INTERVIEW | Not only quantity but also quality: why it is important to consider forests as ecosystems

Evgenia Kleshcheva

May 14, 2026 Climate and environment

This week at the UN headquarters, the UN Forum on Forests is being held, where states discuss the implementation of global goals for forest protection and restoration of forest ecosystems.

According to Kobyakov, one of the key global tasks remainsdeforestation cessation. Although the area of forests worldwide continues to decrease, the rate of loss is gradually slowing down. However, he emphasized that beyond statistics, there remains a more complex problem – forest degradation.

Degradation means not just the disappearance of the forest as a territory, butworsening of his condition and loss of ecological functions. The speech is about changes in species composition, the reduction of biodiversity, the decreased ability of forests to retain carbon, protect soils, and perform social and climatic functions.

“It is not only important whether there is a forest or not. What is important is what kind of forest it is and what functions it performs,” emphasized the expert.

Fires, permafrost, and climate

In Russia, where concentratedabout one-fifth of the world’s forests, the problem of degradation is especially noticeable. One of the main factors in this context was named by Kobyakov as forest fires.

According to him, after the record seasons of 2019–2022, the situation has somewhat stabilized, but the long-term trend still points to an increase in the area of fires. The expert noted that fires not only destroy forests and biodiversity but also exacerbate the climate crisis.

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“We are dealing with a classic self-reinforcing feedback loop: fires lead to greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change increases the risks of new fires,” he said.

Another serious problem named by Kobyakov is the thawing of the permafrost. According to him, a significant part of Russian forests is located precisely in the zone of permafrost soil.

“If something happens thereEconomic impact, for example, timber harvesting, then we lose the forest cover, and at the same time forest restoration becomes extremely difficult because the soil damage occurring in the area along with the thawing of permafrost leads to very serious erosion processes,

In addition, permafrost degradation, like fires, is accompanied by additional emissions of greenhouse gases from the soil, which further intensifies warming.

Climate changes alreadyinfluence the distribution of forestsIn Russia. In the north, forests are gradually advancing into new areas, but such ecosystems remain low productivity and unable to compensate for losses in the south of the country. In the southern region, on the contrary, forests are becoming less stable due to heat, drought, and the spread of pests.

“The forest seems to still be there, but if a fire or an insect infestation occurs, its recovery becomes questionable,” Kobyakov noted.

Not only the recovery of areas

In Russia, the main focus is on quantitative indicators – for example, the area of restored forests. At the same time, Kobyakov emphasized that in many cases the forest is capable of regenerating independently, especially in the northern forest zone. The expert called for more consideration of the restoration of forest ecosystems specifically, not just the planting of trees.

“If we take restoring the forest as an ecosystem, this task is an order of magnitude more complex,” he emphasized.

In his opinion, it is especially important to pay attention to those territories where forests can no longer fully recover independently due to climate change, fires, soil degradation, or human impact. He emphasized that such territories are often located in the more populated southern regions of Russia, where forests have a special significance for the quality of life of people.

“Growing industrial timber is better left to the forestry sector so that companies deal with it where they directly carry out harvesting,” the expert added.

Kobyakov also gave examples of individual projects for ecosystem restoration that are already being implemented in Russia by non-commercial organizations. Among them are attempts to return boxwood to natural ecosystems after destruction by invasive pests, as well as projects to restore pine-broadleaf forests in the southern taiga. However, so far these initiatives remain local.

“Invisible” forests

Kobyakov also drew attention to the problem of forests that arise on former agricultural lands. According to him, it is precisely these young forests that today are one of the largest carbon sinks in Russia. The expert noted that it is difficult for the state to objectively assess the real balance of forests and the volumes of greenhouse gas absorption.

“Such forests do not appear in official statistics, but nevertheless they exist and due to their area they exert a significant impact, probably even global,” he noted.

According to Kobyakov, the process had previously occurred in China as well. There, significant areas of agricultural land were also withdrawn from use, after which part of the territory began to overgrow with forest independently, and part within the framework of a state program.

Chinese authorities initially included such forests in the system of state accounting and international reporting. According to Kobyakov, it was precisely for this reason that China managed to become one of the world leaders in the absorption of greenhouse gases by forests.

In Russia, however, the expert noted, a significant portion of such forests actually remains “invisible” to the official accounting system, despite their ecological and climatic role. One of the key tasks for Russia should be the official recognition of forests on agricultural lands and the creation of a system for their accounting, assessment, and management, he believes.

Land degradation – a global problem

At the end of the interview, Kobyakov spoke about the preparation for k17th UN Conference on Combating Desertification, which will take place this summer in Mongolia.

He notes that in the narrow sense this problem primarily affects arid territories, the area of which in Russia is relatively small. It mainly concerns the southern regions of the European part of the country and certain territories of Siberia. At the same time, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification considers the issue more broadly – howproblem of land degradationOverall, regardless of the climatic zone.

“If we talk about land degradation, then, of course, for Russia this problem is very relevant,” the expert emphasized.

Many of the most serious environmental problems in the country are precisely related to large-scale degradation of land and ecosystems. Among such processes, he named forest fires, thawing of permafrost, soil erosion, drought, and other consequences of climate change.

According to him, existing international environmental agreements of the UN only partially address these issues. Problems of land degradation are mentioned in the climate convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity, but it is the Convention to Combat Desertification that remains the only international mechanism directly working with land resources.

One of the topics that Russian experts plan to raise at the conference will be cooperation between Russia and neighboring states in combating land degradation and desertification. This problem is especially relevant for the countries of Central Asia and Mongolia.

Another important direction named by the expert is the search for new mechanisms of financing environmental restoration activities. In particular, Kobyakov considers the use of voluntary land use certification tools to be promising — by analogy with forest certification systems that are already used in many countries.

He reminds that there are large international forest certification systems in the world, and in Russia, despite the presence of international operators, national systems continue to operate. In the expert’s opinion, this experience can also be used to combat land degradation.