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Каспинфо август 2001 |
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Название: Сообщения НПО. Материалы на англ. яз. Главные Пункты: * НПО Natural Resources Defense Council, США, обращается к НПО Каспйиского региона с просьбой сообщить о новых проектах по сохранению осетрового стада на Каспии, а также о том, что могут сделать американские НПО для защиты осетровых и окружающей среды Каспия. * Пресс-релиз о радикальной акции СоЭС Северного Кавказа против вырубки массива заповедных сосен при строительстве газопровода Голубой Поток и других действиях СоЭС, направленных на прекращение нарушений законодательства при реализации этого проекта. * Netherlands Committee for IUCN объявляет о начале новой фазы Программы малых грантов для НПО из 26 стран по проблемам сохранения и устойчивого использования заболоченных территорий. Срок подачи заявок - 1 октября 2001 г. Подробная информация, критерии отбора, форма заявки - на www.wetlands.nl. * и др. сообщения. (22.08.2001) Полный Текст Сообщения НПО. Материалы на англ. яз. Сообщения НПО. Материалы на англ. яз. *** From: "Devon Knowles" To whom it may concern: The Natural Resources Defense Council, an American NGO, is currently working on a campaign entitled "Caviar Emptor", the main goal of which is to help the endangered Caspian Sea Sturgeon. As an intern assisting on the campaign I have had a chance to research the role played by NGO's, international organizations, and governmental organizations in that region. Do you know of any future projects being planned by the above organizations? Also, do you have any suggestions for what role an American NGO can play to help the sturgeon and environment of the Caspian Sea? Any assistance you can give me on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Best wishes, Devon Knowles *** Gazprom and Western Partners' Illegal Logging Meet Outcry, Direct Action As a result of brazen flaunting of Russian environmental law by Gazprom and its western partners, local environmentalists in southern Russia have chosen to take extreme action by protesting illegal logging in ways that endanger their safety. Enraged Russian environmentalists, including activists from the Western Caucasus branch of the Socio-ecological Union, a national environmental group, are protesting the illegal cutting of two species of endangered pine tree on the territory of a nature sanctuary. They have resorted to placing their own bodies in the path of loggers hired by an Italian company participating in construction of the "Blue Stream" gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey. The Crimean Pine and the Pitsunda Pine, both listed in the Russian Red Book, are being cut in the Arkhipo-Osipovskoe nature sanctuary near the town of Gelendzhik, Russia by the Italian firm Saipem. This area falls under the nature park protection fund of the Russian Federation. Yet guaranteed federal legal protection has not stopped companies from tree-cutting. Environmentalists are expressing their outrage by climbing up into the trees that have been designated to be felled. SEU spokesperson Andrei Rudomakha said, "This last-resort method of protest has been provoked by an unprecedented act of law-breaking on the part of a subdivision of Gazprom and the Italian company ENI-the illegal cutting down of an expanse of endangered trees within a nature sanctuary." The protests began August 18, and for four days, activists have attempting to actively prevent loggers from the Italian subcontractor Saipem from cutting trees. Two protesters were very nearly injured on August 20, when their physical presence obstructing the path of axes was ignored by loggers. Rudomakha said, "The workers saw our banners reading "Stop! People Are in the Trees!" and went ahead and began cutting. Whether from urging by their bosses or fear of losing salary, they ignored safety measures and cut nearby trees which threatened to take out those in which we were sitting." When activists could see that perching in trees would not prevent them from being cut, Rudomakha said, they tried sitting or standing in the way of the workers. One tree came centimeters from falling on activist Yuri Tertichniy. Loggers managed to fell five Crimean pines despite the nonviolent obstruction of the activists. Ironically, the only direct action that appeared effective was when activists physically "hugged" the endangered trees, preventing workers' from cutting them. This "treehugging" tactic prevented further logging, if only for the remainder of that day. Representatives from the Italian firm Saipem made no effort to restrain their workers and instead told activists through an interpreter that, "The authorities of Krasnodar Krai have allowed us to cut here." Rudomakha added, "One of the Italian workers said that he understood environmentalists' concerns and actions from an ethical standpoint-but work was work." The activists stated that the loggers were becoming used to the protesters, even expressing their sympathy for them, all the while maintaining that protection attempts were "hopeless and this forest couldn't be saved, since it had all been sold at the very top in Moscow." In addition to direct action, other measures are being taken as well, such as sending letters to media outlets and to Amirkhan Magomedovich Amirkhanov, the head of the environmental protection department of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. Activists are calling for "immediate adoption of extreme measures" to end environmental lawbreaking in the nature sanctuary. Last year, the Putin administration folded the federal department responsible for environmental protection into the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is focused heavily on resource extraction. Activists called the destruction of a unique natural treasure an appalling violation of the law, and cited the sections of the Russian Criminal Code the companies have broken (Section 246, Breaking Nature Protection Laws During Industrial Work; Section 259, Destroying Habitat Critical to Species Listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation; Section 262, Infringing on the Conditions of a Specially Protected Territory). According to very clear provisions of Russian federal nature protection law, the given parcel of land cannot be exempted from protection. The Western Caucasus SEU activists request that concerned parties express their disapproval of the illegal logging by sending faxes to: Alexander Nikolaevich Tkachev, Head of the Krasnodar Krai Administration, 7 (8612) 68-35-42, or 68-45-38; Anatoliy Nikitovich Shkrebets, Krasnodar Krai Public Prosecutor, 7 (8612) 68-25-52; and Tommazo Silvestri, Director of the Gelendzhik Affiliate of the Italian company "Saipem," 7 (86141) 5-84-40. For more information, please contact A.V. Rudomakha, SEU, ies@rambler.ru, Aleksey Knizhnikov, ISAR-Moscow, clearh@glasnet.ru, or to receive the full text of the environmentalists' statements in Russian, please write John Deever, ISAR-Washington DC, at john@isar.org. John Deever, ISAR-Washington DC, по материалам Независимой Экологической Службы по Севреному Кавказу *** HAILS Sandra - Ramsar wrote: Here's a message on funding for wetland projects that the Bureau has received from Esther Blom, Programme Officer for the Small grants for Wetlands Programme of the Netherlands Committee for IUCN. "Since September 2000, the Netherlands Committee for IUCN is managing the Small grants for Wetlands Programme (SWP). The programme aims at financing local NGO projects in the field of conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. In this phase of our programme, we can support projects in 26 countries. During the first year of the programme, we have supported a number of 28 projects. If you want to obtain a list of these projects (including summaries), please check our website on the following address: www.wetlands.nl For your information, the next deadline for submitting projects at the SWP is the 1st of October 2001. This is also the last deadline of this phase of the SWP. Therefore, the maximum duration of projects submitted for this deadline is only 6 months. If our programme will be extended (depending on follow-up financing), the next deadline will take place after the summer of 2002. This will be announced on our website:www.wetlands.nl For further information, please contact me on the following address esther.blom@nciucn.nl." The Web site gives full details of the criteria used for selecting projects as well as the application process itself, and it's clear that wetland CEPA projects would easily fit the criteria. Please pass on Esther's message to any of your colleagues that may be interested. With best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Bureau ********************************************************** Sandra Hails, Senior Communications Assistant The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland Fax: +41 22 999 0169 E-mail: hails@ramsar.org Web Site: http://ramsar.org Outreach mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN) *** Oil Spill 25 Km Long Spotted Near Sakhalin Island Interfax News Agency, August 07, 2001 Yuzhnosakhalinsk -- An oil spill about 25 kilometers long and up to 100 meters wide has been spotted near Russia's Sakhalin island on Monday, the Sakhalin civil defense and emergency authority told Interfax. The spill, lying in the Aniv gulf, stretches along the Crillon peninsula, whose southern tip is Sakhalin's closest point to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Eyewitnesses said they saw oil being washed onto parts of the Sakhalin shore between the Naicha and Tambovka rivers, which flow into the gulf. It is surmised that a ship may have disposed of some of its diesel fuel or washed its fuel tanks, and this produced the spill. More than 10 boats are catching salmon in the region. A team of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk investigators left for the Crillon peninsula on Tuesday. Russian Environmental Digest 6 August - 12 August 2001, Vol. 3, No. 32 |