Smolensk region is among the regions with the highest quality of forest management

The experts of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) together with the National Rating Agency (NRA) and supported by the Federal Forestry Agency ranked the quality of state forest management in 2013. This rating is an independent non-departmental assessment and has been determined for third time already. The current study involved 77 regions. Smolensk region is among the federal entities which are at the top.

Rating was conducted according to the method developed with the active participation of other NGOs, state forest management authorities, representatives of the forest science and business. To determine the position of the federal entities the researchers analyzed the data from the regions in 63 parameters: areas of the various types of forests (protecting, operating, reserved), the number of violations of forest law, the number of fires, the volume of new plantings and timber harvesting, the average number of employees of forest divisions and forest parks, as well as their wages and other criteria.

They also assessed organization, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability of forest management and usage, law enforcement, ensuring the quality of forest resources and forest health, fire protection, information availability and public participation in forest management, and additional criteria.

According to the result of the study each participant received a letter rating "A”, "B" and "C" characterizing the quality of forest management from high to low. Smolensk region is among the regions that received the highest overall rating - "A". The performance of the region has been assessed as follows:
- forest management and usage assessment - B1
- law enforcement assessment - A1
- forest resources and forest health maintaining assessment - A2
- forest fire indicators assessment - A2
- forest management economic efficiency assessment - A2
- environmental sustainability of forest management assessment - A1
- information availability / public participation in forest management - B2
- other criteria - B2