On December 20, the Coordinating Council of the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve held its first meeting.

The Coordinating Council was established according to the Agreement on cooperation in sustainable development of the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve, signed in order to meet the requirements of the UNESCO program «Man and Biosphere» in September, 2016. The list of members of the Coordinating Council includes the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve representatives such as the head of the Reserve, E.M. Grigorieva, the administration of the town of Puschino and the municipal district of Serpukhov.

By the decision of the City Council of Puschino, the deputy director of the Institute of Protein of the Russian Academy of Science and the former head of the Reserve in 1999-2010, M.N. Brynskyh also took part in the meeting. He was unanimously chosen as a head of the Coordinating Council. Unfortunately, the representatives of the administration of the municipal district of Serpukhov could not take part in the meeting.

The main issue of the meeting became the plan of top-priority events for practical realization of the Strategy for Biosphere Reserves Development in 2017, announced by the Russian Government as the Year of Ecology and the Year of 100-year Anniversary of Specially Protected Nature Areas. As a result of the meeting, a long list of diverse ecological and educational events has been planned, with the events aiming at the promotion of the concept of the UNESCO biosphere reserves among local people to involve them in the conservation work of the best natural places of our planet.

 At the beginning of the work, the Council decided to publish the detailed information about the UNESCO «Man and Biosphere» program on the websites of territories, that make part of the Buffer and Transition Zones of the Reserve: the administration of the town of Puschino, the municipal district of Serpukhov and the village of Dankovskoye. Also, the brand of Biosphere Reserve and the conditions of its use for green technologies promotion in our area are to be developed. Methodological meetings with teachers are to be organized, handouts and brochures with the information about the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve and the MAB program are to be prepared for further work with the population of Puschino and the municipal district of Serpukhov.

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In order to complete the UNESCO requirements, the FSBI «Prioksko-Terrasny State Natural Biosphere Reserve», the Serpukhov district administration, and Puschino city administration, agreed to create the territory of cooperation on the territory of Dankovskoye rural settlement and the town of Puschino by signing the Agreement on cooperation in the area of sustainable development of the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve with the UNESCO.

At this moment, the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve has included the following territories:

• Core Zone – the territory of the Prioksko-Terrasny State Natural Biosphere Reserve under the authority of the state institution of the same name. According to the Federal legislation on specially protected nature areas, strict restrictions are established, including restriction on the visit of the territory;
• Buffer Zone – the protected area of the Prioksko-Terrasny State Natural Biosphere Reserve, the territory upon the restrictions of real estate development and hunting by the Enactment of protected areas;
• Transition (Area of Cooperation) Zone – the outside zone of the biosphere reserve inside the city limits of Puschino and Dankovskoye rural settlement of the Serpukhov region, but outside the protected area of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. The zone imposes no additional limitations but the questions of the resources management which are decided by the consensus of the Coordinating Council members.