Quality of renewed consultations over Moscow motorway already in doubt (6 ñåíòÿáðÿ 2010)
Just days after the welcomed but belated announcement from Russian President Medvedev that tree felling in Khimki Forest must be halted while renewed public consultations take place over the routing of the Moscow òÀÓ St. Petersburg motorway, the process is already in danger of becoming a rubber-stamping exercise. Bankwatch and the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest have asked both the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Recontruction and to ensure a full and fair consultation process.
Volunteers fighting forest fires in Russia - high price for civil independence (19 àâãóñòà 2010)
She died in a car crash — it happened on smoke-covered, poorly paved road. All of them were deadly tired after figthing the fire for the whole day, and apparently the driver did not notice a steep turn. Olga Samovarschikova, travel-club coordinator, was among group of volunteers defending village Polbino, Moscow region, against forest fire. She and other people were fighting forest fire that officially did not exist, according to the reports and forest fire maps of Emergency Situations Ministry.
Shoigu in Attempt to Cover-Up Danger of Contamination from Burning 'Chernobyl' Forests (14 àâãóñòà 2010)
On Friday afternoon head of Russian Emergency Ministry Sergey Shoigu publicly demanded to stop the rumors about radiation danger as a result of forest fires in the region of Bryansk. Immediately after this statement, Russian governmental organization "Roslesozaschita", responsible for protecting forests, removed from its web-site the information about forest fire in radioactively contaminated zones in the west of Russia - told Anti-atom.ru.
Moscow's Self-Defense (13 àâãóñòà 2010)
A personal account of life in Russia’s blazing, smoky capital tells of survivors and volunteers stepping in where the authorities have failed. by Olga Zakharova
Russian environmentalists face detention and harassment with no protection from the authorities (5 àâãóñòà 2010)
Johannesburg. 5 August 2010: CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is alarmed by recent attacks on the Russian environmental movement, adding to a systematic trend in ongoing harassment of environmental activists in the country. On 4 August, Yevgenia Chirikova, environmentalist and leader of the “In Defence of Khimki Forest” movement was detained after speaking at a press conference in Moscow.
Cruel attack on Khimki forest defenders. (23 èþëÿ 2010)
Early on the morning July 23 the camp of Khimki forest defenders was subjected by double attack. Bandits acted as the vanguard of attackers, while riot police (called OMON in Russia) played the role of the chief forces. A new felling was found in the wood recently. And work on destroying the wood was going there. The staff wasn’t numerous: it consisted of 8 persons, including both woodcutters and security guards. All of them were drunken and aggressive. So on July 22 forest defenders set up a new camp in the close vicinity of this felling, but not on the felling itself. About 15 environmentalists stayed in this new camp for the night. But they had very little time for sleep.
How to teach legal forest use (6 èþëÿ 2010)
An international seminar called «Development and implementing of standard training modules (including distance learning models) on forest law enforcement in ENPI countries and Russia” took place on May 17 in the World Bank office in Moscow.
Andrew Mitchell, The World Bank’s Senior Forestry Specialist in the Agriculture and Rural Development Sector in Europe and Central Asia region made some introductory notes.
ENPI FLEG Program: Initial Results (1 èþëÿ 2010)
On June 18, 2010 the World Bank Representative office hosted a seminar “Implementing FLEG in Russia in 2005 – 2010: counteracting illegal logging in Russia and its regions (cases of Arkhangelskaya and Vladimirskaya Oblasts, Krasnoyarsky and Khabarovskiy Krais” Representatives of the Federal and Regional authorities, professional unions and associations, scientific institutes and NGOs took part in the event.
