Asian Russia makes up the eastern third of the Russian Federation and covers over 663 million hectares, more than two-thirds the size of the continental United States.

Ancient forests are in crisis What is at stake?

The Snow Forests of Asian Russia comprise areas of intact ancient forest ranging from the arctic zone in northeastern Sakha, to the subtropical region along the Amur and Ussuri river basins to the south.

Forest makes up 45 percent of the territory, and ranges in type from shrublike tundra forest in the north to rich mixed forests in the south.

These diverse forests provide a home to many species of plants and animals, including the highly endangered Siberian (or Amur) tiger, Far Eastern leopard, the Himalayan bear, and the musk deer. The Amur-Sakhalin region shelters more types of plants and animals than any other temperate forest in the world, with many of these species existing nowhere else.

Like other forests, the Snow Forests of Asian Russia are also home to indigenous peoples including the Nanai of the Khabarovsk region.

Visit the Greenpeace Russia forests website for more information.

Time to act

Logging and other resource extraction such as mining pose a serious threat to Russia's Snow Forests.

Already some regions have been logged out, and in recent years, multinational logging corporations with a history of forest destruction have started to secure long-term logging agreements here.

Indeed, the Malaysian giant Rimbunan Hijau, has just secured two 50 year leases to log forest along the Sea of Japan coast and is planning to export raw logs to markets in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Illegal logging and the consumption of specific timber species by Chinese and Japanese markets are now regarded as the primary threats to the rich temperate forests of the southern regions of Russia's Snow Forests. This, coupled with an expected increase in demand for Russian timber from Northeast Asia over the next 10 years, poses a serious threat to the survival of these stunning ancient forests.