From November 10 to 15 the Kyrgyz-Russian consultations to share the experience in the area of the specially protected nature areas development took place in Moscow. The representatives from the All-Russian Research Institute for Environmental Protection under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Department for Biodiversity and SPNA under the SAEPF in the KR and the UNDP in the KR shared the experience and discussed the possibilities of joint actions for biodiversity conservation.

On November 13 the Kyrgyz delegation met with Amirkhan Amirkhanov, a deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for Oversight of Natural Resource Usage. The joint activities to preserve the population of the snow leopard and to struggle against the poaching were discussed as well as the specifics for maintaining the Red List of the Russian Federation were learnt at the meeting.  

Conservation of the snow leopard was also one of the central topics at the meeting with the representatives from the World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF. In addition, opportunities of the joint project implementation in the KR were discussed, different methods to assess the effectiveness of the SPNA management were considered and the concept to introduce the HCVF or the High conservation value forests was discussed. Pursuant to the HCVF concept, it is possible to detect the forest territories with special properties that are extremely valuable for conservation of the biodiversity. The concept is applied to develop and to introduce the relevant methods to manage these territories in order to preserve and to increase their high environmental and socio-economic value. 

The Russian colleagues told about the specifics for maintaining the Red List of the Russia Federation and made the presentation on the necessity to conduct the system monitoring and to assess the species included into the Red List.

In the course of the visit the participants familiarized themselves with the activity of the falcon breeding nursery under the All-Union Research Institute for Ecology, found out more about the role of the center for scientific experiments and for breeding of the peregrine falcons by the order of the Mayor’s Office of Moscow city. The project “A white crane – a flight of hope” was presented, the aim of which was to return the captive birds to the natural habitat. In order to train the specialists, to retrain and to upgrade the skills of the teachers in the area of the ecology for all levels of the compulsory and additional education in the KR it was suggested to elaborate organization of the special courses based on the Moscow State University named after M.V.Lomonosov.

The participants from Kyrgyzstan have familiarized themselves with the work of the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve, where 143 species of the birds and 57 species of wild mammals live on the territory of about 5 thousand ha. The main tourist attraction in the reserve is a bison that until recently has been on the verge of extinction. The Russians have told about the specifics of this reserve operation. For example, all required information on the reserve and its activity can be found at the Information web-site on the Global Biodiversity System (gbif.org), the nature records are not maintained in the reserve as all information is already publicly available on the web-site. The reports of the reserve are also registered on the web-site.  

The academic and coordination boards operate in the reserve that include the representatives from the RAS RF, the MSU and other higher educational institutions. The long-term cooperation agreements have been drawn up to conduct scientific and research works of students and postgraduates from HEI. The reserve has its own scientific fund (the archives) and an enormous library. It is worthy of note that there is a separate department in the reserve that operates in the areas of eco-education and eco-enlightenment. In Kyrgyzstan the SAEPF and the UNDP are implementing the project on conservation of biodiversity in the Western Tian Shan, within the frameworks of which the complex work is carried out in the nature parks Kan-Achuu and Alatai. Sharing the experience with the Russian colleagues will help the further work to develop the system of the specially protected nature areas.

The UNDP in the KR is implementing at present the project on conservation of globally important biodiversity in the Western Tian Shan, the main objective of which is to preserve unique natural complexes and biodiversity, to assist in protection of rare and endangered animals and plants. The project is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and is being implemented in partnership with the State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.