WWF's Approved Projects in Russia

WWF in Russia

Russia is the largest country in the world and comprises almost one sixth of the world's landmass. All biomes of the northern hemisphere can be found here -- arctic deserts, tundra, coniferous forests (taiga), mixed and deciduous forests, steppes and hot semi-deserts.


The political turmoil, massive federal budget cuts and the economic crisis of recent years are affecting conservation efforts. Widespread poaching and uncontrolled logging have become a reality.
Geographically, Russia is a country of superlatives. It has the world's longest coastline, and the world's oldest and deepest lake (Baikal), which reputedly holds no less than 20 per cent of the world's fresh water. A fifth of all the earth's forests are found in Russia. Covering 45 per cent of the country, these forests represent an important carbon "sink", or repository, which act as a buffer against global warming.

Russia has huge areas of wilderness, totally untouched by human influence. These include the vast tundras, rivers, deltas, marshes and coastlines in the northern region, the great taiga forests of eastern and central Siberia, and the frigid expanse of tundra and larch forests of eastern Siberia. Permafrost underlies much of these landscapes, roads are almost nonexistent, and human populations are sparse.

These extensive, relatively pristine ecosystems offer some of the last opportunities to conserve landscapes large enough to allow natural ecological processes to occur. The great boreal forests can withstand occasional natural disasters such as fire, flood and drought -- forces which have helped to drive evolutionary processes since life first appeared on earth.

Russia's varied ecosystems support a rich diversity of plant and animal life. Its arctic bioregion is home to 14 species of whales and nine species of pinniped (seal family). The Polar bear, Arctic fox, lemming, walrus and narwhal are also found here. Numerous migratory waterfowl and shorebirds nest in the tundra and broad river deltas, including the Siberian crane and spoon billed sandpiper.

In Russia's Far East, the Amur-Sakhalin bioregion contains some of the richest and most unusual temperate forest ecosystems anywhere. Its unique assemblage of species includes two of the world's most endangered big cats -- the Amur tiger and Amur leopard. Other threatened species found here are the musk deer, brown bears, reindeer, goral, and no fewer than six species of crane.

The region between the Caspian and Black Seas in southern Russia is recognized by biologists as a centre of plant diversity of global importance. This area, on the northern slopes of the Caucasus mountains, has more than 6,000 species of vascular plants, 20 per cent of them found nowhere else on earth. Endemic animals include the Caucasus brown bear, the wild goat or tur, and several invertebrates.

Two bioregions in south-central Russia are especially significant. The Altai, a mountainous region in the heart of Asia, is home to Altai mountain sheep or argali, snow leopard, Pallas' cat and cinereous vulture. The second is the Baikal region in southern Siberia. Situated in an area of great beauty, Lake Baikal, called the Galapagos of Russia, nestles amid larch and spruce-clad mountains. More than three-quarters of its 1,800 animal species and 500 plant species are found nowhere else on earth. Underwater "reefs" of giant sponges harbour a great diversity of endemic fish, crustaceans and other invertebrates. The lake also has its own unique seal, Phoca sibirica, the world's smallest. Baikal's seals have been isolated from other seals since the last Ice Age.

The Russian Federation boasts a large network of parks and reserves covering representative portions of important ecosystems. Its protected areas system is one of the oldest in the world. Its Zapovedniks (state nature reserves) -- the flagship of the protected areas network -- recently celebrated their 80th anniversary.

But there are problems. The political turmoil, massive federal budget cuts and the economic crisis of recent years are affecting conservation efforts. Widespread poaching and uncontrolled logging, especially in the Far East, have become a reality. Some of the species affected by poaching are the brown bear, tiger and deer. These are in demand for the market in traditional Chinese medicines.

Also under threat are fish of the sturgeon family. These are targeted by poachers for their eggs since trade in caviar, a delicacy in the West, is very lucrative. Overfishing and poaching are threatening the survival of 11 species or subspecies of sturgeon found in Russia. WWF's wildlife trade monitoring arm, TRAFFIC, has been keeping a close watch on the caviar trade. "It's a free-for-all," says Director of TRAFFIC Europe, Tom De Meulenaer. "Everybody is fishing. In certain rivers, you can only catch one sturgeon while 30 years ago they were abundant."

The saiga antelope is another species that is suffering the ill-effects of poaching. Uncontrolled hunting for saiga horn (used in Chinese medicine), and for meat and leather has decimated saiga populations. A 1995 TRAFFIC study found that a kilogramme of horn was selling for more than five times the minimum monthly wage of local people -- a big incentive for poachers.

Industrial and urban waste, sometimes radioactive, in rivers and groundwater; air pollution; ageing oil pipelines; and unregulated dumping of nuclear waste are all legacies from Russia's past which are adversely affecting the environment. Lack of expertise and funding, corruption, and inadequate environmental legislation in situations where industries and logging companies are not held accountable for their actions have grave implications for the environment.

WWF's work in the Russian Arctic began in 1989 with joint scientific expeditions to northern Siberia with Russian scientists and conservationists. This led to the creation of one of the world's largest protected areas, the Great Arctic Reserve. Situated on the vast Taimyr Peninsula, the reserve covers 46,000 sq km of pristine tundra, wetlands, Arctic desert, coastal habitats, islands and archipelagos. It is home to over 700,000 wild reindeer as well as polar bears and seals, and provides breeding habitat for millions of waterfowl.

Working closely with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Russian NGOs and over 100 Russian experts, WWF put together a report on conservation threats, needs and opportunities in Russia. The 1993 report included proposals for 75 priority projects in Russia's 14 bioregions. These proposals have since become the basis for WWF action in the country.

WWF opened an office in Moscow in 1994. It has since overseen more than two dozen field projects. Many of WWF's current projects focus on saving threatened species such as the Amur tiger, brown bear, Siberian crane, desman, and Steller's sea eagle. WWF is also involved in supporting and expanding the protected areas system, conservation education projects, and natural resource management programmes.

This year, WWF completed a strategic planning exercise for its activities in Russia over the next three years. Six priority objectives were identified: to undertake projects in forest, freshwater, marine, and tundra biomes, and to focus on species conservation and environmental education. A number of geographical focal areas have also been identified.

One of WWF's latest initiatives in the Arctic: assisting local authorities to establish a 7,193 sq km reserve in the north of the Sakha Republic. This will protect the principle nesting habitat of the eastern population of the Siberian crane.

WWF has also done commendable work in the lower Volga Delta. It has been active in the region since 1991. The Delta, an area of international importance for migratory birds and fish, is under threat from upstream water extraction and damming, agricultural and industrial development, pollution and overfishing. WWF's efforts have been concentrated on integrating sound management with conservation and on the creation of two new protected areas.


Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature