Non-Wood Forest Resources: Significance and Problems of Resource Potential Assessment in the Framework of Sustainable Forest Management

In the world practice, legislative and scientific literature, the concept of «non-wood forest resources» is widely and comprehensively used. In this regard, the article clarifies the concept. The issues of the significance of these resources for society in obtaining various benefits, resource potential for regions involved in economic relations, in increasing the revenue base of the regional budget, and the need for its assessment are considered. The problems of assessing the resource potential of non-wood forest resources that arose at the level of legislative regulation of normative legal documents: the Forest Code of the Russian Federation and forest management documents are considered. Their imperfection and paradoxical situation of discrepancy between some provisions of normative documents are noted. The reasons that block sustainable forestry and forest management in solving the problem of conducting and obtaining an assessment of the resource potential of non-wood resources are identified. The necessity of further sustainable use of the forest resource potential of wild plants as a factor of life support of society, development of forest territories and effective forest management is substantiated. Proposals were made to address the problematic issues of assessing and obtaining statistical data on the resource potential of non-wood forest resources.