Instead of the old protected area system, the world needs territories of peace.

A real ecological collapse is unfolding across the globe! The situation is such that all of humanity must unite to protect wildlife while we still have anything left to protect. Yet we see not only a disregard for the problems but also attempts to finally destroy the world’s ecosystems!

Over the past 50 years, more than 70 % of all animals on the planet have been wiped out (!), almost all terrestrial ecosystems have been destroyed, and humanity has breached six of the nine planetary boundaries, with two more on the brink. These are confirmed scientific facts!

Moreover, right now governments around the world, acting in the interests of business, are setting precedents for the de facto seizure of protected areas of wild nature. For example, as you know, we have been trying for half a year to stop the Ministry of Economic Development’s bill on clear‑cutting protective‑category forests in mountain ecosystems. In response, we are sent data about a “4.5 million‑hectare increase in the country’s forest fund,” after which we open scientific studies and see completely opposite figures where scientists write: “the forest area in Russia over the specified period decreased by more than 4.6 million ha.”

But what can stop this global madness? What real force can move the issue forward and influence it?

Here, for instance, is an entire agency serving the interests of big business that has decided to appropriate our country’s protected‑area rent. They publicly state that the interests at the bill‑drafting stage alone amount to more than 300 billion rubles! Naturally, to suppress our protest they will deploy huge resources — from financial to administrative — through people in power.

So how do we defend wild nature’s right to live?

THERE MUST BE MORE OF US.

Comrades! At the end of 2024 we launched the Concept of Total Ecological Peace Territories (TEPT). This is a concrete proposal to the world for a radical overhaul of the entire protected‑area system, which today is essentially a “canned reserve” for future exploitation rather than real protection of wildlife.

Our Concept envisages designating all remaining natural areas as zones of peace under absolute protection and uniting them into single conglomerates with special ecological and economic status. In essence, we propose the forced creation of wildlife refugia with corridors for vital biological processes such as species migration, nutrient exchange, and gene flow.

The current protected‑area system in the world is a mosaic of isolated fragments of nature. These fragments must be joined together! Otherwise, after species extinction, our modern civilization will also perish.

Yet such questions are not even being raised globally. Now protected areas are viewed as cans that authorities, in the interests of business, are already beginning to “open” for further exploitation.

I want to tell you in more detail about our plans: what we are actually doing and the next steps.

The fact is that we are extremely limited in resources! We do not have big money to protect nature, and very few people are interested in the fight for life, while social and political collapses around the world deliberately pit people against each other and distract them from real problems. Therefore, we can act only by our own efforts, gradually building our positions and purposefully achieving change. For example, in the summer of 2024 we managed to stop several dangerous bills at once, and this is a huge victory in our struggle. We are now trying to prevent the adoption of the next bills that are likewise aimed at destroying the still‑living parts of nature.

But we cannot defend forever. We need to promote the Concept of Total Ecological Peace Territories worldwide, to make millions of people in every corner of the planet talk about it and demand absolute protection of wildlife!

For the past two months we have been actively working on educating the public about environmental problems in video format. It took a lot of effort and time to finally achieve excellent results.

Let me share the statistics of our YouTube channel: two months of intensive work — and we have already reached more than 13 million people!

Nearly 130 thousand people from all over the world have signed the international petition for our Concept. Another 174 thousand have publicly supported the need to create Total Ecological Peace Territories. And million‑strong reach in other social networks allows us to scale up our activities.

I can confidently say that today we are ready for even more active struggle for life and have finally developed a stable format for attracting a huge audience to our activities. From now on we will be able to increase the number of nature‑protection supporters almost continuously!

In addition, we have gone international by presenting materials in English: the world is talking about us and joining us without political or social strife. We really are growing in number.

WHAT NEXT?

Now to the most important thing.

I believe that all efforts must be directed precisely at the importance of creating Total Ecological Peace Territories worldwide. By early May, a roadmap will be launched on the official Concept page — together we will set specific goals and tasks we want to accomplish within a year. I am not sure we can implement everything without resources and support, but I promise we will try very hard!

We will launch a clear and understandable roadmap by early May 2025 so that you can navigate our next steps with us. Also, in the coming days we have converted part of our social‑media platforms to promote the TEPT Concept — all events and news will be published there, and most importantly, we will start actively gathering an audience, explaining the importance of creating territories of peace.

Further, starting in May, we plan to launch a new section on my website called “TEPT Initiatives” and begin creating concrete projects for future territories of peace. That is, we want to independently work out the boundaries of future TEPTs, draft official documents for national governments, and actively promote them worldwide. These will be TEPTs both in Russia and in other countries.

This is probably the hardest point, because we essentially have to do the work usually done by specialized experts, entire scientific teams, but no one has done this before. We will be the first.

We also want to develop an interactive map on which the proposed territories of ecological peace will be plotted so that the scale of our proposals is immediately clear and everyone can familiarize themselves with all the projects.

All this work will be promoted worldwide, and in parallel we will be telling millions of people about the importance of such activity, making our Concept visible. When tens and then hundreds of millions of people rise up and demand that the world’s protected‑area system be changed, it will inevitably happen.

Today, comrades, we stand at the origins of global change in the world! I am sure of it.

All these tasks are extremely difficult, especially in the context of the lack of truly large capabilities in our struggle, but we will definitely cope and are already doing a great deal.

In the near future:

• launch of the roadmap for the Territories of Peace project;
• launch of the initiatives section and the start of work on creating the proposed TEPTs;
• development and launch of an interactive map with TEPT boundaries;
• strengthening media work in social networks to attract millions of people from around the world to our struggle.

Next we will begin to take ambitious steps — from submitting proposals to change the protected‑area system to the Russian government with mandatory public support, to organizing an international resolution to the UN and the global community.

What else can we do? With our modest means and sincere love for wildlife, for the green planet called Earth. When everyone around shows indifference to the destruction of nature, how can we change everything? And are we capable of doing it?

And what if tomorrow hundreds of millions of people understand the depth of ecological problems, pick up the idea of creating Total Ecological Peace Territories, and demand that governments forcibly allocate wildlife refuges all over the world?

So let’s try to scale up our work and unite people in the fight for life! Be part of the greatest Mission on Earth.

© PAVEL PASHKOV