Russian Environments Seek New Watchdog RoleIRKUTSK, RUSSIA - Environmentalists across Russia are pointing to the increased role non-governmental groups will have to play in order to monitor ecological degradation now that Russian President Vladimir Putin's recently abolished two key environmental protection bodies.
During a two-week environmental training course held this month right outside this Siberian city just north of Mongolia, young environmentalists from across the region are learning how to monitor and report pollution and illegal logging, hunting and poaching.
''Since Putin's decree, the role of public organisations has become even more important because now we are not sure the government will provide even minimal environmental monitoring and protection,'' says 22-year-old Konstantine Kozlov, head of the Tomsk Ecological Student Inspection (TESI), an environmental group based in Tomsk, Siberia, which organizes the training school.
On May 17, Putin dissolved the Russian State Committee on Ecology and the Federal Forest Service and transferred their function to the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Because the Ministry of Natural Resources is primarily concerned with exploiting the environment, rather than protecting it, Russian and international environmentalists alike quickly denounced Putin's decision.
In a recent letter to the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, 67 environmental organisations from Russia and other countries, urged the financial institution to halt all loans to the country.
''President Putin is leading us down a path towards environmental harm that can impact countries beyond Russia and even the ecological balance of the planet,'' said Aleksandr Arbachakov of Siberia's Taiga Research and Protection Agency. Groups, charging that Putin has put the 'goat in charge of the cabbage' are currently organising a country-wide referendum against the decree.
''The work of the Committee on Ecology was not perfect, there was a lot of corruption, but it was better than nothing,'' says Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev, who works with the Irkutsk-based Baikal Environmental Wave, a ten-year old organisation.
Kudryavtsev is one of about 40 other young environmentalists from Siberia, many of them students, who participated in nearby raids, led by instructors, to catch illegal poachers and loggers. ''I learned here at the school that I have many more rights to monitor the environment than I thought,'' he says.
The need for monitoring has increased because environmentally destructive activities have increased since Russia loosened its trade restrictions with China about five years ago, says Kudryavtsev.
The endangered musk deer that lives around nearby Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake that holds 20 percent of the Earth's freshwater, is under constant threat from poachers who supply the musk to China, where the oil is used for medicinal purposes, he says.
''In the last five years, the number of musk deer around Lake Baikal has decreased 10 fold,'' says Dima Govorukhin, who also works at Baikal Environmental Wave.
The Nerpa seal, endemic to Lake Baikal, is also under threat from poachers who sell the pelts of the young fresh water seal to buyers in China.
When trade relations between the two countries was more strict and demand from China was much less, Nerpa pelts would only sell for 60 rubles (or about three US dollars). Now they sell for about 1,000 rubles, according to Govorukhin.
Earlier this year, Greenpeace and Baikal Environmental Wave led a scientific expedition to monitor the seals. There are approximately 75,000 Nerpa in Lake Baikal, but the organisations warn that this may change soon since the population of the animal is changing because only the young seals are killed for their fur.
''The Nerpa population is getting much older and young ones are killed before they reach child-bearing age,'' says Govorukhin.
Illegal logging around the lake, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, is also widespread, adds Govorukhin. Demand for logs are again coming from Asia, namely China and Japan, he says.
''But we don't have enough people, equipment, and vehicles to monitor all the logging,'' he says.
Kudryavtsev and Govorukhin both have certificates provided by the former Committee on Ecology to monitor environmental problems, but they wonder what will happen now that the agency will be under another ministry's jurisdiction. ''Maybe in one month, these certificates will be just a piece of paper and nothing more,'' says Kudryavtsev.
Members of TESI say that Putin's decree has already made their job more difficult. In February they sent a letter to the Committee on Ecology on their concerns over a proposal to build a new nuclear power plant in the gated city of Seversk, 16 kilometres north of Tomsk.
Legally the agency is supposed to respond within 30 days but TESI did not hear from the Committee for several months. When it contacted the agency it was told they were not responsible because they no longer existed. But it has not become clear who in the Ministry of Natural Resources will be handling these concerns.
''Putin's decree has caused a lot of confusion over who is now responsible,'' says Alexei Toropov, who directs TESI's nuclear monitoring programme.
Ira Kazakova, a 16-year-old student who came here to the training school from Barnaul, the capital of the Russian state of Atlay, says that even if the authorities are not adequately monitoring pollution and logging, at least she now has the tools to do it herself.
''We have a lot of problems with illegal logging and toxic pollution caused by rocket fallout from planes flying over from Kazakhstan,'' says Kazakova. ''This school has given us new skills, new information and new friends to help us.''
One day during the training programme, Kazakova participated in a raid in search of illegal fishing on the Angara river, which flows into Lake Baikal. When they found a fishing boat that did not have a license, she says the owner of the boat tried to bribe them gasoline to not report him.
''He was really mad when we wouldn't leave,'' she said. ''Then we took his fishing equipment away and wrote him a summons to appear before the authorities,'' she says.