CREATING A REGIONAL NETWORK
OF PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS
(IN FRAMES OF GEF BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PROJECT):
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
The aim of the regional PNA network project is to set up eco-networks to sustain the biodiversity of species and ecosystems in several model regions, to improve methods of local nature protection and to promote these methods among specialists.
Due to fluctuations in the exchange rate, the project’s budget has been cut roughly in half. Some of the project’s objectives had to be abandoned and the volume of most contracts decreased. Nevertheless, the preliminary results look fairly optimistic.
The most successful ventures have been in the Central Russian Plain (subcontractor — JSC “Geoecological Institute”) and in the Volga-Urals Region (subcontractor — Center for Support of the Volga-Urals Eco-Network). As a result of completing Action B.4.3. in the Central Russian Plain (Vladimir, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula and Yaroslavl Region) and in the Volga-Urals Region (Bashkortostan and Tatarstan republics and Samara Region), proposals for setting up a unified regional PNA network have been drawn up. The proposals are based on current legislation and protect valuable natural areas from further destruction. In some of these regions public support for protected areas has taken shape as the result of a concerted effort on the part of NGOs, resource users and the authorities.
Preparations (situation analyses and model projects) for drawing up similar proposals have been made in the Central Chernozemny Region (Belgorod Regional State Ecological Committee, Belgorod State Pedagogical University, Divnogorye Museum Reserve), in Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipentsk and Tambov regions.
Thanks to similar projects to set up eco-networks carried out by the BCC, WWF and other organizations, we now know how to proceed in setting up a Russian Eco-Network as part of the Pan-European Eco-Network.
N. A. Sobolev Action Coordinator,
Biodiversiry Conservation Center
