March 21 marks the International Day of Forests, which was established by the UN General Assembly to draw attention to the sustainable management of these natural resources. The theme for 2024 is «Forests and Innovation: New solutions for a better world». Forests purify water and air, help maintain the planet’s temperature and absorb carbon; they also play an important role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystems.

Rosneft completed the preparatory stage of environmental forestation project in Krasnoyarsk Krai. The expected impact of the project is an increase in greenhouse gas sequestration of 10 million tons of CO2 equivalent over the project implementation period. This initiative will help reduce the carbon footprint of Vostok Oil, the Company’s largest project in Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Rosneft’s integrated environmental forestation project is not just planting saplings, but a large-scale effort to create and develop a new area of ecosystem services. A new field of activity is now emerging – from in-depth scientific research to the development of legal frameworks, methodologies for implementation and evaluation of environmental forestation projects. In addition, the project aims to develop skills and strengthen the potential of environmental forestation projects in Russia, creating business conditions that will help to increase investment flows in this area.

As part of the preparatory stage of the project, a number of research works were carried out by specialists from Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University and Siberian Federal University. As a result, scientifically substantiated conclusions on promising types of environmental forestation projects for Krasnoyarsk Krai were prepared, a mechanism for assessing their carbon and economic efficiency was developed, and recommendations for project monitoring were given.

The Company has also been actively involved in the development of amendments to forest legislation to create the legal conditions for the systematic implementation of environmental forestation projects in Russia.

Rosneft is focusing on developing the necessary in-house expertise on environmental forestation issues. In cooperation with Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University, a program of additional profile training has been prepared. 150 specialists of the Company were trained between 2022 and 2023. In addition, close cooperation with universities has been organised under the environmental forestation training program. To this end, special master’s programs will be developed at Siberian Federal University and internships will be organised at RN-Vankor for senior students of Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University.

With Russia’s forests accounting for about 20% of the world’s total, forest conservation and reforestation are priorities at both government and corporate levels. Forests contain more than 80% of the planet’s biodiversity.

The integrated environmental forestation project will be an important part of the Сompany’s forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation activities. In 2023, Rosneft’s enterprises participated in various campaigns: “Green Spring”, “Forest Planting Day”, “Save the Forest”, “We Clean the World” and “Garden of Memory” International Campaign.

Over 26 million seedlings and saplings have been planted as a result of reforestation activities undertaken by the Company’s enterprises over the past three years.

Rosneft
Information and Advertising Department
March 21, 2024

Keywords: Environmental news 2024