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Pääjärvi Harvesting Enterprise
The Pääjärvi Harvesting Enterprise (Pääjärvi Lespromkhoz) operates in the Louhsky Region of north-western Russian Karelia, around 60 kilometres from the Finnish border. The 30th anniversary of the Lespromkhoz will be celebrated in 2003.
Over the last three decades Pääjärvi Lespromkhoz has provided plenty of work for local people in this very sparsely populated region where there are few alternative employment opportunities.
The village of Pääjärvi has 3 400 inhabitants, 780 of whom are employed by the Pääjärvi Lespromkhoz in wood harvesting and transportation, forestry work or the enterprise's own sawmill.
As in other single-enterprise communities, the Lespromkhoz is still deeply involved in maintaining local social services, as well as being the largest local taxpayer.
Maintaining social services and other local infrastructure is vital to the Lespromkhoz - not least since this is a good way to encourage employees and young people to stay in Pääjärvi rather than moving away to cities or towns. Some 40% of industrial workers in Russian Karelia are directly or indirectly employed by the forest sector.
Pääjärvi Lespromkhoz harvested about 330 000 cubic metres of timber in 2002, while the Lespromkhoz's sawmill produced approximately 30 000 cubic metres of sawn goods for export.
The Lespromkhoz is actively developing new products and techniques
at the sawmill. But in order to be able to harvest saw-logs from
the forests, the Lespromkhoz must also find a buyer for the simultaneously
harvested pulpwood. Most of the harvested pulpwood is currently
exported to Finland for use in Stora Enso's Kemijärvi pulp mill.
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