External meeting
Round Table on the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the Kurgalsky Nature Reserve
February 6, 2018
External meeting
Round Table on the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the Kurgalsky Nature Reserve
Start date: February 6, 2018 9:00 AM
End date: February 6, 2018
Place: Geneva, Switzerland
Address:
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership Union
uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its 1,300 Member organisations and the input of some 13,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.
Description
On 6 February 2018, Nord Stream 2 AG hosted in Geneva a Round Table on the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the Kurgalsky Nature Reserve.
Why in Geneva? Apparently, because the company wanted to impress the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as waterfowl habitat (Ramsar Convention) and the International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN), that holds the International Red List of Threatened Species, many of which can be sacrificed by another multi-billion and truly political project.
A week earlier a similar roundtable was held in St.Petersburg, Russia and did not impress anyone, except governmental officials and the company itself. Because local scientific community knows that company uses ‘alternative facts’ or in plain words – simply lies.
Why is it so? Simply because the company, that claims highest level of openness, transparency and public involvement in decision-making, has just persistently followed its own logic of Environmental Impact Assessment. It is based on the assumption that the chosen option of routeing the gas pipeline is the best one. And it does not matter for them that the route will pass across the Specially Protected Natural Area of the international importance, that is covered by two international conventions – HELCOM and Ramsar. If it is in business interest of a single company or national interest of a single state – it does not matter, if this area has unique nature values. Because money matters! Nature does not!
Article 4 of the Ramsar Convention leaves a possibility for a Contracting Party to delete or restrict the boundaries of a Ramsar site in case of ‘urgent national interests’. What are those and how Article 4 should be applied – read in the Guidance from Ramsar Convention.
Read more about the dirty tricks of Nord Stream 2 AG in an article
Full coverage of the independent Public Environmental Assessment of the Nord Stream 2 plans on the the Russian side of the Baltic is available here
To understand the scale of inconsistencies and falsifications – read the Summary and full Conclusions of the Public Environmental Assessment .
And even more on the matter – at our dedicated webpage for Save Kurgalskiy campaign.
Why in Geneva? Apparently, because the company wanted to impress the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as waterfowl habitat (Ramsar Convention) and the International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN), that holds the International Red List of Threatened Species, many of which can be sacrificed by another multi-billion and truly political project.
A week earlier a similar roundtable was held in St.Petersburg, Russia and did not impress anyone, except governmental officials and the company itself. Because local scientific community knows that company uses ‘alternative facts’ or in plain words – simply lies.
Why is it so? Simply because the company, that claims highest level of openness, transparency and public involvement in decision-making, has just persistently followed its own logic of Environmental Impact Assessment. It is based on the assumption that the chosen option of routeing the gas pipeline is the best one. And it does not matter for them that the route will pass across the Specially Protected Natural Area of the international importance, that is covered by two international conventions – HELCOM and Ramsar. If it is in business interest of a single company or national interest of a single state – it does not matter, if this area has unique nature values. Because money matters! Nature does not!
Article 4 of the Ramsar Convention leaves a possibility for a Contracting Party to delete or restrict the boundaries of a Ramsar site in case of ‘urgent national interests’. What are those and how Article 4 should be applied – read in the Guidance from Ramsar Convention.
Read more about the dirty tricks of Nord Stream 2 AG in an article
Full coverage of the independent Public Environmental Assessment of the Nord Stream 2 plans on the the Russian side of the Baltic is available here
To understand the scale of inconsistencies and falsifications – read the Summary and full Conclusions of the Public Environmental Assessment .
And even more on the matter – at our dedicated webpage for Save Kurgalskiy campaign.