People are demanding an end to the destruction of Losiny Ostrov National Park in Moscow.

Our people are fighting for the last remaining patches of living nature across the country! Sometimes it's on the scale of entire legislative projects aimed at "developing" mountain ecosystems and wildlife refuges, and sometimes people are defending patches of already impacted but still living nature near their towns and villages.

And people are asking the right questions. Why is the entire policy focused on the need to destroy nature? Today we are talking about a natural heritage that must be preserved by all means for future generations! Not only preserved but multiplied. It's not just about nature — WE OURSELVES ARE PART OF IT.

For officials, the forest is timber for export, and wildlife is profit for trophy hunting. Everything in living nature is measured in profit! But for the people of our country, nature is our own habitat, on which our lives, our health, and our children depend. And by defending nature — from the distant horizons of the Russian Taiga to the forest parks within cities — people are defending THE FUTURE OF OUR MOTHERLAND.

I received a letter from readers, filled with pain about the incredibly difficult battle currently taking place around Losiny Ostrov National Park in Moscow. I was already aware of the problem, as our allies have long been defending the park's right to exist! But the readers asked me to tell people about this pain and also about the incredible arrogance with which, violating all possible laws, blatantly self-serving interests of certain influential individuals are being pushed through.

I will not publish the letter I received — it is huge. I will try to tell you in detail about the ongoing battle for Life on the Moscow frontiers.

Within Moscow, there is Losiny Ostrov National Park — a federally significant natural park, one of the oldest and largest in Russia. It covers Moscow and partly the Moscow Region, particularly the urban districts of Mytishchi and Korolyov. The park was established on February 24, 1983, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, and its area is about 12,000 hectares. It is noteworthy that approximately 70% of it is located within Moscow!

What are we talking about? About an ecological REFUGE in the capital of our Motherland, in the very heart of the country. We are talking about a preserved forest massif where natural forests, swamps, meadows, and rivers still exist. Many rare species of animals and plants live here, including beavers, otters, moose, and Red Book-listed birds.

Naturally, when the authorities announced the beginning of forest clearances in Losiny Ostrov Park, the local residents unanimously opposed it, as they were openly informed about the intention to "develop" the protected nature, which also serves to purify Moscow's air!

At the end of 2023, the administration of Korolyov proposed the "reconstruction" of a technical road along Vodoprovodnaya Alley — a 6-kilometer two-lane road intended to connect the M-8 "Kholmogory" highway with Kaliningradskaya Street, cutting DIRECTLY THROUGH the northern part of the national park.

This despite the fact that the park has the status of a specially protected natural territory (SPNT), and any construction there is, of course, prohibited. But this did not deter the officials, who declared that it was merely a "major repair of an existing road."

Everyone is against it, except the officials

The project for a road through Losiny Ostrov was accompanied from the beginning by outright lies and a whole range of potential violations of federal law, which explicitly prohibits any activities that damage the natural complexes of the national park and are inconsistent with its purposes and tasks. Also, the requirements of the Federal Law "On Environmental Expert Review" were blatantly bypassed. According to the law, project documentation for construction or reconstruction of a road within a national park must undergo a federal-level state environmental review. In this case, neither a full-fledged environmental review nor a proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was conducted — instead, officials reclassified the project as a "major repair" to avoid mandatory environmental procedures.

Naturally, this outraged experts and scientists, who pointed out that a major repair must not change the road category or the boundaries of the road strip; otherwise, it is already considered reconstruction! But the officials specifically planned to change the category and boundaries of the road.

Even the current Regulations of Losiny Ostrov National Park do not allow construction or major repairs within the park's recreational zone. And it is precisely through the recreational zone that the route is laid — a zone intended solely for citizen recreation.

Special attention should also be paid to how the public discussions were conducted. In our country, this has already become something of a joke, and it is no wonder that people no longer trust any "public votes and discussions" organized by officials. It immediately suggests manipulation, deception, and misleading.

This is exactly what happened during the discussion of the road construction through the national park. Authorities misled citizens by claiming it would not be a new road, but a repair of the existing one. Then, in the public discussion protocol, thousands of questionnaires without comments were recorded — allegedly people simply voted "For," while 4,539 people submitted remarks and objections (a total of about 11,000 votes were collected "For" and "Against"). Yet the complete journal with the texts of objections was not even published, which, of course, violates EIA legislation requirements.

According to the law, it is the substantive feedback from citizens that must be considered, not empty questionnaires! Thus, significant public outrage at the project was simply ignored, and officials blatantly relied on empty "For" votes.

In general, local residents, scientists, and the expert community have rallied to defend Losiny Ostrov Park — in the heart of our country, in the very capital. One would think that such a significant alliance could stop the destruction of the sanctuary! But that was not the case.

Forty academicians and professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences appealed to Deputy Prime Minister Khusnullin to halt the project, as the road would physically "cut off" 25% of the park, disrupt vital animal migration processes, and ultimately lead to ecosystem degradation.

Experts also proposed a solution: alternative construction elsewhere to avoid destroying the sanctuary!

But officials flatly refused. They said they would proceed with the deforestation! Even the Governor of the Moscow Region, Andrey Vorobyov, personally supported the plans. Moreover, after a direct line with the President, he publicly stated that the road "existed during Soviet times" and the task was to "restore it without violating environmental standards." In 2024, he promised that work would begin in the first half of 2025 — meaning right now.

The regional Ministry of Transport, in turn, stated that "there are no alternatives in the general plan" and that "repairs do not require approvals." As for the Ministry of Natural Resources, it is practically useless nowadays — they merely stated they had received no documentation! And that was it. Although the plans to destroy the national park are the DIRECT responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources, since we are talking about a SPNT.

Even according to official procurement documents, 1,860 trees were planned to be cut down to lay the road and work would be carried out directly on park lands. In any case, this requires final authorization from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Even the General Prosecutor’s Office, to which our allies appealed, could not help. Prosecutors reported that there was no official approval for the construction! But by April 2024, geodetic markers and red marks on trees had already appeared in the national park.

And now, in the example of Losiny Ostrov National Park in Moscow, we see what is happening across the country and around the world. This is exactly what I constantly talk about: the "development" of the last wild nature refuges has begun! These are points of biological system recovery — areas THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN BE DESTROYED, because they are where nature can potentially recover after human destruction.

Moreover, studying a huge array of data on similar road construction projects through sanctuaries in other countries, I can confidently say that in 90% of cases, the main destruction of wild nature proceeds precisely after roads are built. Deforestation, resource extraction, construction — it all starts with transport arteries.

In conclusion

Such a struggle is happening right now in the heart of our country and even in Moscow, where leading scientists and experts, together with society, have managed to unite — but still cannot defend a piece of still-living nature. All the facts are on the side of the defenders of the park; there are all the documents about violations, expert opinions, and even concrete alternatives and reasonable proposals to reach a compromise with the authorities… but alas.

And I would like to add the following from myself.

Right now, the Ministry of Natural Resources is trying to pass an initiative to eliminate the oldest documents protecting ALL NATURE RESERVES and Red-listed species in our country. These are documents compiled by scientific experts back in the Soviet Union, and they still largely regulate the protection standards of SPNTs.

We are trying to stop this monstrous initiative. And if we fail, the fate of Losiny Ostrov Park will befall all reserves in Russia: the authorities will simply rush to divide and appropriate the country's protected rent.

© PAVEL PASHKOV