International conference "Baikal strategic resource of the planet"

The conference is held within the framework of the Year of Environment, held in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on 10.08.2012,  № 1157., organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Republic of Buryatia, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Baikal Association of deputies of the State Duma, the Fund for Protection of lake Baikal, the Russian Geographic Society.

Preamble. One of the major challenges of sustainable development of the Baikal region is the scientific support of socio-economic development. Previously, such activities with the participation of federal ministers held every 5 years in the major conferences on the development of the productive forces of the federal subjects and Siberia as a whole.

Recent international scientific conferences of that rank were held in Ulan-Ude, in 1994 and 1998 on the initiative of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The result was to attract the world's attention to the problems of protection and sustainable development of the lake Baikal and the Baikal region, the inclusion of Lake Baikal in the UNESCO list of world natural heritage, the adoption of the Law "On the Protection of the lake Baikal " and the first two federal programs on lake Baikal (1994 and 2001).

Since that time the discussion of scientific programs was practically collapsed and the main activities were limited to the conduct of the Baikal Economic Forum and the search of investments.

The purpose of the conference:

- discussion scientific programs of development of the Baikal region and the problems of protection of Lake Baikal in the new social and economic realities in the creation of the Ministry of Development of the Far East and Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization,

- invitation international organizations to the problems of preservation of Lake Baikal as a World Heritage Site.

Main conference reports must be presented by the Federal economic and environmental agencies, large state corporations, the leading Russian and foreign scientists, and representatives of international environmental organizations.

The program and the basic directions:

- The federal target program "Protection of Lake Baikal and the socio-economic development of the Baikal natural territory" in the past, present and future;

- The Law of the Russian Federation "On Protection of Lake Baikal" and the problems of its implementation;

- International cooperation on Lake Baikal: results and prospects;

- Monitoring of natural and social processes in the Baikal region for sustainable development;

- Environmental culture and the role of civil society organizations;

- The development of a system of protected areas;

- "Green" economy in industry and agriculture;

- Sustainable energy development and the problems of gasification of the region;

- Transboundary river basin of Selenga or river without borders;

- Economic and environmental governance on the Baikal natural territory;

- The Baikal pulp and paper mill in the present and the future;

- Mechanisms of regulation of environmental activities in the central ecological zone;

- Society in terms of environmental constraints;

- Transport and engineering infrastructure of the Baikal natural territory in the context of globalization.

A commemorative meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on Lake Baikal, devoted to the 20th anniversary of its activity will be organized during the conference.

The conference will be dated as a start of the international air expedition "Lake Geneva (Switzerland) - Lake Baikal cooperation between Europe and Russia."