On June, 9, Thursday, a regular meeting of the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Biosphere Reserve Academic Council took place. 

Strategic and practical matters of fulfilling the UNESCO MAB program were discussed during the meeting, as well as the plans for cooperation development in the sphere of sustainable development. Besides, the results of the scientific research for Nature Chronicle (Letopis’ prirody) 2015 program were approved.

The main issue for consideration was accomplishing the UNESCO program “Man and Biosphere” Ito the fullest extent. Following the Seville Strategy for Biosphere Reserves requirements today it is necessary for the reserve to create a pedestrian zone (a zone for cooperation) around the conservation area.

An honorable reserve guest Anatoliy Kerzhentsev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, also took an active part in the discussion. Dr Kerzhentsev is a lab head of the Institute of Fundamental Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and a head of the UNESCO Functional Ecology department at Pushchino State Institute of Natural Sciences. Dr Kerzhentsev used to be the biosphere reserve curator and made a significant impact on scientific research development since the day of the reserve registration in the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves and till the spring 2013.

Now, three years later, scientific cooperation with the Pushchino Institute of Fundamental Problems of Biology of RAS is restored. A long-term agreement is signed, and plans are made for developing eco-monitoring and observing climate changes and their impact on eco-systems.

Having discussed all the suggestions and recommendations, Anatoly Kerzhentsev and other meeting participants made a decision to propose a number of amendments to the Nature chronicle of the reserve 2015, which would be later presented to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and published on the reserve website.