News

The workshop “Environmental education in lakes areas: practical experience and innovation technologies” took place on Baikal shore 26 – 28 July to present the English version of Educational learning kit “Baikal treasure”. The workshop was supported by United Nations Development Program (Moscow), the project GEF/ UNDP/ UNOPS and Global Nature Fund (Radolfzel, Germany).

The field trip was organized to observe the route to the seasonal haul for the Baikal seal on the island Tonkii. (Ushkanii Islands), which is located on the territory of the Zabaikalsky National Park. The eco-trail was constructed in the frameworks of the Project activities.

The Third regional Steering committee meeting of UNDP-GEF Project “Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Baikal Basin Transboundary Ecosystem” was held on 24 July 2014 in Gremyachinsk (Buryatia), Russia.

The purpose of the Third Steering committee meeting:

Presentation of results, achieved by the Project in 2013, work plan and budget of 2014; consideration of the Project mid-term evaluation, made by an independent international expert; consideration of development progress of SAP for the lake Baikal basin and discussion of enhancement of international cooperation in the field of use and protection of transboundary water resources between Russia and Mongolia.

The purpose of the conference is to bring together the efforts of the specialists and scientists of Russia and Mongolia in the field of protection and rational use of natural resources in the basin of Lake Baikal, creation of the basis for decision making. The participants of the conference are representatives of the Central Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage and its territorial branches, scientific institutions and NGOs of Baikal region.

During the conference the challenges of the sanitary and epidemiological safety of transboundary water bodies were discussed. The current state and the ways of improvement of the legal and the institutional basis of collaboration between Russia and Mongolia in the field of preservation and sustainable development of transboundary water resources.

Download conference resolution

Download - covering letter

Internal links:

http://bgtrk.ru/news/detail.php?ID=17350

http://egov-buryatia.ru/index.php?id=5330&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35013

http://www.baikalfund.ru/news/fund/article.wbp?article_id=0690364d-19a6-4767-81d3-417cc1ca4f6e

http://buriat.er.ru/news/2014/7/29/tulohonov-prinyal-uchastie-v-proshedshej-v-buryatii-mezhdunarodnoj-konferencii-posvyashennoj-voprosam-ohrany-okruzhayushej-sredy/

http://03.rpn.gov.ru/node/8055

Annually the UNDP-GEF Baikal Project supports different environmental awareness campaigns for the general public, school children and tourists. In July and August 2012, 2013 and 2014 the ecological volunteer camp “Save Baikal” http://www.savebaikal.com served about 30 km of Lake Baikal shoreline. The main goal of this camp is to raise awareness and knowledge about sustainable water use and waste management among the local population and tourists through hands-on, service oriented actions such as cleaning up litter clogged riparian zones. See below the short video about this event.

The instruments for water resources management were discussed during the meeting. Best practices of international experiences and brief summary were presented

The conference is the preliminary stage to the World UNESCO Conference on Education for Sustainable Development Learning Today for Sustainable Future, which is to take place in November 10-12, Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

The conference is supposed to focus on issues of environmental ethics, education for sustainable development, globalization, noosphere conscience development, cultural values preservation, hermeneutical methodology, sustainable development technologies at Baikal territory and other issues.

The issues of estimation of epidemiological risk of pollution of transboundary waters to the health of population were discussed during the workshop.

The second Eco-week was held on 17-21 May 2014 on the Red Square, Moscow. This project includes an installation on the central square of the capital some objects: ecological pavilions, demonstrating new technologies and innovations, art and cinema, spherical cinema, eco-market etc.

http://rusecoweek.ru/

The Meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia was held on 29-30 April 2014. The Project Manager met the Head of the National Water Committee, Mr. Badrakh Tsend.

The educational workshop for presentation of learning kit “Baikal treasure” was organized on 26-30 April 2014 in Ulan-Bator. Four authors of the learning kit participated in preparation of the workshop. More than 70 participants attended the workshop.

The workshop provided a platform to:

Discuss between stakeholders with different backgrounds (water practitioners, politicians, parliamentarians, journalists, researchers...) the benefits of transboundary water cooperation and how benefits assessment can support the transboundary water cooperation processes;

Share experiences, good practices, challenges faced and lessons learned on the identification, assessment and communication of the wide range of benefits that can be generated by transboundary water cooperation;

Support the further development of the draft Policy Guidance Note on identifying, assessing and communicating the benefits of transboundary water cooperation.

During the workshop a wide range of problems was discussed. The problems are associated with the solution of socio-economic and environmental problems in the coastal areas of the Baikal region. The need was confirmed for a close and continuing coordination of municipal authorities as the closest level management interacts with the public.

Every year the world water day is celebrated on March 22^nd, 2014. In the frameworks of this event and in cooperation with UNDP-GEF Project “Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Baikal Basin Transboundary Ecosystem”, Orkhon River Basin Authority organized essay writing competition on topics “Water conservation” for senior students of 9-12^th grade, “Who knows Ugiinuur the best?” for students 7-8^th grade and drawing competition on topics “Water-precious thing” for 4-6^th grade students among secondary school children of Erdenebulgan and Ugiinuur soums. Totally 45 students participated in 3 competitions.

In 1998, the lake “Ugii” was inscribed in Ramsar convention. The lake is located on Orkhon river basin with coastal area of 2510 hectares which consists of slushy ground surrounded by grassland. The lake is natural scenic place, which has numerous rivers and ponds as well as bog with alluvium stream on the west.

Total area of the lake is approx. 50km² and length of the coastal line is 24.7 km. Maximum depth of the lake is 15.3 m and total volume is 147.9m³.

Cleaning campaign was organized around the “Ugii” lake on 20-21 March, 2014 under the financial support of UNDP-GEF Project “Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Baikal Basin Transboundary Ecosystem”

Totally 20 people and 2 trucks participated in the cleaning campaign and disposed 5 tons of garbage to local Ugiinuur soum’s dump.

Russian and Mongolian language versions of “Baikal without boundaries” HD films were televised by number of TV channels. TV channel “MIR Buryatia” in Russia and Soyon Gegeeruulegch TV in Mongolia have already broadcasted this film. Moreover, negotiations are in progress regarding the film translations on another TV channels: