«CURRENT EVENTS»

PROTECTION OF RUSSIA’S LIVING NATURE:
A NATIONAL FORUM

A National Forum on the Protection of Russia’s Living Nature was held in Moscow June 4—6, 2001. The Forum was organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources with the support of the Biodiversity Conservation Project of the Global Ecology Foundation (GEF).

The more than 230 participants came from academic and college science; legislative and executive authorities at the federal, regional and local levels; the army; business; environmental NGOs; creative unions and the media.

The Forum included two seminars: on the efforts of oil and gas companies to improve the environmental situation in the Russian North and on the activities of the GEF in Russia. There was also a discussion of the problems of biodiversity conservation in steppes and a Meeting of WWF Friends.

Forum participants were welcomed by deputy prime minister V.B. Christenko and addressed by Alexiy, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who noted that the Russian Orthodox Church has always supported conservation efforts. President of the Academy of Sciences Academician Y. S. Osipov, President of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences G.A. Romanenko, and Vice President of the World Bird Protection Union A.V. Yablokov sent messages.

The Forum participants approved the National Strategy and Main Guidelines of the Living Nature Conservation Action Plan. They stressed the geo-political significance of this Plan, whose adoption will contribute to sustainable development in Russia. In order to implement the Strategy’s guidelines, the Forum proposed that a Standing Coordination and Expertise Advisory Board be created; members should include legislators as well as people in business, creative unions, scientific and public organizations.

The Forum Resolution also instructed the Organizing Committee to prepare a letter to President Vladimir Putin asking that Russia’s Strategy for Biodiversity Conservation be taken into account when developing Russia’s environmental policy and volunteering to direct the National Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation in Russia.

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