CONCEPTUAL BASES OF NATURAL-TARGET CLASSIFICATION OF FORESTRY OBJECTS AND ITS USE

Abstract

Introduction. Throughout all  the history of forestry, the objects of economic activity have been classified according to their natural properties, as well as the purposes of their use. The variety of established classifications of forest objects, not brought into a single system, creates significant difficulties in doing business, since it cannot be fully secured by legislative, regulatory and technological support. The goal of the research is to develop the  conceptual and methodological foundations for the classification of forest objects, forestry activities for a complex of natural, typological and priority socially significant properties and functions of forests for efficient management of forests with continuous and non-depleting targeted forest management. Objects and methods. The object of the research is forestry facilities, legislative and legal documents of forestry activities. All the work to achieve the goal was carried out on the basis of a systemic zonal-typological priority-target method of research and the development of systems for silvicultural activities. Results and discussion. For the formation of a hierarchical system of “natural-target” forestry facilities, use of the silvicultural zoning of the territory is foreseen with allocation of silvicultural areas -districts - localities and, possibly, with more homogeneous areas in terms of natural conditions, in which relevant forestry objects can be represented (including the areas of non-forest land used for forest growing). Within the territorial units of silvicultural zoning, forestry objects are distinguished with using the accepted regional forest-typological, formationally forest-vegetation types, groups of types and forest growing complex forest types. The second basic component for the formation of “natural-targeted” objects of forestry facilities is the silvicultural classification of forests by target purpose with the release of hierarchically subordinate taxa. These taxa should combine legally established types of forests (operational, protective, reserve forests) and their individual components of different levels of similarity for the formation of elementary types of “natural-target” forestry objects and the creation of corresponding systems of forest management activities. Conclusions. The natural-target classification of forest objects provides for differentiation of the entire set of forests into typed objects, which unite into the system all the variety of distinguished areas. These objects correspond to certain systems of silvicultural activities aimed at achieving specific socially significant goals.