Scandal in the reserve: officials optimize the protected natural areas of Russia

As it turned out, such a merger with a corresponding reduction in staff has already affected about 30 protected areas in Russia. Who got better from this, except for officials?

Irina Mishina

Created in Ossetia to manage protected areas of federal significance, the new structure is now called the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Reserved Ossetia-Alania". It is entrusted with the management of the mentioned reserve, the Tseysky federal reserve and the Alania national park. The document that justifies this contains an enchanting thesis.

How officials confused animal protection with the protection of the indigenous people

Paragraph 1 of the approved Charter of the new institution states that the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Zapovednoe Mesto" organizes "activities aimed at protecting the rights , protecting the original habitat and traditional way of life of indigenous peoples" and "representatives of other ethnic communities in the places of their traditional residence and traditional economic activities » located in protected areas of federal significance, «IN PART OF CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF WILDLIFE OBJECTS».

It is not clear from the Charter whether officials classify indigenous peoples as objects of the animal world, or whether animals belong to these very indigenous peoples.

One way or another, with the protection of the animal world in the light of this transformation, at least in the near future, questions may arise.

“From a managerial point of view, all this is certainly not good. Animals do better when they are carefully guarded. Now it will be worse with this, ” Anton Khlynov, a member of the commission on environmental well-being under the OPRF, told NI. “An extra FGBU in our time will not hurt - there are enough budget allocations in the country, and there is always something to do with new managers in the PA system. Although, it is possible that there is some sophisticated, strategic, deeply thought-out trick behind this. We buy popcorn, sit down and watch”, - says Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation Vsevolod Stepanitsky.

Who will protect the roe deer, wild boar and brown bear?

By the way, the optimization of the reserve in Ossetia is not the first such case. Already about 30 protected areas in the country have suffered the fate of optimization. As an example, it suffices to cite the “Reserved Podlemorye”, which united the Pribaikalsky National Park with the Barguzinsky Reserve and the Baikal-Lensky Reserve, turning into a giant with obscure functions. In the same row - the United Directorate of reserves of Taimyr, the joint directorate of reserves of the Khabarovsk Territory.

In the case of the reserve in Ossetia, the scandal flared up, among other things, because a unique animal and plant world is concentrated there. 34 species of mammals live on its territory, including the East Caucasian tur and chamois, roe deer, yak, wild boar, brown bear, and martens. 116 species of birds nest in the park, more than 1,000 species of plants grow, among which there are many medicinal ones. What will happen to all this in the transfer and redistribution of powers?

“Will it turn out that this “place” is just a mechanism by which it is necessary to transfer personnel and property to the renamed Federal State Budgetary Institution “Reserved Ossetia-Alania”? Under the goals and objectives of a certain "team" in the specialized Department of Protected Areas of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation? asks Anton Khlynov, a member of the commission on environmental well-being under the OPRF. - The intrigue is that this is the most "reserved place" - probably just some kind of cunning scheme to solve other, little understood, perhaps some kind of corruption issues. At the same time, the institution that is now supposed to manage both the reserve and the national park has neither finances, nor property, nor personnel to protect the territory until the end of this year”.

Nature vs Optimization

The scandal over the reform of specially protected natural areas broke out 3 years ago, when the government had an idea to unite the Ugra National Park with other protected areas, as well as merge several protected areas in Siberia. At a meeting of the Public Chamber, these decisions were severely criticized, as a result they were canceled. But the government did not leave the idea of "optimizing" protected areas. Now officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources are referring to a certain order from Deputy Prime Minister Grigorenko to optimize the work of all FBGUs. How it is possible to combine national parks and reserves with different natural conditions, animals, different flora, no one specifies. Nobody explains something else: for example, how to unite a nature reserve, where there are a couple of camp sites in the mountains, and a national park, where there are about 10 settlements? How can they be managed according to a single standard? In the end, no one canceled regional features. It also causes concern that the creation of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Reserved Ossetia-Alania” is associated by some with the expansion of the development and settlement zone.

“Officers think only about issues of property, powers and how to make money”, - says Anton Khlynov, a member of the commission on environmental well-being under the OPRF. - We are told: under one leader, we will unite 2 territories. And what will happen in these territories, completely different, few people care. These decisions can be destructive to nature”.