Top news Far East: WWF Russia, Russian Railway, Kozmino

November 16 – November 22

WWF continues to attract world’s pubic attention to the problems of climate, forest and rare animal species preservation. Last week together with United Nations, Russian Railways and International Union of Railwails WWF launched the so-called Climate Express which will travel from Kyoto through Siberia and Central Russia to Copenhagen. Find out details in the weekly report by FederalPress.

The Climate Express

International Union of Railways, Russian Railways JSC, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and World Wildlife Fund together are running a climate project – The Climate Express.

Passengers of the train will make a symbolic journey from Kyoto, Japan to Copenhagen, Denmark through Siberia. The project started on November 21, 2009. Its final destination, Copenhagen, will house a series of negotiations of the leaders of many countries in order to sign UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

While in Russia the Climate Express will make stops in five major cities – Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. Passengers will meet with the local authorities to discuss environmental problems, innovative rail transport technologies and climatic change in Russia.

Trains are viewed as a more ecologically friendly kind of transport than airplanes, plus railways suggest plenty of opportunities for energy-saving and reducing greenhouse gases emissions.

WWF saves nature reserve

Investigators of Primorsky Region opened a criminal case against wood-cutters who are suspected in illegally cutting precious types of wood in the nature reserve Tayozhny, which is recognized as the heart of habitat of the rare feline species, Amur Tiger.

WWF Russia Amur Division spent 6 months trying to persuade local law-enforcement agency to investigate this case. According to WWF data such precious trees as cedar, oak and ash have been systematically cut down since 2005 under cover of the so-called cleaning cutting. However, only healthy trees were cut down, while sick trees were left untouched.

Distance learning resource center

Regional budget of Primorsky Region allocated 4 million rubles to set up a distance learning program for handicap children. The federal budget spent 19 million rubles to support this program in the regions of the Far East. At the first stage 59 children with eye-sight disabilities will be connected to the learning system and will be able to learn from home by means of computers and the Internet. 12 teachers took a special course to improve their qualifications and provide high quality learning process.

Oil trading

Russia’s Oil Exchange looks forward to open its division in Vladivostok, governor Sergey Darkin declares. Together with vice prime minister of Russia Igor Sechin he visited Kozmino oil tanker port last week. Operations at Kozmino will be launched by the end of December. Russian government also plans to commence oil and gas futures trading there.

This significant political decision will create a counterbalance for oil coming to the region from UAE and Indonesia and will increase political and economic influence of Russia, says Sergey Darkin.

Sollers opens training center

Training center of Sollers Far East was officially opened on November 18 by Russia’s vice prime minister Igor Sechin, governor of Primorsky Region Sergey Darkin and Sollers CEO Vadim Shvetsov. The first team of workers will be educated and assemble the first SsangYong truck in December this year. This universal training center allows educating specialists in all stages of the automobile production and gives opportunity to train skills in assembling the most complicated parts of the car.

FSC-certification

One of the largest timber companies of the Far East, Arkaim LLC, shipped the first batch of FSC-certified timber to Germany. Press secretary of WWF Russia Amur Division Elena Starostina says this new chance to sell certified timber in the markets of developed countries might become a good incentive for the development of responsible forest management in the Far East.

Arkaim LLC headquartered in Khabarovsk is the third company in the Far East which secured an FSC certificate. Currently the square of certified forests in the region estimates 2.5 million hectares.

80% of rough timber from the Far East goes to China and there is little demand for deeply processed wood products in this market. Therefore timber processing development in the region requires finding new markets.

Voluntary FSC certification aims at preserving biodiversity of forests in the Far East. Test batches of certified wood have already been shipped to Germany, South Korea and Japan.