatcheries in the Khasan for the increased number of fi sh caught. To increase harvest region (Ryazanovka and Barabashevka farms). If these two levels further, it will be necessary to revive the use of standing facilities prove successful, similar ones may be built along the seines, standing nets, and benthic traps in the littoral zone at Kievka, Narva, Margaritovka, Avvakumovka, Edinka, and depths of up to twenty meters. Pacifi c squid has the greatest Samarga Rivers and in the town of Ternei. There are also potential (300,000 tons) among the resources available. Real- hopes of harvesting two types of char, Dolly Varden (Salveli- izing this potential, however, will require a special resource nus malma) and kunja (Salvelinus kamchatica).