On November 24, public inspectors for environmental protection of the Murmansk region received their certificates. The ceremony was attended by representatives of various public and environmental organizations, including the chairman of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the RGS, Deputy Director for Science of the MMBI RAS, and Anastasia Yagodina, project manager of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society.
As part of the program, volunteers from three regions – the Murmansk Region, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Taymyr Peninsula– learned the basics of environmental legislation and the specifics of interaction with government agencies.
“It is great that today we pay this much attention to the problem of Arctic pollution. We, as people who are personally engaged in the elimination of these pollutants, understand this like no one else,” said the head of the United Volunteer Center of the Murmansk Region Evgenia Chibis.
It is important for state bodies not only to receive reports of violations, it is also important to educate the population on the importance of environmental protection. This was another important task of the project. Effective and timely public control will allow not only to disclose and eliminate violations in the field of nature protection in time, but also to draw attention to the existing environmental problems, develop environmental awareness and improve interaction between regular people and public authorities.
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Within the framework of the event, a seminar on the problems of ecology and nature conservation in the Arctic was held. Denis Moiseev spoke about the environmental protection measures taken by the MRB RGS and the MMBI RAS, as well as about the joint expedition of the RGS and the Ministry of Defense, held this summer. Its participants visited the Yuzhny Island of Novaya Zemlya. The access to this area is restricted, that is why the ecosystems of the island remain in their original state.
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“This decade is the Decade of Science and Technology, so it is important to pay more attention to the scientific component of nature protection – sometimes, if you do not turn to scientific research, there is a risk of incorrect conclusions and interpretations and, as a result, incorrect decisions,” Denis Moiseev said.
In total, 150 residents of three regions took part in the joint project of the Project Office for Arctic Development, the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources and the All-Russian Society of Nature Conservation. The inspectors will become part of the system of public environmental monitoring in the Arctic regions.
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“We have 54 inspectors in Murmansk. This is great, they are not concentrated in Murmansk, they are all over the region. And, accordingly, the work will take place throughout the Murmansk region from Kandalaksha to Murmansk,” said Ekaterina Makarova, manager of environmental projects at the Project Office for Arctic Development.