Crowds protest against paper mill waste in Lake Baikal
Source: WWF
Feb. 16, 2010   ShareThis

Over two thousand people gathered in central Irkutsk this weekend to
protest the relaunch of the Baikal Paper and Pulp mills, an industry
that releases toxic waste into lake Baikal, the world's single largest
body of fresh water.
Environmentalists, scientists, former mill employees, and several
politicians spoke out in favor of the industry's closure and
development of cleaner alternatives for the city of Baikalsk on the
southern tip of the lake.
They urged Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to cancel the government
decree signed in January, which allowed the pulp-producing plant to
release waste into the lake.
The crowd cheered as speakers demanded a transparent audit of the
dilapidated factory and alternative employment opportunities for
Baikalsk citizens.
Over 30,000 people have already signed a petition asking President
Dmitry Medvedev to prevent what could become and environmental
catastrophe and cancel the government decree which puts short-term
financial interests above a sustainable future for the world's largest
lake.
“Despite statements that the ban to dump waste from the paper mill into
Baikal will be lifted after 30 months, the official government decree
has no such limits,' said Evgeny Shvarts, WWW-Russia ecopolicy director.
'The mill owners have broken their promises before, and we have no
reasons to believe their words this time. WWF insists on redesigning
the plant into a no-waste enterprise, and urges President Medvedev to
cancel the decree that lifted the ban to dump waste into the lake that
contains 20% of the world’s fresh water”.
The gathering was nearly double the amount of people brought to 
Irkutsk from Baikalsk to rally support for the plant on the same day a
few blocks away.
Due to 25 million years of isolation and a diversity of deep-water
habitats, the biodiversity of Lake Baikal - the deepest lake in the
world - is unrivaled. Located in the south of Eastern Siberia, it is so
large that it has been called an inland sea.
It covers 31,500 sq. km and is 636 km. long, an average of 48 km wide,
and 79.4 km at its widest point. Its water basin occupies about 557,000
sq. km. and contains about 23,000 cu. km. of water, that is, about one
fifth of the world's reserves of fresh surface-water and over 80 per
cent of the fresh water in the former Soviet Union. Its average depth
is 730 m. and its maximum depth in the middle - 1,620 m.
Among the lake's many habitats are recently discovered hydrothermal
vents at a depth of about 400 meters that support sponges, bacterial
mats, snails, transparent shrimp, and fish. There are about 2,500
species of known plants and animals in the lake, of which 1,500 are
endemic.

Preparations for Olympic games in Russia not meeting environmental
standards - WWF
Source: WWF International
Feb. 8, 2010    ShareThis

Despite a recent visit by the United Nations Environment Programme,
preparations for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi,
Russia are failing to meet proper environmental standards, according to
WWF. On Jan. 28-30, a UNEP mission visited Sochi to assess
environmental impact of preparation for the Games. UNEP representative
Theodore Oben “expressed his satisfaction with the steps taken by the
Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee to fulfill its environmental
commitments in venues construction,” according to a statement from the
Committee’s Joint Information Center.
'I am happy with the visit as it left me with the feeling that the
entire team, including those doing the construction, are conscious of
the importance of fully integrating environmental considerations in
their work,” Oben said in the statement. “I also note with optimism the
expressions of willingness to listen to and engage all stakeholders in
efforts to make the Sochi Games green.'
However, WWF and other NGOs, who have been monitoring the environmental
damage in Sochi created by construction in anticipation of the Games,
were expecting a different outcome from UNEP’s assessment.
“WWF and other NGOs were looking forward to independent judgment of
UNEP's mission to Sochi and a full report on environmental damage done
and anticipated,” said Igor Chestin, WWF-Russia CEO. “Unfortunately,
this did not happen and the environmental destruction continues.”
Just before the visit, WWF informed UNEP that despite very significant
progress made by Sochi-2014 organizers in 2009 to garner public input,
decisions taken jointly by organizers and NGOs still are not being
implemented.
In addition, Sochi-2014 organizers admitted the poor quality of
environmental impact assessments for Olympic facilities as early as on
25 Jan. 2009, but still failed to allocate funding to carry out a
survey of those impacts, which means that crucial field data is still
lacking, according to WWF.
This could lead to serious damage to the Caucasus, a region with the
highest level of biological diversity in Russia.
For example, the environmental impact assessment for the combined
railway and highway being built for the Games -- by far the largest
project related to the Olympics at an estimated cost USD 8 billion --
is based on 2 weeks of zoological and botanical research done by fewer
than 10 people. As a result, projects do not have reasonable mitigation
plans, or technological solutions to minimize their environmental
impact.
During the visit, WWF and other NGOs also called UNEP’s attention to
regular breach of laws for the sake of Olympic construction.
In December 2009, they registered two such breaches: The Russian
registration service – without any official government decision or a
public discussion - changed the borders of the Caucasian biosphere
reserve, a World Heritage site, to allow the building of public road to
a resort, and Parliament approved an amendment to the Forest Code,
allowing for the cutting of endangered species of trees and shrubs for
construction of the Olympic facilities.
Meanwhile, environmental activists were arrested twice - in August and
October 2009 - near Olympic construction sites on the pretext they were
violating the border zone regime without a special permit, although
tourists and other visitors to the area are never asked for the permit
and are not even aware that it is required.
“Summing up, we believe that for the time being preparation for the
Olympics is out of control, construction is of poor quality, vast
damage to the environment has already been made, and NGOs are deprived
of the ability to provide independent advice,” said Igor Chestin,
WWF-Russia CEO.
UNEP signed on in 2009 to act as an independent observer during the
Sochi-2014 preperations to assess organizers’ ecological strategy,
according to the Committee’s website.
WWF is aksing UNEP and other international institutions to publicly
withdraw from the process as further involvement would be seen as
blessing for the environmentally and socially unacceptable practices.