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FORESTRY COMPLEX The forestry complex of the Republic of Belarus unite sectors and production facilities connected with reproduction and protection of forest resources and other useful forest factors (forestry), as well as with stockpiling, mechanical, chemical-mechanical and chemical processing of raw timber and waste (forest, woodworking and wood-pulp and paper industry). It includes about 5 thousand enterprises and production facilities with different forms of property (including over 470 large and medium-scale enterprises) with over 146 thousand employees. Forestry resources are one of the main natural riches of Belarus. The total stocks of timber constitute 1.1 billion cubic meters. The forestry fund occupies about 8.7 million hectares. The area of wood per capita is 0.72 hectares and 106 cubic meters of timber, which significantly exceeds the respective indicators of the majority of West and East European countries. A specific feature of the raw resources of timber in Belarus is dominance of industrial valuable types; young woods constitute 36.6%, ripening 14.2%, and ripe and overripe 4.8%. Owing to the targeted policy on management of the forestry complex, the area covered by woods and the total stock of plants over the last 20 years have increased by 4.4% and 70.8%, respectively. The negative tendency of reduction of areas and stocks of ripe plants has been overcome. Forests in Belarus are owned by the State. Their main owners are represented by enterprises of the Ministry of Forestry, which manage 77.3% of the total area of the forestry fund. The main problems of development of the country's forestry are connected with the need to improve the use of the forestry fund and increase the forest productivity. It is planned to implement a range of measures aimed at protecting forests against pests and increasing rehabilitation of radioactively contaminated forests affected as a result of the Chernobyl NPP incident.

____________________________ National Centre for Marketing and Price Study ____________________________ Online Catalogue of Belarusian Goods, Services and Companies at the National Centre for Marketing and Price Study ____________________________ GUIDEBOOK ON DOING BUSINESS IN BELARUS ____________________________ Internet resource on investment potential of Belarus ____________________________ Belarus Investment Projects ____________________________ Belarus Innovation Projects ____________________________

The economic reform in the forestry of the Republic was actually begun in 1993. The reform project is financed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Its objective is to increase efficacy of using forest resources through improved management of the forestry, liberalization of foreign trade in timber and its products, introduction of market methods of sale of standing timber, and development of the industry's potential.

The main ideas of the economic reform in this industry have been reflected in the documents worked out and already used in the country: The Concept of Sustainable Development of the Forestry of the Republic of Belarus until 2012 and The Strategic Plan of Development of the Forestry of Belarus.

The wood, woodworking and wood-pulp and paper industry of Belarus is a rapidly progressing sector. In 2000 the enterprises of the forestry complex manufactured products for the amount constituting 6.2% of the total output of the country's industry on the whole (against 4.4% in 1990).

The internal structure of the forestry complex is dominated by the woodworking industry (69.5% of the total product output), and the wood-pulp and paper industry (18.6%). The share of the timber stockpiling industry constitutes 10.5%. The key role in the structure of the woodworking industry is played by the furniture production - 62.3% of the total output amount. There are a lot of enterprises that manufacture construction parts from timber and timber-based boards (24%), woodcutting (6.6%) and match (2.2%) production.

The share of the non-governmental sector in the total number of enterprises and the production output constituted by the beginning of 2000 67.1% and 80.1%, respectively, as compared to 6.5% and 71% in 1995. The program of privatization is implemented successfully within the system of Bellesbumprom Production and Trade Concern: in the near years all its enterprises will become non-governmental.

The production potential of the wood, woodworking and wood-pulp and paper industry of Belarus allows not only meeting the needs of the domestic market for the majority of its products but export of a significant part (50-60%). In 1998, they were supplied to 56 countries on 5 continents.