The Ecology and Natural Resources Management Committee of the Moscow Regional Duma held an offsite extended meeting at the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve.
Together with the Moscow Regional Duma’s officials, the officers from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources Management of the Moscow region, the administration of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve and the representatives of environmental and public organizations took part in the discussion of the topic of «Creating the directory of specially protected natural areas on the territory of the Moscow region». 30 people attended the meeting.
Alla Polyakova, the chairperson of the Ecology and Natural Resources Management Committee of the Moscow Regional Duma, opened and conducted the meeting. According to her, the network of specially protected natural areas have been forming since the 1960s and now it is one of the most developed ones in the Central Federal District. Today there are 235 regional protected areas in the Moscow region.
«A part of them has passed the cadastral registration, – specified Alla, – Unfortunately, the sanctuaries and natural landmarks of the Moscow region have not had a proper protection for many years. They do not hold the state ecological monitoring, they do not develop the system of ecological education and tourism. The government supervision in the area of organizing and functioning of all specially protected natural areas of regional significance is conducted by just 30 government environmental inspectors. This system literally cannot be efficient».
The participants of the meeting have agreed that the most evident solution of the current problems in this sphere is to create a Directory of specially protected natural areas on the territory of the Moscow region as a state-financed institution. Similar structures already exist in 56 regions of Russia.
The authority of the institution is going to cover such natural reserves of the Moscow region as the state sanctuary «Zhuravlinaya Rodina» («Crane Land») at the territory of the Taldomsky District, the Cherustinky forest and others.
According to the federal legislation, the staff of the regional directories of specially protected natural areas are eligible to the same rights as the government environmental inspectors including the right to draw up administrative offence reports. While the heads of such institutions will have a right to consider the case and hold liable for the violation of the specially protected natural areas’ regime and other rules regulating the natural resources management on their territory.
In conclusion, Alla Polyakova mentioned, «as a Year of Ecology, 2017 provides a good stimulus and an opportunity to form an ecologically correct view of the population on the problems of specially protected natural areas and creating a single regional institution to manage them.»
Following the results of the meeting, a decision was taken to prepare an initiative proposal to create a state-financed institution «Directory of Specially Protected Natural Areas of the Moscow Region» to the attention of Andrey Vorobiev, the Governor of the Moscow region, with the help of public organizations and entities and the state sanctuary «Zhuravlinaya Rodina».
