«ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION»

NATURE RESERVE CALLS FOR HELP

Russian Children’s Telecommunication Project Ecological Cooperation has been developing at the Institute of Soil Science of the Moscow State University and Russian Academy of Science for six years already. He main goal of the Project is to unite Russia’s eco-educational organizations, to develop close partnership between them and to provide basic eco-educational training for schoolchildren with the application of informational technologies, to carry out cooperative nature conservation activities. Over 4000 students of the age from 7 to 17 from 142 organizations of Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia conduct investigations of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems within the frames of the Project and exchange the results of their work with young ecologists from other regions by means of telecommunication.

There are six chief branches of ecological research within the Project. Protected Natural Areas branch includes two major directions: rendering assistance to the existing PNAs, that is nature reserves, national parks, zakazniks and promoting the establishment of new nature monuments in the areas requiring immediate introduction of conservation regime. In 1999 the work has been carried out within the frames of the federal purposed programme “Integration” with the support of Russia’s Federal Ecological Fund, American grant programme “ Dissemination of experience and results/ROLL”.

The coordinators of the volunteer programme Nature Reserve Calls for Help considered it as an objective to integrate into one database the applications of the clients — nature reserves and national parks and the executors — children and youth groups. Thus, there was created a regularly renewed web-page in the Internet which is addressed to young volunteers — the participants of Ecological Cooperation (http://www.ecocoop.ru/save_nature/reserve_help/index.html). Currently the database contains applications from 15 nature reserves and 8 national parks. There you can learn about the results of the volunteer work. Now we would like to give only some examples of most useful and important, in our opinion, cooperation.

During a number of years State Nature Reserve Galichya Gora and Lipetsk Young Naturalist Station “Ecologist” has been carrying out joint practical work and research. The young naturalists under the supervision of the reserve’s specialists had completed over 30 ecological research works that were highly assessed by the specialists at all-Russian, regional and municipal ecological conferences.

In summer 2001 Young Naturalists Club of Zvenigorod Biological Station of the Moscow State University were engaged in research activities in Khakassky State Nature Reserve. The children helped to collect valuable material on day butterflies fauna, determined over 40 types of bracket-funguses, and made up a very big herbarium of superior plants and a lichen collection.

Children from St.-Petersburg EFA Laboratory of the City Youth Palace spent the bygone field season in Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve. They were engaged in hydro-biological research of the rivers Yenisey and smaller rivers and springs that flow into it. The children collected extensive material on the flora and ornithological fauna in a number of the reserve’s sites.

Obninsk Ecological Club “Sledopyt” (Pathtracker) has taken stock of beaver settlements on Pid’ma River in Russkiy Sever National Park. However, not only nature objects are of interest for young naturalists: Vologda region, particularly Kirilovsky Rayon, famous for its ancient Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, is honored for Great Russian cultural heritage sites. It is impossible to express in words the feeling that even most naughty boys experience when they face Christ image created by Dionisiy and his sons. These moments are precious…

Organizers of the Ecological Cooperation Project put it as their key objective also to teach the teams of children how to preserve valuable and simply beautiful nature sites that have become endangered.

Marina Rykhlikova,
Candidate of Biology, senior scientific specialist of the Institute of Soil Science of Moscow
State University and Russian Academy of Science, the leader of the Russian Children’s
Telecommunication Project “Ecological Cooperation”,
Moscow

Anna Mogilner,
Director of Sledopyt (Pathfinder) Ecological Club, coordinator of the Protected Natural Areas
branch of the Ecological Cooperation Project,
Obninsk

Ecological Cooperation:

Address: 119899, Russia,
Moscow, Moscow State University,Vorobyevy Gory
Institute of Soil Science of MSU and RAS
Tel./fax: (095) 939-37-74;
e-mail: ecocoop@online.ru
web-site: http://www.ecocoop.ru

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