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N 7 (April 1998)
GOVERNMENT CUTTING ON WILDLIFE The Socio-Ecological Union Biodiversity Conservation Center and SEU CCI Press-service are calling press conference GOVERNMENT CUTTING ON WILDLIFE. The press conference will be held on March 15 and will deal with the critical situtaion of the state zapovednik's system, practically recieving no state funding for the past several years. The final drop that overwhelmed environmnetalist's patience was letter of RF Ministry of Finance stating that the zapovedniks salary fund is being cut almost for one fourth against planned in the state budget for 1998. Before that, authorities were not eager to enclude zapovednik's system funding into the budget for 1998 at all. DISCUSSIONS ON KALEVALA BORDERS CONTINUED On March 11 expanded board of Karelian Forest Institute Scientific Council discussed the Kalevala National Park projects. The Project agreed with local Kostamuksha Administration and Kalevala Administration was accepted as a basic one. This project was changed due to diclosure of some parts of Voinickoye forestry (one of the most valuable parts) and enclosure of some Vocnavolok territories. IN this version Kalevala park will be 95,6 thousand ha. But even this version still needs approval from Karelian Government. WHAT THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMNET SAYS... In his interview for Rossiiskaya Gazeta karelian Environmnet Minister Michael Feschenko said that scientifically the felling amount could be larger than the current one. "As environmnetalist I would embrace ban on any logging... And this wuold bring me some environmnental praise.. But as a person estimating all consuquences I cannot allow this... Our experts say that national park should be no less than 50 thousand ha...But in the USA or in Finland even 2 or 3 ha cuold be parks". GOVERNMENT PERSISTS IN ILLEGAL FOREST LAND TRANSFER In the last Update we wrote about the case on first group forest land transfer into non forest for different purposes. Despite the fact of Higher court admitting this transfer illegal, Russian Government continues these practices. Since the Court decision was made public 1193,37 ha of forested land was again transfered into non forest. The Ecojuris is currently preparing another suit agains Government. RUSSIAN FORESTERS RECIEVED THE SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY CRITERIA Russian Federal Forest Service approved and issued "The critreria nad indicators os sustainable forest managemnt in Russian Federation". We will publish some more information on the document in the upcoming issues. WORLD BANK MISSION RESULTS The WB just draw thr results of the Bank mission and prepared the final draft of the memoranda. Currently the total value of WB loan is estimated as $60 mln, (mostly this money will go for programms strategic planning which means most of the money would be consumed by different range consultants). The RF Ministry of Economy supports direct funding for the first group of components distributed under responsibility of relevant entities like Federal Forest Service and State Environment Committee, and funding through subloans for second component group for executive power entities of participating federation subjects. The revised concept already has number of basic settings supported by the Bank. CONSERVATION GETS REGIONAL One of the boreal frontiers runs through Nizhegorodskaya oblast. This region recently adopted law "On specially protected nature territories", as the similar federal law passed some responsibility in the issue to the regional authorities. Among the new possibilities is permission to introduce the new types of the protected territories. The new regional law has some completely new advantages, like prior reservation of the territory which is planned for conservation for the period of time neede for detailed study and conclusions on its value. It is also planned to create special Department of the specially protected territory management within Nizhegorodsky region Administration. The Nizhny Novgorod Region is among the most advanced in environmnetal activities, it has one of the strongest Socio-ecological Union member organizations "Dront". By the efforts of Dront's experts many protected nature territories were established, and lots of research and organizational work is done. DEATH SENTENCE FOR WOLF IS UNFAIR Karelian citizens, including Karelia Greens association and Petrozavodsk Nimal Protection Society turned to Petrozavodsk city court because of decree issued by the Karelian Ministry of Enviropnmnet. This decree allows to form experienced hunter groups for predator animal, mainly wolves, elimination. The money for wolves murder would be recieved form ecological fund, and also competition will be held among huners groups. The Ministry representatives think that wolves are getting too numerous, and this may affect the traditional hunted animal population, especially elk. But the truth is that in three Karelian region the wolves are totally eliminated already, and the result of the decree is unpredictable, as it doesnot state how many wolves should be left. According to scientific studies, the fall of the elk population is explained bu poaching, legal overhunting and forest felling. The wolf elimination may cause adverse result - the rise of diseases among elks. The petrozavodsk court did not satisfy citizen sue, and the case went to higher level court. THE CIS, Tajikistan POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL CRISIS CAUSES DEATH OF NATURE CONSERVATION SYSTEM The SEU member organization ECOcenter of Dushanbe reports that due to politacal and economic crisis, inactivity of environmnetal authorities and hardships suffered by the population most of valuable ecosystems may be destryed in the upcoming 5-6 year. The indication for that is for exmple, elimination of Bukhara deer in Tajikistan and elimination of Romitsky zapovednik itself. The Romitsky zapovednik was established for protection of mountain forest ecosystems as well as for rare species, like the Bukhara deer protection. But the Civil war and the complicated period after brought its existance to the end. Someone from government allowed to build settlements within zapovednik, and already 5 settlemnt appeared. The deers were hunted both by population and by armed opposition troops. The last deer according to SEU data was hunted down by local armed troop commander in the middle of March. Right now the depletion of nature conservation system in Tajikistan is rolling on. We can name the new settlements in SAry-Hosorsky reserve, one of the most valuable biodivversity reserve in Tajikistan, hunting of Marko-Polo at Pamir, total forest felling. The financial complications do not allow to re-activate state environmental services, but the urgent actions are needed, or Tajikistan will lose its unique ecosystems and biodiversity forever.
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