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 .................................................................45 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 Voice from the Wild (A Letter from the Editors) This fortieth issue of Russian Conservation News goes to press just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin released a statement on April 26, 2006, concern- ing the necessity of re-routing a planned oil pipeline beyond the watershed of Lake Baikal. Conservationists and private citizens across Russia welcomed this EDITORIAL BOARD decision, a triumph of environmental stewardship and social responsibility over Executive Editor: Margaret Williams the bottom-line interests of big business. In fact, though, the victory is the entire Assistant Editor: Melissa Mooza world's to celebrate. Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest of our planet's lakes, with Managing Editor: Natalya Troitskaya twenty percent of the earth's freshwater resources, is widely regarded as one the world's greatest natural treasures. In fact, for its outstanding natural values and for Graphics Artist: Maksim Dubinin its importance to humankind as a whole, the lake was inscribed on the United Design and Layout: Design Group A4 Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Computer Consultation: Natalie Volkova Heritage List ten years ago, in 1996. Translation: Cheryl Hojnowski and Melissa Mooza In this special issue of RCN, we examine Russia's World Natural Heritage sites - Subscriptions Manager: there are seven in addition to Lake Baikal – and the implementation of the Sarah Millspaugh UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Contributing Authors: A. Blagovidov, Heritage (Convention) in the Russian Federation. For many of the almost thirty A. Butorin, Z. Irodova, A. Kargopoltsev, Russian protected areas that are included in the country's World Natural Heritage M. Kreindlin, O. Krever, N. Maxakovsky, sites, this prestigious international status has yielded real, tangible gains. One of N. Ovsyanikov, A. Petrov, A. Rudomakha, I. Sharapov, M. Shishin, P. Schmidt, the greatest benefits that we see in inscription is that it has helped to further raise and E. Shubnitsina awareness about and to popularize the territories, both in Russia and beyond its Contributing Artists and borders. This increased attention has certainly helped generate new funding and Photographers: A. Butorin, other opportunities for the protected areas, as well increase advocacy for their Y. Demyanchuk, R. Hooper, V. Kantor, protection. B. Mayerhofer, N. Ovsyanikov, E. Ponomariova, E. Shubnitsina, I. Timukhin, A. Troitsky, S. Trepet, In the course of our work to prepare this journal, we also came to the conclusion and V. Trigubovich that many important issues related to the Convention's implementation in Acknowledgement: Maps of Russia's pro- Russia and to the Russian sites themselves remain unresolved and require careful tected areas that are featured in this issue attention. Chief among the problems we have noted is the dearth of Russian fed- were prepared using the Protected Areas GIS eral legislation that specifically and substantively addresses Russia's World Natural database of the Biodiversity Conservation Center/International Socio-Ecological Heritage sites. It is not entirely clear to many authorities, elected officials, repre- Union. For more information, please consult sentatives of the business community, and the general public what types of activi- http://oopt.info/gis/database-eng.html ties are permitted and prohibited on the territories of World Natural Heritage sites; nor are there established procedures for resolving disputes concerning these territories. Another problem that might have potential repercussions on dispute ON THE COVER resolution is the fact that the boundaries of three of Russia's World Natural Heritage sites – Virgin Komi Forests, Lake Baikal, and Volcanoes of Kamchatka – are imprecise and require clarification. Yet another shortcoming that we have identified in our study of Russia's imple- mentation of the Convention is a lack of coordinated management – both on federal- and site-specific levels. Despite the vast size of some of Russia's World Natural Heritage sites (the largest, Lake Baikal, occupies more than twice the area of Switzerland) and the complexity of their composition, none have specialized management plans or discrete staffing and budgets. If sites were to develop these important attributes, work across them would be better coordinated and more effective; and it would be easier to attract targeted funding to support activities benefiting an entire site, and not just one of its component parts. That the resolution of these and other problems have been identified by pro- tected area managers and Russian and international conversation organizations as priorities for the future, gives us at RCN hope that important