By Vladimir Golovkin
An international scientific-applied conference, dedicated to the problems of and perspectives for the exploration of the Russian Arctic Region, is currently underway in Moscow. Taking part are Russian and foreign specialists in the field of environmental protection, representatives of indigenous and not numerous nations, and also representatives of the Russian government bodies. The key issue the experts were faced with was to find a balance between the interests of animate nature and the necessity of industrial development of the northern territories.
Several big international projects are being implemented today in the Russian North with the support of the Global Ecological Fund (GEF). One of them is the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and GEF project – the ECORA project, which will be completed later this year.
The manager of this project – the leading scientific worker of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Yevgeny Kuznetsov says “The work on this project continues for 5 years now. It is the biggest ecological project that has ever been implemented in the Russian Arctic. However, Russia says there’s neither enough time nor money for the introduction in all Arctic regions of a new concept concerning the ecosystem approach to the rational use of resources. We’ve achieved tangible results – meaning that we’ve made a step forward to improve the living conditions of people living on Kolguyev Island in the Barents Sea. This concept means the harmonization of relations between business, power and people in the given region. It is one of the most far-away regions in Russia. Like many other near-Arctic regions of Russia, Kolguyev Island was ignored by the regional government bodies, and the ECORA project attracted the attention of the regional authorities to Kolguyev Island. And now we’re working on a project providing for the supply of drinking water to one of the near-Arctic villages. After this is done, it will be possible to develop tourism and small businesses there.”
The director of the UNEP global resource database, Peter Prokosch, from Norway says that climatic changes, which have been visible in recent decades, first of all, affect the Arctic biosphere.
Russian expert Professor Tishkov, deputy director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) stated “It is possible to preserve the nature of the Arctic Region only in the process of rational and stable use. The basic riches of the Arctic Region are biological resources, including boundless spaces occupied by waterfowl – there’re millions of them in the Russian Arctic. On that list are also the resources of water reservoirs with unique fishes and of course, unprecedented sea fauna resources. The Arctic Region is rich in biological resources which, like minerals, oil and gas, can help one to profit from this all.”
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