Academicians urged Putin to protect specially protected natural areas of Moscow

A number of RAS scientists, scientific experts, initiative groups appealed to Vladimir Putin with an appeal to personally intervene and stop plans for large-scale economic development of specially protected natural areas (PAs) in Moscow without involving the scientific community and nature conservation specialists. The appeal speaks of the contradiction of these plans with legislation and global trends, as well as threats to the environmental safety of Moscow and the health of its residents.

Among those who signed the appeal are Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Flint M.V., Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Danilov-Danilyan V.I., Zakharov V.M., Solomina O.N., Lukina N.V., Tishkov A.A., a number of scientists Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and scientific experts from the Regional Public Organization "Moscow City Society for the Protection of Nature", as well as representatives of initiative groups of residents for the preservation of various protected areas in Moscow.

Scientists and the public are of great concern that the Moscow budget for 2022–2024, approved at the end of November. it is planned to spend tens of billions of rubles for the improvement of Bitsevsky forest, the natural-historical park "Pokrovskoe-Streshnevo", the urban forest "Kuskovo", and other Moscow protected areas.

Publicly available plans for large-scale, unacceptable for PAs, improvement of natural areas, including the construction of sports and leisure and entertainment facilities, roads, more than 100 kilometers of utilities, lighting, etc.

In fact, this means the economic development of protected areas, where this kind of interference is prohibited by law, despite the fact that Moscow protected areas have long been adapted and sufficiently developed for health-improving outdoor recreation.

The letter says that economic intervention in such a volume will entail disturbance of soil and vegetation cover, cover, reorganization of coastal zones of ponds and rivers. Lighting and infrastructure for noisy leisure activities will exclude the possibility of nesting of birds, worsen the living conditions of other animals, lead to their forced migration and decrease in numbers. Reduction and destruction of habitats, disruption of food chains will entail a loss of biodiversity, violation of the ecological balance of natural areas, and as a result - a decrease in their environmental and environmental potential.

Protected areas provide us with a whole range of ecosystem services: they purify the air, absorb carbon, reduce temperature and humidify the air on hot days, effectively regulate surface runoff, and preserve biodiversity. The beneficial effects of large natural areas extend to the entire city.

The plans for the economic development of protected areas threaten the ecological and climatic stability of the capital and the health of its inhabitants - against the background of the fact that progressive countries spend huge amounts of money on nature restoration programs and the return of wildlife to cities. The Convention on Biodiversity has an independent direction for the conservation of biodiversity in cities, and 2021-2030 has been declared by the UN as the Decade for the Restoration of Natural Ecosystems.

The authors of the letter consider the assurances of the Moscow Government that the new large-scale improvement of the protected areas will be "as gentle and careful as possible", nothing more than words. All improvement plans are formed by the Moscow Government without the involvement of the scientific community and experts in the field of nature protection and biodiversity conservation.