Cost Comparison Between Alternative Thinning Technologies in Russian Karelia

Planning of timber procurement has faced new challenges in North-West Russia due to new economic circumstances, invasion of foreign forest companies and western technology and the need of increased thinnings. In this study the costs of manual cutting, cutting with Russian prototype harvester, and Scandinavian harvester and forwarding with Russian and Scandinavian forwarders were investigated with unit cost calculation method. The manual cutting and harvesting with Russian prototype harvester were about 27% cheaper than the use of Scandinavian harvester. In forwarding the difference was less than 20%, the Scandinavian forwarder was more expensive. We have to remember that Russian harvester was only a prototype, and Russian forwarder used in this study is not widely used and exact data concerning long period was not available.