No. 40 Fall 2005/Winter 2006
Special Issue: Russia's World Natural Heritage Sites • Lake Baikal to be Spared Pipeline Threat • A Transportation Corridor through the Ukok Plateau? • Russia and Mongolia Collaborate to Preserve the Uvs Nuur Basin
PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN RUSSIA AND THROUGHOUT NORTHERN EURASIA CONTENTS CONTENTS
Voice from the Wild (A Letter from the Editors) ....1 Contacts, Welcomes International Guests ...... 23
INTRODUCTION TO WORLD NATURAL GOLDEN MOUNTAINS OF ALTAI...... 26 HERITAGE SITES IN RUSSIA Examining Alternative Development Scenarios World Natural Heritage Sites in Russia...... 2 for the Ukok Plateau ...... 27 The Benefits of World Heritage Status WESTERN CAUCASUS...... 30 in Russian Practice...... 4 Extending the Western Caucasus World UNESCO's World Heritage List and Heritage Site: Plans and First Steps ...... 31 the Place of Russian Natural Territories on It ...... 7 CENTRAL SIKHOTE-ALIN ...... 34 International Seminar Attracts Specialists to Discuss Alternative Nature World Heritage Status for Unique Territories Use on World Natural Heritage Sites...... 9 in the Bikin River Valley?...... 35
Russian-German Collaboration in Protecting UVS NUUR BASIN ...... 36 World Heritage...... 11 Russia and Mongolia Collaborate to Preserve CASE STUDIES: WORLD HERITAGE STATUS the Uvs Nuur Basin...... 37 AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR RUSSIA’S NATURAL SYSTEM OF WRANGEL ISLAND RESERVE...... 39 PROTECTED AREAS Overcoming a Difficult Period of Transition An Introduction ...... 12 in the Russian High Arctic...... 40 VIRGIN KOMI FORESTS ...... 13 THE FUTURE Protecting Territory and Developing Tourism in Yugyd Va National Park...... 14 World Natural Heritage Sites in Russia: Future Prospects ...... 42 LAKE BAIKAL ...... 17 Spotlight on Russia's Tentative List...... 43 Oil Pipeline Construction Threatens Lake Baikal ...... 18 TABLE OF RUSSIA'S WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE SITES...... Rear Inside Cover VOLCANOES OF KAMCHATKA...... 22 Klyuchevskoi Nature Park Establishes International CONSERVATION CONTACTS...... Back Cover
The mission of the Center for Russian Nature Russian Conservation News is produced with support form many wonderful Conservation (CRNC) is to promote the conservation conservation-minded people! We could not do our work without you! of nature in Russia and throughout the former Soviet Special thanks to: Gerard Boere, Dave Cline & Olga Romanenko, Evelyn Union, and to assist conservation groups in that Cochran, Harriet Crosby, Susan Helms Daley, Winslow Duke, Bernt Dybern, region through information exchange, coordination Brock Evans, Matthew Foley, Carol Foss, Kevin Gilligan, Freeborn Jewett, of professional and education exchanges, and provi- George Johnson, Mati Kaal, Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffman, Eliza Klose, Richard sion of technical assistance to protected areas. CRNC Lanier (Trust for Mutual Understanding), Phyllis Lathrope, Thomas McCorkle is a project of the Tides Center. & Brook Stevens, Richard McQuire, Mary Anne Mekosh, Kazuo Morimoto, Lois Morrison, Gordon Orians, Peyton Owston, Jose Vasco Sousa, Hunter & Lois Staley, Greg Streveler, Townsend Swayze, Thomas Van Pelt, William & Susan Wasch, Gary Waxmonsky, Don & Patricia Weeden, and Fred Welty.
RCN has many partners and friends in Russia, including the Partnership for Zapovedniks, whose mission is to offer organizational, technical, and financial help to zapovedniks and national parks © Copyright 2006 CRNC/Tides Center. in Russia.
ISSN 1026-6380
Fall 2005/Winter 2006, No. 40 Russian Conservation News World Natural Heritage Sites in the Russian Federation
Selection Criteria processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh Until late 2004, when Russia's last natural site, Wrangel Island, was water, coastal, and marine ecosystems and communities of inscribed on the World Heritage List, properties were selected on plants and animals; the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria, with the protec- (iv) Contains the most important and significant natural habitats tion, management, authenticity, and integrity of properties also for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those being important considerations. According to UNESCO criteria, a containing threatened species of outstanding universal value property may be inscribed if it: from the point of view of science or conservation. (i) Contains superlative natural phenomena or areas of exception- al natural beauty and aesthetic importance; Note: In 2005, the selection criteria for cultural and natural sites were com- (ii) Represents major stages of earth's history, including the record bined into one list of criteria numbered (i)-(x), when the Operational of life, significant on-going geological processes in the develop- Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention were ment of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic revised. Under the current system, natural criteria (i)-(iv) detailed above are features; known as criteria (vii)-(x), respectively. It is under these new criteria that (iii) Represents significant on-going ecological and biological Russia's future World Natural Heritage sites will be inscribed.
Fall 2005/Winter 2006, No. 40 CONSERVATION CONTACTS
“Altai-21st Century” Public Charitable Fund. Mikhail Shishin, President. Magadansky Zapovednik. Ulitsa Koltsevaya 17, Magadan, Russia Ulitsa Matrosova 120, Barnaul, Altaisky Krai, Russia 656052. 685000. Tel/Fax: +7 (413-22) 5-78-71. Email: [email protected] Tel: +7 (3852) 44-35-67. Tel/Fax: +7 (3852) 75-72-00. Email: [email protected] Natural Heritage Protection Fund. Aleksey Butorin, Director. Ulitsa Altaisky Biosphere Zapovednik. Artybash, Turachaksky District, Vyborgskaya, 8-3, Moscow, Russia 125212. Tel: +7 (910) 414-5315. Tel/Fax: Republic of Altai, Russia 649154. Tel/Fax: +7 (388-43) 2-74-35. +7 (495) 150 9293. Email: [email protected]. Website: http://www.nhpfund.ru/en/ Email: [email protected], [email protected] Ostrov Vrangelya (Wrangel Island) Zapovednik. Ulitsa Obrucheva 27, Room Baikalo-Lensky Zapovednik. P.O. Box 3580, Ulitsa Baikalskaya 291B, Irkutsk, 63, Pevek, Chaunsky District, Chukotsky Autonomous Okrug, Russia 689400. Russia, 664050. Tel/Fax: +7 (395-2) 35-13-50. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Tel/Fax: +7 (427-37) 2-15-35. Email: [email protected] Baikalsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Tankhoi, Kabansky District, Republic of Pechoro-Ilychsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Yaksha, Troitsko-Pechorsky District, Buryatia, Russia 671220. Tel/Fax: +7 (301-38) 9-37-10, +7 (395-42) 36-1-63. Republic of Komi, Russia 169436. Tel/Fax: +7 (821-38) 9-50-91. Email: [email protected] Pribaikalsky National Park. P.O. Box 185, Microdistrict Yubeleiny 83A, Irkutsk, Barguzinsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Kozlova 61, Nizhneangarsk, Russia 664049. Tel/Fax: +7 (395-2) 39-63-18. Email: pribpark@angara.ru, Severo-Baikalsky District, Republic of Buryatia, Russia 671710. [email protected] Tel/Fax: +7 (301-30) 5-19-92. Email: [email protected] Putoransky Zapovednik. Ulitsa Komsomolskaya 1, Norilsk, Krasnoyarsky Krai, Daursky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Komsomolskaya, Nizhnii Tsasuchei, Russia 663300. Tel/Fax: +7 (391-9) 46-53-26. Email: [email protected] Ononsky District, Chitinskaya Oblast, Russia 674480. Tel/Fax: +7 (302-52) 7-15-59. Russian Research Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage. Nikolai Email: [email protected], [email protected] Maxakovsky, Senior Scientist. 2, Ulitsa Kosmonavtov, Moscow, Russia 129366. Dresden University of Technology. Professor Peter Schmidt. Faculty of Forestry, Tel: +7 (095) 686-13-19. Fax: +7 (095) 686-13-24. Email: [email protected]. Geosciences and Hydrosciences, Institute for General Ecology and Environmental Website: http://heritage-institute.ru/ Protection, P.O. Box 1117, D-01735 Tharandt, Germany. Tel: +49 (35203) 38- Sikhote-Alinsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Partizanskaya 44, Ternei, 31288. Fax: +49 (35203) 38-31266. Email: [email protected]. Terneisky District, Primorsky Krai, Russia 692150. Tel/Fax: +7 (423-74) 3-13-78. Website: http://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/Oekologie/indexeng.html Email: [email protected] Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus. Andrey Rudomakha, Tunkinsky National Park. Ulitsa Lenina 69, Kyren, Tunkinsky District, Republic Coordinator. Poselkovaya Ulitsa 36, Maikop, Russia. Tel/Fax: +7 (8772) 54-06-07. of Buryatia, Russia 671010. Tel/Fax: +7 (301-47) 9-13-01. Email: [email protected] Ubsunurskaya Kotlovina (Uvs Nuur Basin) Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa German World Heritage Foundation. Brigitte Mayerhofer, Managing Director. Kalinina 19, Kyzyl, Republic of Tuva, Russia 667010. Tel/Fax: +7 (394-22) 5-38-18, Postfach 40 18 05, Munchen,¨ Germany 80718. Tel: + 49 (089) 307-65101. Fax: + +7 (394-22) 5-41-77. Email: [email protected] . 49 (089) 307-65102. Email: [email protected] . Website: http://www.wel- terbestiftung.org/home_eng.htm United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Moscow Office for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Republic of Greenpeace Russia. Phyiscial Address: Ulitsa Bashulovka 6, Moscow, Russia. Mailing Moldova, and Russian Federation. Myitnaya str. 1, entrance 1, 11th floor, Address: GSP-4, Moscow, Russia 127994. Tel: +7 (495) 926-50-45. Fax: +7 (495) 936- 119049, Moscow, Russia. Tel: +7 (495) 230-05-54, 230-06-43, 230-10-65. 50-45. Email: [email protected]. Website: http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/ru/ Fax: +7 (495) 230-22-45, 238-60-85, 956-36-66. E-mail: moscow@unesco.ru Katunsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Zapovednaya 1, P.O. Box 24, Ust-Koksa, Website: http://www.unesco.ru/eng/ Republic of Altai, Russia 649490. Tel/Fax: +7 (388-48) 2-29-46. United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Email: [email protected] (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre. UNESCO. 7, Place de Fontenoy, Kavkazsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Karla Marksa 8, Adlersky District, 75352 Paris 07 SP France. Tel: +33 (01) 45-68-15-71. Fax: +33 (01) 45-68-55-70. Sochi. Krasnodarsky Krai, Russia 354340. Tel/Fax: +7 (862-2) 44-52-65. Email: [email protected]. Website: http://whc.unesco.org/ Email: [email protected] The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Programme Office for Russia and Klyuchevskoy Nature Park. Anatoly Kargopoltsev, Director. Prospekt Karla CIS. Alexey Blagovidov, Consultant. Stolyarny pereulok, 3, Building 3, Moscow, Marksa 29/1. Office 305. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatskaya Oblast, Russia Russia 123082. Tel./Fax: +7 (495) 609-3411, 609-3991, 609-3399. 683031. Tel/Fax: 8 (415-22) 9-07-23. Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]. Website: http://www.iucn.ru Komandorsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Prospect Karla Marksa 29/1, Offices Yugyd Va National Park. Ulitsa Komsomolskaya 5, Vuktyl, Republic of Komi, 215 and 310, Petropavlovsky-Kamchatsky, Russia 683006. Tel/Fax: +7 (415-47) Russia 169570. Tel/Fax: +7 (821-46) 2-47-63. Email: [email protected], 2-25. Email: [email protected] [email protected] Kronotsky Biosphere Zapovednik. Ulitsa Ryabikova 48, Yelizova, Kamchatskaya Zabaikalsky National Park. Bolnichny Pereulok 11, Ust-Barguzin, Barguzinsky Oblast, Russia 684010. Tel/Fax: +7 (415-31) 6-17-54. District, Republic of Buryatia, Russia 671623. Tel/Fax: +7 (301-31) 9-15-75. Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Subscribe to Russian Conservation News! LETTERS TO THE EDITOR can be mailed to: Margaret Williams • Foreign subscriptions: add $6 Sponsor...... $500 PO Box 57277, Washington, DC 20037-7277 for Canada and $15 for all other Tel.: (202) 778–9573 Patron ...... $100 countries E-mail: