RCN #32 20/6/03 12:50 Page 1 No. 32 Spring 2003 In this issue: • Oil & the Environment • Siberian Hang-Glider Migration • Bashkiria’s Endangered Honeybees • Reforesting Russia’s Black Earth PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN RUSSIA AND THROUGHOUT NORTHERN EURASIA RCN #32 20/6/03 12:50 Page 2 CONTENTS CONTENTS Voice from the Wild (Letter from the Editor)........................................1 FOREST MANAGEMENT A Model for Sustainable Forestry ....................................................................23 PROTECTED AREAS Shulgan Tash Zapovednik: Restoring Our Forests ...............................................................................................26 Keeping a Sweet Traditional Alive.....................................................................2 NGO NEWS OIL & THE ENVIRONMENT Constructive Criticism for Kazakhstan’s NGOs ..................................28 A Precarious Balance: Oil and the Environment in the Former Soviet Union....................................................................................5 NEWS OF THE DAY The BTC Pipeline: Political Considerations A Century of Russian Zapovedniks – New Book Outweigh Environmental Concerns................................................................6 Available In English.....................................................................................................30 The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline: Champion for Russia’s Protected Areas A Necessary Compromise .........................................................................................9 Returns to the Ministry!...........................................................................................31 The Caspian Sea: No Legal Status, No Protection.............................11 Threats to Dunaisky Zapovednik Persist..................................................31 Playing Dirty in the Baltic Sea ...........................................................................12 Tunkinsky National Park: Baikal’s Backyard in Jeopardy...........14 BULLETIN BOARD.........................................................................32 ENDANGERED SPECIES ABSTRACTS IN RUSSIAN ......................................................33 Siberian Passage: Flight of Hope for Siberian Cranes ....................18 Focusing on Flyways of the Siberian Crane...........................................21 CONSERVATION CONTACTS....................Back cover The mission of the Center for Russian Nature Russian Conservation News is produced with support from Conservation (CRNC) is to promote the conservation of many wonderful conservation-minded people! Special thanks nature in Russia and throughout the former Soviet to: the Weeden Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Bill Union, and to assist conservation groups in that region Eichbaum, Harriet Crosby, Winslow Duke, Geoffrey Harper, through information exchange, coordination of profes- Joan Hoblitzell, Eliza Klose, Juliana Williams, Andrea Williams sional and education exchanges, and provision of tech- & Chas Dewey, Bernie McHugh, John Hemenway, W. Horton nical assis- Beebe-Center, Lisa Woodson, Rodney Cole, David Ostergen, tance to pro- Phillip Pryde, and Jack Padalino. tected areas. CRNC is a We’d like to thank all of our subscribers and special contributors, project of the especially the following: Matthew Auer, Cynthia Barakatt, Gerard Tides Center. Boere, Joan Bridgwood, Bill Chandler, Dave Cline & Olga Romanenko, Evelyn Cochran, Wallace Cole, Mary Cooper, Jane Costlow, Susan Helms Daley and Sean Daley, Nicholas Day, Andrew Durkin, William Fuller, Kevin Gilligan, Ken Harte, Nancy © Copyright 2003 CRNC/Tides Center. Hopps, Freeborn Jewett, Jr., George Johnson, Nadezhda Kavrus- Hoffmann, Mary Anne Mekosh, Rick McGuire, Kazuo Morimoto, Lois Morrison, Douglas Murray, Edward Mulrenin, John Prentice, Guido Rahr of the Wild Salmon Center, Thomas Rainey, Nicholas RCN has many partners and friends in Russia, including Robinson, David Sears, Brooke Stevens, Fred Strebeigh, Gregory the Partnership for Zapovedniks, whose mission is to offer Streveler & Judy Brakel, Michael Thoma, Peter Ward, and William organizational, technical, Wasch, Jr., Gary Waxmonsky. and financial help to zapovedniks and nation- al parks in Russia. ISSN 1026-6380 RCN #32 20/6/03 12:50 Page 1 Voice from the Wild (A letter from the Editor) his spring, just as the first velvety leaves began to crown the trees of T Moscow, Yukos, the country’s largest oil company, announced its intention to merge with Sibneft, another major Russian oil firm. Once Yukos and Sibneft close ranks, the new company, YukosSibneft, will be the world’s fourth largest private oil producer and will control more proven EDITORIAL BOARD reserves than any other private company in the world. The merger announcement came on April 22, amid worldwide as Earth Day festivities, Editor-in-Chief: Margaret Williams but for environmentalists, the news was hardly reason to celebrate. Assistant Editor: Laura Trice Since the fall of the Soviet Union, oil has been touted as the road to eco- Managing Editor: Nikolai Maleshin nomic development, not just for Russia, but for many of the former Soviet Union’s struggling new republics. Yet the environmental and social outlook Graphic Artist: Maksim Dubinin for such development is at best uncertain. In this issue of Russian Design and Layout: Design Group A4 Conservation News, we take a closer look at the trade-offs involved in oil development in northern Eurasia and explore what kind of balance, if any, Translator: Laura Trice can be struck between oil and the environment. Our authors write of the Subscriptions Manager: Elizabeth struggle to hold Lukoil to international standards in the Baltic Sea, the pros Hermsen and cons of pipeline construction through the Republic of Georgia, and the environmental consequences of transporting oil to Asian markets. Each Special thanks to Kakha Tolordava of of these articles illustrates a tireless commitment on the behalf of many WWF – Caucasus for help in explaining the complexities of the BTC pipeline NGOs and individuals to fight for public input into oil development strate- project, and to Melissa Mooza for her gies and to demand corporate accountability. To date their stories are an dedicated work in support of Russian alarming reminder that the very foundations of democracy and civil socie- Conservation News. ty are on shaky ground throughout northern Eurasia. Contributing Authors: S. Meanwhile, in other parts of the region, spring has taken hold with a Bourmistrov, A. Eil, E. Gorbacheva, N. Gujaraidze, A. Koroleva, I. Kushenov, promise for rich – and sustainable – harvests. In the “black earth” region B. Luecke, M. Maleshin, C. Mirande, of south-central Russia, schoolchildren have been tending seedling nurs- S. Piskareva, V. Slivyak, L. Trice, eries, as part of a Greenpeace forest restoration project. We hope our read- L. Williams ers will find inspiration in this simple project’s grand ambitions: Greenpeace hopes that year after year, the work of children will restore Contributing Artists and strips of forest to the steppe, protecting Russia’s famous grasslands from Photographers: A. D’Arrigo, A. Kandaurov, S. Kishchenko, K. Kreiser, erosion. Further north, in Pskov Region, the World Wide Fund for Nature B. Luecke, C. Mirande, P. Petrov, (WWF) is tending a larger nursery as it prepares for harvests years ahead at A. Proskurin, N. Puspinov, I. Shpilenok, the Pskov Model Forest. We invite you to take a tour of the model forest, A. Sorokin, E. Yablochkina where the WWF crew is refining forestry techniques that foster the long- term sustainability and efficiency of the Russian forest sector. ON THE COVER With summer just around the corner, Muscovites are already anticipating those brief weeks in July when the linden trees come into bloom in canopies of fragrant, cream-colored blossoms. In the Republic of Bashkiria, however, this flowering is only a prelude to richer treasures – the linden honey of the indigenous Burzyan honeybee. In this issue of RCN, we travel to Shulgan Tash Zapovednik where efforts are underway to protect this tiny endangered species and preserve a centuries-old tradition of wild bee- keeping among the Bashikirian people. Also in this RCN we invite you to learn about a strange and wonderful journey undertaken by birds and humans alike. This is the journey of six captive-raised Siberian crane chicks who followed Italian hang-glider Angelo D’Arrigo to learn what should be their traditional migration route from northwestern Siberia towards their wintering grounds in northern Iran. Although last fall’s migration ended near Kazakhstan, you readers will continue south, across the border, to consider the work of Kazakhstani environmental NGOs. Finally, RCN concludes with good news from the newly created Department of Protected Areas and Biodiversity Shetland bumblebee (Bombus musco- Conservation, which has picked up steam under the leadership of new rum). Cover drawing by A. Proskurin Deputy Director Vsevolod Stepanitsky. Spring 2003, No. 32 1 RCN #32 20/6/03 12:50 Page 2 Protected Areas Protected Areas Keeping a Sweet Tradition Alive saw the Bashkirian wild beekeepers as a threat to his collectivization By Laura Williams from his father. Wild beekeeping has process since selling honey made endured for nearly 1000 years in them better off than many peasants. agit Galin, 69, saddles up his these remote forests of the southern During World War II, wild beekeep- S chestnut mare, strapping a long, Ural Mountains – passing