The Environment and Development in the Russian Far East

This article examines the impact of past extraction methods and present inattention to resource maintenance on the protection and development of the Russian Far East's natural resources. I focus on the forestry sector in particular because of the great importance of forest resources to environmentalists and developers alike. While the Russian Far East contains some of Russia's last remaining old-growth forests, the forestry sector is also of prime interest to developers - in attracting foreign investors, it ranks among the top five sectors in the Russian economy. Foreign investors have been mainly interested in extracting raw materials from the Russian Far East for processing in their home countries. Although this type of cooperation meets the short-term economic needs of the region, debates are taking place in the Russian press about the need to balance pressing needs for investment in resource extraction with the development of high quality processing industries and environmental protection in the Russian Far East.