Russia Protected: How Society is Transforming the State System for the Better

The last piece I produced was about our country's withdrawal from the international Convention on Wetlands. It was emotionally hard to write: yet another step toward dismantling the nation’s protected-area system. I barely managed to finish the article. Your hands literally drop in helplessness: they are tearing living flesh to pieces, you just watch, and you can do nothing!

I wrote my article about our country leaving the Convention on 24 July.

And literally the next day an International Environmental Conference, organized by our country, began in the Altai Republic.

The Chairman of our Government, Mikhail Mishustin, and the prime ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan took part in the plenary session “Environmental Challenges: On the Path Toward Sustainable Development.” Everything at the highest interstate level!

I read through the transcript of the event. And then it struck me how important what we are doing now really is.

In my previous article I wrote:

“The greatest danger is that when a large country like Russia withdraws from this Convention, the entire system of international cooperation for nature conservation, built up over many years, begins to fall apart.

This means only one thing to me — that we must now rebuild the system of Specially Protected Natural Areas (SPNA) in our country, with a view to new international agreements in the future. We must oppose those who, amid political turmoil and legal confusion, are trying to carve up and plunder the nation’s protected-area system.”

And, reading the transcript of this Environmental Conference, I can see that the Government of our country understands all this!

Yes, the event is bureaucratic — “protocol-driven.”

Yes, the usual blah-blah about nothing that I dislike.

But!

I realize that the MAIN issues will be discussed in the conference corridors, not publicly. Publicly these topics are only mentioned. At least according to our sources in Moscow (the Government), very interesting movements are taking place within the authorities.

Look at the interesting list of topics that emerges:

First.

The issue of fresh water in the Central Asian region.

Second.

The issue of international cooperation on the problems of the Caspian Sea.

Third.

Transboundary protected areas located across several countries, as well as international tourism questions on such reserves.

Separately, the Chairman of our Government emphasized that Russia is actively conducting research not only in the Arctic but also in Antarctica, and plans to expand its presence in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Look! Despite the fact that some lobbying structures in power are still trying, under cover of political noise, to dismantle the country’s protected framework, the course is gradually straightening out. And I am confident in the inevitable changes ahead. The Government understands that the international nature-protection system is crumbling — and is therefore immediately building a new system of international relations in this field.

This is now the first step in Central Asia. And I immediately think how relevant my concept of Territories of Ecological Peace and Tranquility (TEPT) could be here.

Right away:

Greater Altai as a TEPT located in several countries at once;

And, potentially, the unification of the entire Altai-Sayan mountain system with the Tian Shan into a single TEPT in the future.

Yes, right now it sounds fantastic, something unreal. But, in my view, it is precisely this kind of futurism we are missing. We vitally need a positive image of the future!

Why? Where are we going — both as individuals and as a country? People now often mock the “bright future” that the USSR promised but never realized; they laugh at the ideas of “communism,” even seeing something bad in them. Yet we must understand clearly that alongside the image of the “bright future” an enormous amount of practical work was actually done on the way to that future. In nature protection, the Soviet Union designed and implemented a system of nature reserves that still exists and remains the foundation of conservation in our country.

Today it is technically possible to unite reserves into entire protected regions — Territories of Ecological Peace and Tranquility. Within each TEPT there would be several core reserves completely closed to people and vast areas between them that could serve as zones of ecological tourism. But this requires the will of a great many people to move in this exact direction, toward such a future. We need that unifying “image of a bright future.”

And that is precisely what we are doing — trying to create a unifying image of the future.

I would also like to add this: we are now in close contact with allies in the government; the circle of those who support the development of Russia as a protected state is expanding. And our TEPT concept is already gaining recognition within the system, including the highest levels of power. People talk about us, people know about us; some very prominent figures involved in the country’s legislative decisions follow me. They read, they get in touch; there is contact.

Therefore, I firmly believe that positive changes are indeed happening and we are on the RIGHT COURSE. The main thing is not to give up now! Our struggle is only at the very beginning.

© PAVEL PASHKOV