entries In the USSR "Red book of endangered species"
A NESTING BUCK STORK IN THE BEREZINSKY RESERVE (MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, USSR)
THE AMUR TIGER AT SIKHOTE-ALIN RESERVE (MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, USSR)
Preservation efforts in the USSR
There are 145 nature reserves and national parks in the Soviet Union, occupying an area of 13 million ha (32.1 million acres). In the past five years, Berezinck, Prioksko-Terrasnyi, Caucasia, Repetek, Central-Chenrozem, Sary-Chelek and Sikhote-Alin have all received their Unesco certificates as biosphere reserves.
From the outset the USSR has set up a system that distinguishes between nature reserves and national parks, the latter being intended for "recreation and tourism". National parks have a dense network of roads recreation sites, hotels, nutrition facilities, tourist-equipment hire depots, shops and communication services.
In the USSR, nature reserves are the highest form of nature conservation. They were designed to preserve natural processes in integral ecosystems; to preserve the genetic fund of living organisms peculiar to a specific landscape subdivision; and to carry out research work. To be able to perform these tasks, the nature reserves enjoy the right of permanent and isolated utilization of land and water. All natural resources are exempt from economic uses.
Nature reserves have made it possible to preserve numerous species of rare animals - goral, sika, Bukhara deer, onager, and tiger. They are also storage places of rare plants. The chief objective in the Pitsundo-Myussera nature reserve, for instance, is the conservation of the Pitsunda pine, and in the Gekgel reserve, of the Pinus eldarica.
The Soviet Union's nature reserves have accumulated a wealth of factual material on the life, behaviour, daily activities and other biological features of the animals and plants under study. This material is periodically summarized and made available in proceedings sponsored by nature reserves and in topical scientific papers and other publications.
The reserves are thus, in effect, case studies of untapped nature against the background of artificially altered landscapes. Preserving natural wealth, the nature reserves offer an insight into the mysteries of life on earth, thus helping humankind to avoid unnecessary errors.
Nature reserves add to natural riches, permitting hunting loads on game animals in the adjoining territories to be increased and thereby providing an economic effect. They popularize the all-important idea of nature preservation, enabling people to admire nature, to breathe and to add to their education and spiritual enrichment.
Nature reserves in the Soviet Union are numerous. Many occupy great territories, but this is partly because the country is extremely large. The All-Union Research Institute of Nature Conservation and Reserves and the USSR Ministry of Agriculture are engaged at present in long-term planning of nature-reserves. The underlying principle is that of the representation of nature reserves in every natural subdivision of the country. The number of nature reserves will sharply increase in eastern Siberia and Kazakhstan, as well as in some other republics in the country.
In the present five-year period the Institute is continuing its nature reserve activities, including those relating to:
· a scientifically justified system of nature reserves and national parks for future years;· ecological and socioeconomic justification of the dimensions of protected territories;
· standardization of terminology and concepts in nature-reserve activities;
· justification of nature-reserve regimes for different natural resources being conserved;
· working out coordination and scientific-methodological guidance for the activities of nature reserves;
· working out an effective legal framework for the conservation of reserves territories;
· economic aspects of nature conservation measures.
Great importance is attached to nature conservation in general, and to nature-reserve activities in particular, in many countries of the world. The Soviet Union is engaged in bilateral cooperation with the countries of the socialist alliance and with Belgium, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Efforts have been made to set up national parks around the country. There are now only seven: three in the Baltic republics and one each in Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, Armenia and the Ukraine. Their is somewhat different from that of nature reserves in that they allow tourism in specified territories. But even here there are stretches of strict preservation, where people are not allowed and animals and plants have free scope under rigorous protection.
In the zoning of park territory there are envisaged - in addition to areas of complete reservation, recreation and tourism - territories highlighting national methods of economic activity, land cultivation, traditional handicrafts domestic and cultural activities, and architectural monuments. Lands allocated for national parks belong, as a rule, to the national park proper, but occasionally there may be several land users. In any case, all economic activities must conform to the goals of the national park.
At strict reservation sites, which are subject to a requirement similar to that of nature reserves, the only activity permitted is scientific observation. In the recreation and tourism areas, no camping or tourist facilities are usually to be found; they are permitted only outside the park boundaries. Movement inside the parks is restricted to pedestrians or to special transport vehicles.
The long-term planning of the system of national parks provides that they should first be established close to large cities, in areas with good approach roads. The All-Union Research Institute of Nature Conservation and Reserves has received more than 110 suggestions for the creation of national parks.
Nature conservation in the USSR is of national importance. In the past five-year period, as much as 11 thousand million roubles was spent to meet its direct requirements. Careful management of nature is an obligation recorded in the country's basic law - the USSR Constitution. This is why reserve activities will be further expanded and improved.
This article has been adapted from on that appeared in Parks magazine (Vol. 8, No. 3: July-August-September 1983).
It was written by
Dr I.A. Gavva and Dr Y.P. Yazan, of the USSR's All-Union Research Institute,
and
Dr V.V. Kriaitsky, who serves with the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and is vice-chairman of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas.
Meeting on African wildlife
The African Forestry Commission's Working Party on Wildlife Management and National Parks held its seventh session at Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, from 19 to 22 October 1983. The working party brings together heads of African organizations concerned with wildlife and national parks to review progress in the field, to advise on policy, planning and management practices and to discuss institutional and technical problems. There was above-average participation at Arusha, with 19 member countries represented and several observers present from nonmember countries and international organizations.
Training was the main item on the agenda. The personnel requirements of wildlife and national-parks authorities were examined through to the year 2000, and the ability of existing African training institutions to meet projected requirements was assessed. Andrew Allo principal of the Ecole de Faune, Garoua, Republic of Cameroon, and Gervas Mosha, acting principal of the College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, United Republic of Tanzania, reported on their respective schools as well as on developments in other universities and vocational-level training programmes in various parts of Africa.
Raphael Jingu, senior adviser with the FAO/UNDP regional project on wildlife and protected-area management training, presented his preliminary assessment of the situation, based on extensive travel to some 20 countries and a questionnaire survey. There followed a lively debate during which approaches that had been adopted to the problem were endorsed and the need to give the finding of the study the widest possible circulation was emphasized.
An innovation at Arusha was the staging of an in-session seminar on wildlife utilization, in cooperation with the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation. The idea was to review the present situation, disseminate information on current activities and discuss key issues. In addition to solicited contributions, participants gave individual presentations on various aspects of the subject. Papers stimulated technical discussions and exchanges on the pros and cons of direct utilization of wildlife for meat and animal products, as well as on the human dimensions of management as a resource base for recreation and tourism. The emphasis was very much on the need to increase the socioeconomic benefits that could accrue to rural people living in the vicinity of protected areas. It was also concluded that there should be more effort devoted to the incorporation of wildlife management programmes into national development plans and land-use planning.
Possible implications for wildlife - in particular, in national parks - of the current rinderpest outbreak in Africa were examined and actual effects on wildlife in different parts of the continent were reported by participants.
Finally, the meeting expressed grave concern over the threat to certain species posed by commercial poaching and illicit international trade in trophies. Elephant and rhino populations have been severely affected, and delegates agreed that there was an urgent need for renewed effort to combat the problem within a framework of subregional cooperation.
Gil Child
Forest Resources Division
FAO, Rome
Water hyacinth research In India
Water hyacinth, the "trouble weed" which renders vast areas of water unsuitable for fish culture, infests more than 200 000 ha in India. Now two Indian research institutes have found two possible beneficial uses for this marine pollutant. It seems that water hyacinth could be an ideal source of either pulp, to make paper, or methane-rich fuel gas.
In Hyderabad the Regional Research Laboratory is setting up an integrated pilot plant to make pulp from water hyacinth. Despite disappointing results from research in the United States, the Indian researchers believe that the water hyacinth may work well in the small operations prevalent in the region, even if its high water retention makes it difficult to use in high-speed machines.
At the Regional Research Laboratory's pilot plant, water hyacinth is crushed, thereby reducing its water content to 50 percent, and then cooked in a digester and bleached in one or three stages. Paper is made conventionally.
Yield is low, but water hyacinth grows so rapidly that this should not be too much of a problem under the right conditions. In Southeast Asia a 1-ha pond can produce a staggering 0.9-1.8 tonnes of the weed per day.
Water hyacinth's astonishing growth rate, which makes it so attractive for industrial use, can cause serious problems for marine life. Thus any paper maker who can use it in a controlled way is doing the community a double favour.
The Regional Research Laboratory hopes its work will lead to industrial investments of up to US$100 million in small mills to make half a million tonnes a year of water-hyacinth pulp.
The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) in Durgapur is currently investigating the different parameters for optimizing the generation rate of biogas from water hyacinth.
Two 3 000-litre-capacity fixed-roof biogas plants, with slightly different dimensions and designs, have been constructed by the CMERI. The fuel gas obtained by the anaerobic decomposition of the water hyacinth has the calorific value of about 5 340 kcal/m³ and contains over 55 percent methane and about 4 percent hydrogen. The peak rate of generation remains for a period of about 20 days at 31°-35°C from a single charge. This rate can be maintained by the addition of a limited quantity of feed at regular intervals after the peak generation has started. The decomposed sludge has a high fertilizer value with good soil-conditioning properties.
Al first, gas-pressure problems with the fixed roof proved a major obstacle in commercializing the plant, but the fixed dome has now been replaced by a floating one made from mild steel sheet. This should also make the disposal of slurry easier and allow the utilization of the same plant for the complementary feedstock of water hyacinth and dung.
From Appropriate Technology
(June 1982)
and Pulp and Paper International
(January 1982
Kunas defend their forest
A proposed extension of the Pan-American Highway to the Atlantic coastal town of Carti will soon cut across one of Panama's last remaining areas of primary forest. Carti is in the "Comarca", a Kuna Indian reservation. Although it is illegal for non-Kunas to own land here, the Kuna are afraid that the new road will open up the Comarca to wealthy speculators and land-hungry settlers. Their fear is becoming fact: already the road has brought uncontrolled colonization. The Government has granted land titles to non-resident landowners and not to poor landless farmers. The forest has been cleared for several kilometres on either side of the approaching road.
According to the New Scientist, the Kuna have responded with an imaginative plan to maintain their land rights. They have created a large botanical park where trees are labelled with their Kuna, Spanish and scientific names and hunting and clearing are prohibited. The Kuna are anxious to go beyond mere tourism - now concentrated mainly along the coast - to include scientific study tours to this undisturbed rain forest. This initiative will surely bring them income as well as gaining international support for future battles over sovereignty and uncontrolled development. Scientists from Costa Rica's Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre have started to make wildlife inventories and are studying land use to help the Kuna find the best ways of using the newly accessible forest.
From Oryx (October 1982)
International locus on alpine ecology
The first international multidisciplinary conference on mountain ecosystems was held early in 1983 at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. Forty scientists from 13 countries attended the conference, which was sponsored by the Mohonk Preserve, Unesco, IUCN, the United Nations University and the International Geographical Union. Conferees assessed the environmental and social damage caused by uman migration settlement in mountain regions.
Although the reasons for mountain degradation vary regionally, the scientists agreed that migration to high mountain areas from crowded lowland cities leads to overpopulation, deforestation, the expansion of terraced fields into higher and less stable regions and the trampling of soil by ruminants. Erosion, flooding and landslides and mudslides inevitably follow. The cycle of deforestation, erosion and landslide is the most damaging to highland terrain and its residents.
The most vulnerable areas are the high Andean plains of Peru and Bolivia; sections of the Himalayas in Nepal, India, Burma and Pakistan; upland areas of Java; mountainous communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania along the rift of East Africa; and the mountain islands of the Philippines. In addition, the building of second homes, condominiums, hotels and ski resorts as well as agribusiness and mining industries increasingly threaten the Rockies, the Alps, the Andes, the Austrian Tyrol, the Appalachians, the Adirondacks, the Catskills and the Himalayas.
From Sierra Club
International Report
