European and Russian Forests under International Climate Change Law

Abstract

International environmental law, based on the scientific evidence, available at the time, has commenced to address the global environmental problems such as climate change, deforestation and forest degradation relatively independently from and parallel to one another. On the one hand, there is a comprehensive international climate change regime, established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), focusing on the regulation of GHG emissions. On the other hand, there is the international forest law, as a vague aggregate of rules and processes included in a desperate array of treaties and non-binding instruments, aiming at reversing the loss of forest cover worldwide, forest protection and sustainable forest management (SFM). The most recent scientific evidence provides, however, that the global environmental problems are interconnected and do not fit neatly into a single international environmental regime. Thus, the regulation of the climate change issue touches upon the topics, subject to the international forest law. This gives rise to various interactions between the international forest-related environmental regimes (e.g. synergetic, conflicting, and neutral). Conflicting interactions, in particular, if not detected and addressed timely, may further exacerbate the global environmental problems. For instance, combating climate change may contribute to global deforestation and forest degradation.