29 May 2013: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the timber and forestry section of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Government of the Russian Federation convened a workshop, titled ‘Innovations and Technologies in Forestry,’ which examined the state of the Russian Federation’s forests and the technologies required for the modernization of its forestry sector.

The workshop highlighted the role of the Russian Federation’s forests in supplying timber and bioenergy, and in particular, it considered the sustainable production and marketing of solid biofuels, plantations for bioenergy, biomass and biogas from the country’s forests.

The workshop also addressed how the Russian Federation could contribute to promoting forests in the green economy based on the UNECE/FAO ‘Draft Action Plan for the Forest Sector in the Green Economy.’ Given the five pillars of the Action Plan (sustainable production and consumption; a low carbon forest sector; green jobs; payment for ecosystem services; and monitoring and governance), the workshop concluded that forest technologies need to be improved and investments in research strengthened. [UNECE Press Release]