Distant horizons of the Earth — we begin expeditionary fieldwork to protect wildlife.

For many years in a row we conducted, by our own efforts, numerous expeditions to protect the forests of Russia, in the most remote corners of the Russian Taiga. We identified illegal logging, fed animals and birds in places of ecological degradation, studied environmental problems and achieved their solutions! At some point the fieldwork had to be stopped due to a lack of resources; everything became too difficult and expensive, and also because of constant pressure from those for whom our fieldwork was “a thorn in the throat”.

Right now we still do not have the resources for a large-scale struggle! Especially to withstand constant pressure. Neither the loggers who rob the Russian Taiga, nor the officials who issue papers for “sanitary logging”, nor private commercial operators involved in the industry of shooting wild animals are glad to see us in the forests.

We changed our approach. We developed the Concept of the Territories of Full Ecological Tranquility (TFET) and are seeking systemic changes: the global protected-areas system must be changed at its root. Not only in Russia, but everywhere, across all horizons of the Earth. It does not matter to us where these changes begin, where the adoption of the TFET Concept will happen first; the main thing is that it begins. And the probability of this is highest, of course, in small states where decisions are made more flexibly and it is easier to implement system-changing projects. Especially when it concerns the protection of wildlife.

Expeditions.

To implement the TFET Concept, it is necessary, by our own efforts, to create a world map with the boundaries of the territories of tranquility — that is, to carry out a huge number of field studies around the world, study biocenoses, and integrate them with consideration of regional characteristics. Then to draw boundaries, put them on an interactive map, prepare specific proposals to states with targeted public projects, and achieve implementation! A very difficult task that includes a huge range of work, but the very first of them must be field expeditions. No one except us will do this! And certainly no one will finance it.

I do not yet know how to implement all this. We have already created the necessary infrastructure on my official website; public work has been launched; an interactive TFET map has been developed for plotting the boundaries of the territories of tranquility with local projects for each one. But further work is unrealistic in the current situation — without substantial funding and public support, mass support, when millions of people collectively achieve a change in the world’s protected-areas system together with us!

A new chapter.

Last year I stopped studying the southern lung of the Earth — ancient tropical forests. I did not manage to finish the work on the book about how trees communicate with each other and with plants! From February 10, 2026, I returned to my local research and will spend the next year far from home. I plan to finish the book, and also, since we still do not have the ability to conduct large full-scale expeditions, I will independently collect materials for future preparation and for determining the boundaries of the Territories of Full Ecological Tranquility.

More than two years earlier I studied channels of information transfer in ecosystems, a vast body of scientific works from all over the world. Unfortunately, such things are of little interest to the public; there are no scandals or loud spectacular headlines in them — this is a topic of research, discoveries, the mysteries of our planet. It is important for me to understand these things, including through personal practical experience in my fieldwork!

Just imagine that trees in an ancient forest communicate with each other. They transmit signals that report insect attacks, pathogens, drought, or damage! These signals change the behavior of neighboring plants; the forest begins to change — defensive cascades are triggered, metabolism is reconfigured, and there is also interaction with pollinating insects and predators of herbivores. And when people interfere with wildlife, destroy it, the communication of the ancient forest is interrupted!

Even deeper and more mysterious is the secret of underground communications and root exudates. A global network capable of sending signals, exchanging information, transferring nutrients from broad crowns filled with solar energy to underground biocenoses!

I studied this for the last two years, including in my fieldwork; as much as we could, we conducted several local expeditions. Now I am returning to finish the work on the book — publication is planned for summer or autumn 2026 and it will be completely free for all our Allies. No commerce on the Mission in the struggle for Life.

I have to collect and analyze the channels of communication: air, soil, mycorrhiza, electrical reactions! To study many scientific works by scientists from all over the world, to separate mechanisms and proven facts from metaphors and unconfirmed data. I must delve into tropical ecosystems, understand from my own experience how signals work under conditions of maximum biodiversity and competition. Work will also be carried out in northern boreal ecosystems, where stress resistance, climatic regimes, the role of mycorrhiza in cold soils, and much else differ greatly.

In parallel I will engage in research and the collection of materials to prepare TFET projects, for the further determination of the boundaries of the territories of tranquility. At the moment it will not be possible to do what is required! But gradually, step by step, I think we will be able to realize what is planned. For now I will try, as much as possible, by my own efforts.

All this work will make it possible to show society and state systems why nature cannot be protected “pointwise”. Right now neither the ordinary person nor the state official understands these things, seeing in front of them only papers with reports and numbers. And when we talk with you about the importance of changing the protected-areas system, creating Territories of Full Ecological Tranquility, each time we face a lack of personal experience, the absence of full-fledged research work — and this is exactly what our opponents press on, proving that the destruction of nature is “a natural process and there is no need to change it”.

But if the forest is a complex network of messages and mutual responses, where fragile connectivity forms biogeocenoses, then nature protection must also be connected. Exactly what we are striving for with you: territories of tranquility, corridors, buffers, protection of soils and hydrology, minimization of fragmentation of natural areas and the prevention of technogenic noise (I mean in a broad sense — chemical, light, infrastructural). Only in that case can we say that nature protection is not just a moral choice, but a real system — and even a technology — for preserving the stability of living systems.

All activity will be continued in full; all planned projects, including those to protect the key predators of the Russian Taiga, will also be launched. Together with you we will seek both local and global changes in the protection of wildlife. I think it is working out.

I will try to additionally prepare reports for you from the distant frontiers of the Earth, share important materials; perhaps we will make a video from the jungle. I very much hope that we will gradually be able to find funding for the projects, and then we will begin full-scale expeditions! For now I am starting this work on my own.

© PAVEL PASHKOV