Transitioning from Soviet wood mining to sustainable forest management by intensification: are tree growth rates different in northwest Russia and Sweden?

Russian forest policy stipulates that intensified wood production is part of sustainable forest management. Swedish forest practices form a role model for this ambition. However, are the biophysical conditions for tree growth the same in northwest (NW) Russia and Sweden? We compared growth rates of young Scots pine (Pinus silvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies H. Karst.) at 58 degrees, 60 degrees, 62 degrees, 64 degrees N in both countries. Stands on rich, mesic and poor sites were sampled using the intercept method as an indicator of the actual tree growth rate. Young Scots pine growth did not differ between NW Russia and Sweden, and should thus, if managed in the same way, have the same rate of wood production. However, for Norway spruce growth rates were 20 per cent lower in Russia than in Sweden. This was linked to few young spruce trees growing without removing competing deciduous trees in Russia. All Swedish stands had been pre-commercial cleaned, but this treatment had only been applied to 5 per cent of the Russian stands. We discuss that intensification towards sustainable forest management requires knowledge not only about forest ecology, but also a toolbox for governance, planning and management. This requires learning about societal development trajectories linked to ownership, governance and tenure systems as well as forest landscape history.