Second Annual Conference of Russian Donor Forum

On September 18, 19 the Second Annual Conference of Russian Donor Forum entitled "Transparency of actions of donor organizations: expectations and reality" took place in Moscow.

As yet Russian Donor Forum unites 27 organizations which appropriated around 160 million dollars for the charity purposes during this year. Materially donor organizations are divided into three approximately equal parts: private Russian funds, private Western funds and state agencies of Western Europe and Northern America.

According to the President of the Forum, programme director of the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation Nicolas Deychakivsky, the mere fact of regular conferencing in this field is very important for Russia because it witnesses the philanthropic branch institutionalization in the country. The process still moves hard, until nowadays many Russian business structures have not realized the necessity to create special funds, preferring direct allocating of money for the charitable goals, and the philanthropy "grey sector" turnover in accordance with the assessments of the Donor Forum experts amounts to about 500 million dollars, that is, more that three times exceeds the turnover in the "legal charity" sphere.

Nevertheless according to the donors even the present position of the branch in the country doesn't leave the possibility for the state powers to ignore this sphere of activity and gives right to the donor organizations to claim for themselves favourable financial and legal conditions. Forum participants think that complying with three main conditions will contribute to the achievement of this goal: legislative base development, granting of the privileged taxation mode for the benefactors and strong guarantees of proprietary rights. The demands of the philanthropists are rather natural for it is quite logical that the organizations taking upon themselves part of the state functions expect from this very state a most-favoured-nation treatment in the tax sphere, and "second sector" involving into legal charity is impossible without property protection while it is "indigenization" of the philanthropists that may give a great impulse to the development of donor organization and to the reduction of foreign-aid dependence among the social institutions. But these requests meet absolute rejection of the powers. An illustration in this point became the speech of the Federation Council member Andrey Khazin at the Conference - he declared that there is no sense to draw a distinction between commercial and non-commercial organizations so far either of them is allowed to perform commerce activity. Moreover, subject to the twists of effective legislation such activity is only de jure available for non-commercial organizations while actual realization of commercial activity by them entails income tax levy on all receipts to the account of the organization, including charitable donations! This way the state in fact deprives social associations, except for the most large-scale ones, of the opportunity to attract funds of their supporters and hence "fixes" them on the "grant drug".

Thus the only possibility to influence the power is public pressure. The survey however showed that the problem is difficult to be called one of social importance. According to the poll results held especially on the Conference occasion by the "Zircon" research group and Social Information Agency, 55% of respondents are totally unaware of charity organizations and only 15% are able to name at least one such organization. It was that deplorable situation that urged Russian Donor Forum members to choose transparency of the donor organization activity as a topic for their Second Conference. It is indicative that inside the philanthropic community the views towards the necessity to cover their own activity vary to a great extent, too, from total ignoring of the issue to the attraction of public relation professionals to do the job.

Starting of the Conference with the awarding of the grantmaker organization annual report contest winners (not counting "protocol" communication to the press) was not accidental. Russian Regional Environmental Centre (RREC) which from the year 2003 have been participating in the Donor Forum work, also presented its annual report. Acquaintance with the experience of colleagues is very important for RREC because the Centre which subject to peculiarity of its activity had environmental direction as the marrow of its first Grant Programme, in the future sees itself inter alia as an organization supporting social development of the population. Already from the starting point of the Programme the objective was maximum propagation of information about it, its accessibility for small-sized organizations in little towns and settlements, and as a result applications from 258 organizations representing 63 out of 89 subjects of Russian Federation were received at the contest, and the territory where supported projects were carried out extended from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin. Irrefragable information on the program became available to the wide public from the moment of its announcement, in its course "Bulletin of grantees" - know how of the Centre - appeared on the RREC site; 68 informational materials and more than 50 photos were placed in six Bulletin issues in the course of the project implementation.

Thus, RREC has always inclined to the highest possible openness while distributing the grant pool, what is typical for environmental organizations in general. It was them, in accordance with the results of the voting on the official "Civil Forum" site (2001) called "social associations working with the highest efficiency" - 26,8% of the Internet resource poller visitors gave their voices for the "green". Organizations dealing with refugees and "forced migrants" problem took the second position (22,3%), then there came organizations peering reviews of the normative acts (13,9%) and slightly inferior to them defenders of legal rights (13,2%).

It is by the way very interesting to compare results of this poll with the forementioned poll of "Zircon" and SIA where among others there was also present the question "Charity activity in what directions of social sphere should get maximum support in Russia?" And so, among these spheres only 4% of respondents named legal rights protection, 15% - environmental protection. As to the leading group, it included maternity and childhood protection (52%) and also education and skill level raising, that is the spheres where the actions of social organizations was estimated in the year 2001 as effective by 6,3 and 6 per cent of respondents respectively!

A most curious fact can be stated - despite the paternal attitudes dominating the society (59% of 2004 respondents see the state as the major donator) de facto population admits leading role of humane organizations in the solution of social problems: according to the respondents benefactors should direct their own funds exactly to the fields where work of commercial organizations is weak and ineffective, which allows to make the conclusion that state activity in these "ill" spheres in no way makes up for the deficiency of social organization resources, and these spheres of activity are considered by the socium as those "uncovered". On the other hand the reverse of the medal turns out to become obvious, namely the broad propagation by ecologists and legal rights defenders of information about their activity seems to put an idea into the citizens' minds that this sphere of activity proceeds quite successfully as it is and doesn't require additional financial injections. The situation suggests that certain donors' flat denial of the need to distribute information related to themselves has rather pragmatic grounds indeed.

As they say however nature adhors a vacuum, and in the conditions of an information about donors, deadlocked from the society it is the state that eventually assumes controlling functions. The consequences of such juncture are already visible: recent amendments to the Russian Tax Code actually implementing total control under all grants of Russian and international donors, all grantees, according to the experts resemble rather censorship than measures on ensuring the transparency of donor activity. In compliance with the felicity phrase of National Project Institute "Social Agreement" President Alexandr Auzan, social organizations are rated by the state equal to the producers of alcohol, tobacco and medicines, if judge by control severity and by number of the diverse permissive documentation.

It is the finding of the balance between the guaranteeing of donor activity transparency and the freedom observance in the sphere of charity and philanthropy that constitutes nowadays the main joint task of the donor organizations and the state because the real formation of civil society is impossible without financially independent non-commercial structures.

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Report

The ACIA Overview report "Arctic Climate Impact Assessment" produced for the governments of northern countries with the assistance of more than 250 scientists and representatives of 6 organizations of indigenous Arctic peoples, appeared in print.

The main conclusion of the report reads that the climate change in the Arctic is really taking place and the process will increase its speed in case the emissions of CO2 are not reduced. Arctic warming will impact the rest of the world, making its contribution on the global climate change and ocean afflux.

According to the authors of the report, Arctic climate changes due to the economical activity of the human are the most large-scale in the world. By the end of the XXI century this will have been threatening the existence of the polar bears as a species because they will be hardly able to survive with the summer ice cover almost completely lost. Dying-away is impending some food fish species as well. Climate warming will result in new animal and human diseases and will become the reason for more frequent forest fires, strong hurricanes and storms menacing coastal northern countries.

Due to the glacier, sea ice and snow melting the ocean level will keep moving upward. By the end of the century it may grow almost a metre higher. And Arctic ices will constitute 15% of this water. About 17 million people today live over one metre below sea level (for instance, in Bangladesh). US states of Florida and Louisiana, cities of Bangkok, Calcutta, Dhaka and Manila are also endangered as a result of the ocean level raising. Ices of Greenland reduced by 16% in the period of 1979 - 2002. Underflooding rates of 2002 broke the record. Global warming may lead to complete disappearance of the Greenland ice cover, the ocean level will grow by seven metres in this case, even if it happens in several hundreds of years.

Arctic ice melting will accelerate the process of climate change. Ability of the Arctic to reflect heat lowers, and the greenhouse gas concentration will continue to increase. Warming in the Arctic influences the Gulf Stream change which carries its warm waters to the coast of North-West Europe and determines weather in these countries.

The forest zone border in the Russian part of the Arctic region is already noted to have shifted to the south - it is caused, according to the scientists, by the pollution of environment, forest clearing, agricultural activity and increment of water-logged ground areas. During the past 50 years the average annual temperature is registered to have risen by 1°С in the coastal regions of North-Eastern Russia, and in continental part - by 3°С, while by the year 2090 it may rise by 6°С in this region due to the weakening "refrigerant capacities" of the Arctic Ocean. Average annual temperatures in Siberia raised by 1-3°С in the last 50 years, at that winter temperatures rising by 3-5°С. Continental part appeared to be the most open to the warming owing to the time of the permanent snow cover existence reduced. According to the models by the year 2090 average winter temperature in the coastal regions of Siberia may move upward by 10°С!

Climate changes will influence Siberian rivers. The assumed increasing of rainfall amount in winter period will lead to the increased outflow of these rivers that will total up to 15% of fresh water going to the Arctic Ocean, and also to the earlier beginning of the spring tide. It will also cause expanding of swamp land area on the coast that, on the one hand, will help to increase natural habitats of some species, but on the other - will contribute to the marsh-gas emission growth. Augmentation of the fresh water inflow to the ocean will have a serious impact on formation of ocean streams and ice cover, and will also quicken the process of permafrost melting along the whole Siberian coast.

Climate warming may have certain positive effect connected with the Northern Sea Route being opened for the commercial navigation. By the end of this century, subject to the current climate conditions restored, navigation on this route will increase from 20-30 to 120 days per year. That will help to improve sea access to the Siberian hydrocarbonic raw stuff , which, being exported, constitutes the most significant part of the Russian economy; yet it will make overland access more difficult rendering it impossible functioning of certain roads over permafrost and involving more expenses for the road fund maintenance.

Still winter and spring humidity growth caused by the climate warming may become pernicious for the people. Firstly, in spring the risk of catastrophic floods will rise and in summer due to the decreasing humidity, so will the risk of the forest fires; besides, hydro-electric engineering and navigation will suffer. Secondly, negative profit for the Siberian infrastructure caused by the melting of permafrost may be simply ruinous. Even in the 90s years of the past century share of buildings in disrepair fluctuated from 22% in Tiksi to 80% in Vorkuta. During the last ten years the number of such emergency houses increased to 42% in Norilsk, 61% in Yakutsk and 90% in Amderma. At Baikal-Amur Railway up to 16 % of auxiliary branch lines in the permafrost zone was damaged due to its melting, and in 1998 the figure grew to 46%. Most take-off and landing strips in Norilsk, Yakutsk, Magadan and other cities are in dangerous state. Serious wrecks happen as a result of gas and oil pipeline deterioration: in the year 2003 alone 16 Messoyakha - Norilsk pipeline breakings were registered while in Khanty-Mansiysk autonomic region there were detected 1702 oil spills resulting in the pollution of over 640 square kilometres of territory. Oil pollution will be especially disastrous for the indigenous deer-raising peoples as the area of available pastures will reduce. Besides this, warming may provoke later appearance and earlier melting of the Ob river ice cover that will bar summer deer pastures from the winter ones. All the forementioned things accumulated with the improved water access to the region may become fatal for the traditional culture of the aboriginal Siberian population.

Performing of Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) was formally approved at the ministerial conference within the framework of Arctic Council, an intergovernmental organization dealing with various problems urgent for the Arctic countries: Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA. The conference was held in Point Barrow, Alaska, in the year 2000. Ministers trusted the Impact Assessment to the two Arctic Council Working Groups, those of Assessment and Monitoring Programme and Group for Arctic Fauna and Flora Conservation, with the assistance of the International Scientific Arctic Committee.

The Fred Pacard Award Adjudged to a Russian Ecologist for the First Time

An Ecologist Vsevolod Stepanitsky is honoured with a prestige international award adjudged by the World Commission for the Protected Areas of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).

The official naming of the award is the "International Fred Pacard Award for the courage in the task of national park protection". Vsevolod Borisovich is the first Russian recognized with this prestigious premium. Until recent times he worked as the chief of the Russian Natural Resource Ministry Department for the Reserve Tasks.

Private persons or groups of people working in the territories of nature reserves and having a reputation of bona fide employees who not only fulfill their administrative duties but also take environmental protection task close to their hearts, become nominants of the award.

The award it named after a man who used to work as the Secretary of the World Commission for the Protected Areas of the International Union for Nature Conservation (WCPA IUCN) in the 1970s, the most difficult years for the organization. Fred Pacard ordered that his money be used to create a fund of the award conferred for the valance and courage of those working in the specially protected territories. In 1982 the official title of the premium appeared, the "International Fred Pacard Award for the courage in the task of national park protection".

Experts think that it was owing to the Stepanitsky's efforts of the latest 15 years that SPA (specially protected areas) system was conserved and strengthened and the territory of Russian reserves and national parks doubled from 20 to 40 billion hectares. In the end of the 80s V. Stepanitsky started his civil service in the sphere of specially protected area management. In October 1991 he became the head of the Specially Protected Area Bureau in the Russian State Committee for Nature.

Defending principal positions in the environmental protection sphere Stepanitsky several times left civil service in order to participate in non-governmental environmental organizations where he has also done a lot for the protection of nature.

V. Stepanitsky is one of the founders and promoters of the Socio-Ecological Union, a social environmental organization that is now widely known in and outside the Russian Federation. It was owing to his professional skills and experience, among others, that the national protest action against the construction of the "Voga-Chogray" channel, held by the Social and Environmental Union in February of 1989, resulted in the victory of ecologists.

Working in the Wild Nature Protection Centre he has been the head of the "Reserve Task" Programme where he manages to do a great deal for the development of the specially protected areas. Currently legislative and normative base on the national nature reserve activity is being prepared. V. Stepanitsky was one of the main authors of all legal regulation documents including an utmost important Federal Law "About the Specially Protected Natural Areas" adopted in 1995. His work became one of the reasons that made the appearance of normative and legal acts collection concerning reserve task and clause-by clause commentary to the forementioned Federal Law possible.

New Round of Grant Contest of the Blacksmith Institute

On November 15, 2004 the Blacksmith Institute announced another round of grant contest for the fulfillment of projects concerning disclosure and purification of zones with unfavourable environmental situation in Russia. Registered non-governmental environmental organizations, and also municipal formations and power authorities of Russian Federation subjects were invited to participate in the contest.

The Blacksmith Institute is an international charity foundation headquartered in New York that finances environmental initiatives in the countries with the economy in transition, and in developing countries. The main programme of the Institute is the "Polluted Areas" Programme (purification of territories from pollutions of various types) directed to improve health and prosperity of the present and future generations. The "Blacksmith Institute" finances initiatives of local communities concerning situation improvement in such places (the direct purge or the elaboration of corresponding plans in order for them to be afterwards financed by other donors, any other measures able to improve the health state of local population).

One of the Fund's basic principles is "dotted" (10-15 thousand dollars a year) backing of specific initiatives straightly ameliorating the situation. By now there are three projects being implemented on the Russian territory (Magadan Region - liquidation of the radiation pollution in the municipal beach area; Tomsk Region - liquidation of the pesticide store hazardous for people; the city of Dzerzhinsk - elaboration of plans on improvement of potable water-supply).

International Symposium "S.O.S. Danube Delta"

An international symposium "S.O.S. Danube Delta" was held on October 5-7, 2004 in Hague (Netherlands) and was concentrated on the problems connected with the decision of the Ukraine to construct a navigable channel via the branch Bystroe of the Danube reserve. Following numerous protests all over the world the participants of the symposium underlined their oppositional attitude to the Ukraine plans. More than 40000 people and organizations from all around the world expressed their protest by signing an interactive petition. The participants of the symposium from Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Canada, Moldova and Romania noted that the problem of Bystroe constitutes an international environmental and geo-strategic problem which plays an important role in the security sphere while repeated violations of certain international conventions from the Ukrainian direction demonstrate not only ignoring of the international community but the lack of appropriate regulating instruments for the solution of such problems as well. Resolution of the symposium calls for the Ukraine to stop the channel construction on the second stage of the project until the time when international expertise performed in accordance with international agreements shows that such a channel may be built without the destruction of the UNESCO conservation - the Danube reserve. The participants noted that to their great chagrin the Ukrainian delegation failed to come to the symposium. The participants expressed their deep concern with the present Ukrainian juncture, from unilateral and aggressive behaviour toward its Western neighbour Romania up to the intimidation acts against Ukrainian ecologists protesting at the project. The participants supported diplomatic efforts of Romania and European Union (EU) to solve the conflict in conformity with the International legislation and practice. At the same time they called for the EU to elaborate additional legislation that would respond to the potential challenges of the similar kind, close to their borders.

EU - Russia Summit Was Held in Hague

At the EU - Russia Summit held in Hague on November 25 the leaders of the countries participating in the Summit especially greeted ratification by Russia of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that owing to the forementioned decision of the Russian Federation will take effect in February of the year 2005. The parties noted that Protocol ratification laid the firm basis for the bilateral and multilateral collaboration on the problem of climate change.

At the negotiations on the common free market zone they noted that co-operation in the environmental sphere must become central part of the work on the creation of such zone. Within the framework of the negotiations there were also discussed the problems of agriculture, power engineering, marine safety and others.

Power engineering and forestry also became a subject for the discussion at the Table Round of the EU - Russia industrialists, which took place before the summit on 10 of November in Hague.

Fragments of the European Union Constitution concerning Environment Protection

Article I-3
3. The Union shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance.
4. In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.
Article III-119
Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the policies and activities referred to in this Part, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development.
Article III-233
1. Union policy on the environment shall contribute to the pursuit of the following objectives:
(a) preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment;
(b) protecting human health;
(c) prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources;
(d) promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems.
2. Union policy on the environment shall aim at a high level of protection taking into account the diversity of situations in the various regions of the Union. It shall be based on the precautionary principle and on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source and that the polluter should pay.
In this context, harmonisation measures answering environmental protection requirements shall include, where appropriate, a safeguard clause allowing Member States to take provisional steps, for non-economic environmental reasons, subject to a procedure of inspection by the Union.
3. In preparing its policy on the environment, the Union shall take account of:
(a) available scientific and technical data;
(b) environmental conditions in the various regions of the Union;
(c) the potential benefits and costs of action or lack of action;
(d) the economic and social development of the Union as a whole and the balanced development of its regions.
4. Within their respective spheres of competence, the Union and the Member States shall cooperate with third countries and with the competent international organisations. The arrangements for the Union's cooperation may be the subject of agreements between the Union and the third parties concerned.
The first subparagraph shall be without prejudice to Member States' competence to negotiate in international bodies and to conclude international agreements.
Article III-234
1. European laws or framework laws shall establish what action is to be taken in order to achieve the objectives referred to in Article III-233. They shall be adopted after consultation of the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1 and without prejudice to Article III-172 [this Article shall apply for the achievement of objectives of establishment and functioning of the internal market - editor's note], the Council shall unanimously adopt European laws or framework laws establishing:
(a) provisions primarily of a fiscal nature;
(b) measures affecting:
(i) town and country planning;
(ii) quantitative management of water resources or affecting, directly or indirectly, the availability of those resources;
(iii) land use, with the exception of waste management;
(c) measures significantly affecting a Member State's choice between different energy sources and the general structure of its energy supply.
Article III-256
1. In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market and with regard for the need to preserve and improve the environment, Union policy on energy shall aim to:
(a) ensure the functioning of the energy market;
(b) ensure security of energy supply in the Union, and
(c) promote energy efficiency and energy saving and the development of new and renewable forms of energy.
2. Without prejudice to the application of other provisions of the Constitution, the objectives in paragraph 1 shall be achieved by measures enacted in European laws or framework laws. Such laws or framework laws shall be adopted after consultation of the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.

"People and Nature - Only One World"

"People and Nature - Only One World", that was the slogan of the third World Environmental Congress of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) held on November 17-25 in Bangkok (Thailand), where more than 5000 delegates participated. In the course of the Congress the attention of the public community was focused on the present condition of species and eco-systems and also on their influence on the life of the human. Besides, there was considered the question of resource mobilization taking into account the reduction of governmental investment into the environmental protection sphere.

In order to participate in the Congress opened by Her Royal Majesty the Queen of Thailand Sirikit, official establishment, representatives of non-governmental organizations and leading experts in the field of nature protection arrived to Bangkok. Russia was represented by several social organizations - members of the IUCN, and scientific institutions. Delegation from the Natural Resource Ministry, headed by A.M.Amirkhanov represented the Russian Federation as the state.

A part of the Congress became the three days' World Environmental Forum. Over 350 events devoted to the assessment and discussion of major problems in the sphere of environmental protection, human rights and sustainable development, were held during the Forum.

According to the estimation of many observers the Congress proved to be not only the most imposing but also the most successful in the IUCN history. Former IUCN president Yolanda Kakabadze (Ecuador), who left her office at this Congress, thinks that the Union is currently a quite viable organization with continuously growing amount of members (the number of the Union member-states by the present moment has reached 82).

Newly elected IUCN president, the South African Republic ex-minister for the problems of environment and tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa declared that he is set upon raising the nature protection task to the new, higher levels and intending to reach out and make environmental protection everyone's cause. The congress approved more than 100 resolutions on the key questions (from genetically modified organisms to maintaining environmental balance of oceans), that determine the directions of international environmental activity for the nearest coming years and contain certain new political decisions and initiatives directed to the improvement of environmental situation on the planet. IUCN in particular expressed its concern with the actions of the Ukrainian government related to the Danube biosphere reserve and its director Alexandr Voloshkevich.

"Decisions taken in Bangkok refer to everybody of us individually," noted IUCN director general Achim Steiner (Germany). "They display the role of environmental protection in peace maintenance, poverty elimination, food and water safety providing, its role in public health, spiritual and economic development. Global agenda became more than a manifesto for the environmental activists in the year 2004 but the question of universal necessity and collective responsibility". Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, the honorary president of the organization BirdLife International, declared that the mankind must "care for the state of the planet as much as it does for its own state of health".

"Living Planet-2004" Report

The report of the World Wide Fund for Nature "Living Planet-2004" shows that current natural resource consuming of the humankind is 20% higher than our planet is able to produce. The diversity of populations of animals and plants living on land, in fresh and sea water reduced by 40% in the period of 1970 - 2000. According to the WWF experts these are the consequences of the increasing demand for the foodstuff, energy and water.

New data confirm the tendencies indicated in the previous "Living Planet" reports. "Environmental footprint" of the human - his impact on the environment - became 2,5 times bigger than it was in 1961. According to the last report data today 2,2 ha of land and its natural resources is required to satisfy the needs of one man while it is only 1,8 ha of productive lands that accounts for each inhabitant of the Earth. "Environmental footprint" of an American is twice as big as that of a European and 7 times superior to that of an Asian or an African. More to it, natural resource consuming in developed countries has a tendency to increase.

Kyoto Protocol will Come into Force on February 16, 2005

The corresponding announcement was made in Nairobi by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan given the instruments of ratification on the Kyoto Protocol by the Russian delegation. "It is a historical step forward in the attempts of the mankind to overpower a really global threat," Kofi Annan said.

Effectiveness of the agreement was possible only after its ratification by at least 55 countries sharing 55% of greenhouse gas atmospheric emissions. The minimum was obtained once the document was ratified by Russia whose industry is responsible for the 17% of the greenhouse gas emissions.

European Commission Ratified Stockholm Convention

On November 18, 2004 European Commission in the name of the European Union ratified Stockholm Convention on the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP).

Having become a party to the Convention European Commission is entitled to insist on the expansion of the list that now includes 12 POPs. In the summer of 2004 Commission suggested that 9 more substances be included into the Convention list. EU governments will have to decide whether the suggestion should be laid before the Convention Secretariate.

Working Meeting on Argali and Snow Leopard Protection

The working Meeting "Practical Measures on Argali and Snow Leopard Conservation in Altai and Sayany Eco-region in the years 2004-2009" took place at the base of the Sayany-Shushensk reserve in Altai-Sayany on November 3-5. The main task of the Meeting became: planning of specific practical actions concerning argali and snow leopard protection in the Eco-region in 2004-2009, sorting out priority territories in order to concentrate efforts and implement model projects; determining of mechanisms of the most urgent measures for the efficient protection of the species included in the Red Book in the Eco-region in tote and in its certain subjects. For the present moment the total amount of the Altaic argali within its whole habitat in Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan can be estimated at 4,5 - 5,0 thousands. The quantity of snow leopard specimen in Russia is about 150-170, and not more than 1500 - in the territory of Mongolia. Presently major threats to the species existence in Altai-Sayany are: poaching, shoot by the local population (as a means of cattle protection from the snow leopard attacks), irregularity of environmental protection measures and so called "black" (criminal) safari.