WWF-Russia 2012
WWF’s programme to restore the European bison population in the Caucasus continues: in the fall 9 bison arrived in Northern Ossetia and 8 more went to
In October a pair of Persian leopards arrived in Sochi National Park from the Lisbon Zoo.
- In 2012, the number of poachers’ snares has dropped by
two-thirds in key snow leopard habitat. - The first photographic evidence of snow leopards in the Argut River valley (Altai Republic) has been obtained.
- Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov cancelled a decree made by the Republic’s government aiming to expropriate land for gold mining in
Sarychat-Ertash State Nature Reserve.
In 2012, 40 observers from 14 villages and 5 polar stations tracked the migration of Polar bears and protected birthing dens from poachers across a vast landscape from the mouth of the Indigirka River to the Bering Strait.
A unique Far Eastern leopard «passport» process is being publicized for the first time since it began 10 years ago.
- 13 state nature reserves and national parks received grants from WWF
- Twelve years of WWF efforts have met with victory — Land of the Leopard National Park was established in Primorsky Krai!
- In October Primorsky Krai governor
v. V. Miklushevsky signed a decree establishing the Sredneussuriyskiy Refuge. - A new Itsari Nature Park is now completely operational in the Republic of Dagestan.
- Over half a million hectares of protected areas will become part of a single system of PAs along the middle branch of the Syrdari River in Kazakhstan.
- Commercial logging by the Les Export Company has stopped in northern Primorsky Krai’s key Amur tiger habitat.
- WWF and Citibank’s «Plant Trees for Leopards» campaign is dedicated to restoring mixed Korean Pine and deciduous forests in the habitat of the rarest cat on the planet.
- 400 kg of Korean pine, 5 kg of Manchurian fir, and 3 kg of larch seeds were planted in a tree nursery at the Forest and Forest Park Institute of Primorsky State Agricultural Academy with support from WWF and the company METRO.
- Success of the majority of a unique forest climate project to protect the Amur tiger in the Bikin River valley in Primorye.
WWF experts developed the first Russian course in sustainable fishing and used it to instruct fishing boat officer corps in Murmansk.
The largest Asian sockeye fishery (almost a quarter of the global catch), located on the Ozernaya River on Kamchatka, became the third Russian fishery certified by MSC standards.
WWF and RIA Novosti published the first Economic Environmental Index of Russian Regions.
The company En+ Group and its subsidiary EvroSibEnergo halted design work on the
Dangerous drilling in the Prirazlomnoye oil deposit in the Pechora Sea has been delayed for at least one year.
WWF and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) experts present research on the scale and effectiveness of government subsidies in Russia’s oil and gas sector.
On December 18, 2012 the State Duma passed a law protecting seas from oil pollution that incorporates a majority of the key changes being demanded by environmental groups.
- For the fourth time the international Earth Hour event took place in Russia.
- WWF saved over 35 million roubles in 2012 thanks to the fact that all of WWF’s advertising is produced and placed free of charge.
- WWF presented a new film — «I choose the forest!»
- There was an expedition to the Arctic in July. Members of WWF’s Golden Panda Club participated, paying their own way for the majority of expenses and thus enabling Russkaya Arktika National Park to send its staff and equipment on a scientific expedition to Novaya Zemlya archipelago.