United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility

Government of the Russian Federation/ Ministry of Natural Resources

PDF Block B

Country:Russian Federation

Focal Area:Biodiversity

Operational Programme:Coastal, marine and freshwater ecosystems

Project Title:Conservation of wetland biodiversity in the Lower Volga region

Total Cost:US$ 430,220

PDF Request:US$ 267.385

Co-financing:US$ 46,150 (Government of the Russian Federation in-kind contribution)

US$ 60,685 from RIZA; US$ 56,000 from Wetlands International

Country Eligibility:Convention on Biological Diversity ratified on 5 April 1995;

Implementing Agency:United Nations Development Programme

Executing Agency:Ministry of Natural Resources of the Government of the Russian Federation

Project Type:PDF Block B

Block A Grant Awarded:Yes; Rus/98/G41/A/1G/99 - $25,000

PDF A outputs: 1) ‘Strategy and Action Plan to conserve the wetlands of the Lower Volga’, updated in a stakeholder workshop;

2) Analytical paper on the status and threats to wetlands and their biodiversity, including the root causes

3) Review of policies and plans for the Astrakhan Oblast;

4) Draft PDF B proposal discussed and amended by key stakeholders and proceedings published;

5) Inventory of possible pilot project sites; and,

6) PDF B proposal, endorsed by the national and regional government authorities.

Duration of PDF B:12 months

Estimated Full Project Duration:5-6 years

Estimated Full Project Size:GEF: US$ 4-5 million; Co-financing: US$ 6-7 million

GEF Operational Focal Point:Dr. A. M. Amirkhanov, Head, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety Department, Ministry of Natural Resources, Government of the Russian Federation

ISummary

  1. The objective of the PDF B project is to develop a full project proposal for the conservation and sustainable use of the wetlands and associated globally significant biological diversity of the Lower Volga region. The map of the region is provided in Annex 2.
  1. The full project would conserve the region's wetlands and provide for their sustainable use by: 1) strengthening planning and management capacity for wetland and biodiversity conservation in the region 2) developing and demonstrating more adaptive local land and water management practices to maximize the conservation of biodiversity and the promotion of sustainable resource use under fluctuating environmental conditions 3) strengthening the relevant legal and regulatory base and enforcement capability; 4) developing alternative livelihood demonstration projects to relieve direct pressure on biodiversity; 5) improving the awareness of wetland conservation issues and biodiversity values among all sectors, including decision-makers, industry, NGOs, and the general public; and 6) establishing a sustainable financing mechanism to ensure that the project's benefits extend well beyond the project’s timeline.
  1. This preparatory phase would involve multi-stakeholder consultations, the development of mechanisms for enhancing stakeholder participation in the project, the creation of a stakeholder coordination mechanism, the definition of project boundaries, the compilation of additional information including that on threats to biodiversity and their root causes, and the definition of activities required to effectively address the root causes. It will also define baseline and incremental costs, as well as co-financing and project execution arrangements.
  1. Since some of the threats to the Lower Volga region are either basin scale or trans-boundary in nature, addressing them requires coordination with actions defined by other on-going initiatives. The project, therefore, would establish close links and coordinating mechanisms with all other relevant initiatives in the region in order to combine efforts in addressing such threats. The other relevant projects are presented in Annex 8. Thus, the project would be an integral element in the development of the national Caspian Action Plan and the regional Caspian Strategic Action Programme. The project would also help fulfill the federal Government’s obligations under the Ramsar Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

IIBackground

  1. The Lower Volga region is situated in the south-eastern part of the East European plain. The area is comprised of: a) the complete Volga-Akhtuba floodplain area between the cities of Volgograd and Astrakhan, including the part belonging to the Republic of Kalmykia, b) the Volga Delta (the largest inland delta in Europe and the largest delta bordering the Caspian Sea) including the shallow waters of the fore-delta, and c) the Ilmen-Steppe areas to the west and east of the delta, including the coastal zone of the Republic of Kalmykia. The total area is approximately 30,000 km2 or 3 million ha.
  1. The region's rich biodiversity is an expression of its varied and dynamic aquatic resources. The area is predominantly a freshwater riverine wetland complex, characterized by permanent and seasonal streams and lakes bordered by riverine floodplains. This variability is primarily influenced by cyclic changes in climatic conditions in the Volga basin. River discharge has a profound effect on the Caspian Sea’s water level, since it is a closed sea and the Volga provides 80% of its inflow. Historically, inter-annual fluctuations in river discharge affected fish spawning and stocks, while water level changes determined the location and surface area of wetland habitats. The continuous change in habitats is reflected in increasing or decreasing numbers, and the presence or absence, of certain plant and animal species. The naturally occurring fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea have a profound effect on the coastal wetlands as well. Throughout history, habitats and species continually adapted to changing hydrological conditions. During the last century, however, the natural dynamic cycle has been modified by human interventions such as dam construction and water reservoir development, industrial water usage, the construction of dikes, drainage of wetlands, and other changes. The recently elevated water level in the Caspian Sea, that averaged 13 cm./year between 1978 and 1997. Has resulted in the increased penetration of seawater far into the fore-delta by wind-induced surges, as well as seepage of brackish and salt water into the agricultural fields behind the dikes. Recent changes observed in the southern part of the Delta also include the drowning of land and swamp vegetation, a decrease in dissolved oxygen, changes in the feeding and breeding conditions for many mammals and water birds, and a loss of shallow aquatic areas. Habitat loss was not compensated for inland, because dikes protecting agricultural fields have not been relocated and no agricultural fields have been restored to wetlands. Overall, therefore, habitats important for wetland biodiversity have decreased significantly. This is partly made evident by a significant decrease in the number of breeding colonial water birds.

Significance of biodiversity

  1. The global importance of the Lower Volga region, and especially the Volga Delta, for biodiversity is widely recognised. The wetland habitat is considered to be the finest remaining in Europe. Part of the Delta is a Biosphere Reserve and approximately half of the Delta has been designated a Ramsar Site (800,000 ha). At least 15 globally threatened bird species use the region, including: the Red-breasted Goose, Lesser White-fronted Goose, White-headed Duck, Marbled Duck, Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca), Dalmatian Pelican, Siberian White Crane, Corn Crake, Lesser Kestrel, Spotted Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Great Bustard, Sociable Plover, Slender-billed Curlew and Aquatic Warbler. Except for the Corn Crake, all of these species are listed in the Russian Red Data Book. Four sturgeon species, Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti), Beluga Sturgeon (Huso huso), Stellate Sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) and Sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), are threatened animals according to the IUCN Red List (Russian Sturgeon is a critically endangered species). Many other Russian Red Data Book species occur in the area, for instance Lotus Lily (Nelembo nucifera), Calltrop (Trapa natans), Egyptian Marsilea (Marsilea aegyptiaca), Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, White-tailed Eagle, Pygmy Cormorant and Great Black Headed Gull. Moreover, at least 20 endemic subspecies of fish also occur in the project area.
  1. The Lower Volga wetlands occupy a strategic position on 3 important flyways for migratory water birds: the East African, the Mediterranean and the Central Asian-Indian flyways. These are globally significant migration routes involving millions of birds of many dozens of species. Birds from as far away as West Africa on the west to northeast Siberia on the east, and from the Arctic in the north to East Africa and India in the south, rely on the region’s wetland resources for nesting and feeding. It is estimated that 7 to 10 million water birds use the area for feeding and resting in spring and fall respectively. The Delta is of major importance for at least 400,000 ducks that moult in its extensive marshes in late summer. In winter, hundreds of thousands of ducks, swans and coots use the area.
  1. During the breeding season, the region is of major regional importance for approximately 26,000 pairs of cormorants, 6,500 pairs of Great White Egrets, 7,000 pairs of Mute Swans, up to 130,000 pairs of Common Coots, as well as ducks and herons. In total, more than 275 species of birds have been recorded in the Lower Volga region.
  1. The majority of the migratory and semi-migratory fish stocks in the Caspian Sea and the Volga River, among them several globally threatened and highly valuable sturgeon species (Russian Sturgeon, Beluga Sturgeon, Stellate Sturgeon and Sterlet), are dependent on the Lower Volga region for spawning and feeding. Additional ecological importance is given to the area by its geographical location and structure, being one of the few riverine north-south land corridors crossing the extended dry semi-desert and steppe area of southern Russia and Kazakhstan. The area is also regionally important because it serves as a feeding area for Saiga antelopes and other migratory species during the winter months.
  1. The wetlands’ natural resources have also long supported the local population, providing products like waterfowl, fish, caviar and reeds. Due to the combination of pressures arising from the increasing human population’s use of natural resources, the direct loss and transformation of wetlands following diking and water level changes, pollution, and the regulation of natural river water regimes, the wetlands’ biodiversity values are now under intense and increasing pressures.
  1. The Lower Volga region, like other areas in the Russian Federation today, faces significant problems. The region is confronted by difficult economic conditions and administrative deficiencies that complicate and hamper environmental management efforts to protect and use natural resources in a sustainable way. The decrease in economic activity has caused large-scale unemployment and poverty in the region. This, in turn, has resulted in increased pressures on the region’s natural resources. Although legislation and administrative structures to manage the use of natural resources exist, natural resources are still increasingly subjected to illegal practices such as poaching. The efforts of regional and local authorities at regulation and control are constrained by the country’s economic conditions and resulting lack of management capacity. Organisations lack financial means to regularly cover expenses for salaries and equipment, and local communities lack alternative forms of livelihood. Although a system of payment for resources and pollution was developed, only part of the payments is actually received, because enforcement is difficult, time-consuming, and additionally hampered by deficiencies in legislation.
III Threats to biodiversity

Project Boundaries

  1. During the 20th century, the Lower Volga region, and the entire Volga drainage basin, have been greatly transformed by human activity. Hydroelectric dams have altered the volumes and timing of river discharges, thereby affecting downstream habitat development, reducing sediment flow, and destroying or restricting the accessibility of former fish spawning grounds. Industrial development in the basin resulted in an increase in the amount of pollutants in the Lower Volga region. Local river pollution has also increased due to industrial developments mainly around the cities of Astrakhan and Volgograd. Currently, there is increased oil and gas production in the Caspian Sea that may increase the risk of petrochemical pollution. In previous decades, the agricultural sector caused enormous pressure on biodiversity through the cultivation of wetlands and pollution of surface and ground water by pesticides and fertilizers. The overexploitation of natural resources, mainly as a result of weakly regulated fishing and hunting, as well as poaching, has also become a concern. Past and current land management practices in the face of naturally fluctuating sea levels has also constrained biodiversity friendly management.
  1. This project cannot resolve water management issues for the entire Volga basin. The Volgograd dam, for instance, is only one of a series of dams on the Volga River and, therefore, its operation cannot be viewed and treated in isolation from the overall water management regime for the entire drainage basin. The specific contribution of this dam's operation to the overall downstream effects is also unknown. Consequently, what could be determined are the dam's specific contributions to downstream effects, and potential options, if any, for making its operation more biodiversity friendly. In this project, effort will be focused upon the definition of opportunities for improving wetland habitats through water management options that may be realistically undertaken within the region, such as alternatives to current diking and irrigation schemes. Basin scale pollution also cannot be addressed by this single project. The decline of the sturgeon populations is an international issue and is also clearly beyond the scope of this project.
  1. Many of the above threats are trans-boundary and/or basin wide and thus are beyond the scope of the project. Other ongoing projects and programmes are designed to deal with such threats (Annex 8). Existing basin wide programmes addressing these threats include the federal programme “Revival of the Volga” that focuses on reducing pollution of the Volga and water management issues for the entire Volga basin and its dams, and the Caspian Environment Programme that addresses the sea's pollution and the unsustainable fishing of sturgeon, among other issues. The proposed project will be developed in close co-operation with these other projects and programmes to ensure that basin-wide threats and trans-boundary issues are effectively addressed. The project focus, however, will be on realistic actions that may be undertaken at the regional level.

16.The PDF A consultations resulted in the preliminary definition of the following principal local threats to wetland biodiversity in the Lower Volga region. The PDF B phase will help to further clarify them, as well as potential others, and their root causes.

17. Wetland loss and degradation: Over the decades, thousands of hectares of wetlands in the region were destroyed or experienced biodiversity losses due to drainage, irrigation and the construction of dikes. Large areas of floodplains and delta wetlands were converted into arable lands, causing a decrease in suitable habitat for wetland species, some of which are globally threatened or endangered. In addition, wetland loss and degradation is aggravated by the interaction of human activities with the natural dynamic long-term variation in discharge and the related fluctuation of the water levels. Both wetland habitats and species can no longer adapt to environmental changes due to the widespread interference of human activities with the natural zonation of ecosystems.

  1. Mainly due to the reduction in state support for the agricultural sector in the 1990s, however, there has been a sharp decrease in the number of cattle and area dedicated to crop production. The production of rice and other cash crops demanding large investments in equipment, fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides is no longer affordable and many agricultural lands have been abandoned. Consequently, there are opportunities at present for wetland habitat restoration and biodiversity conservation on former agricultural fields. This may provide great benefits for biodiversity conservation efforts when considered in conjunction with the development of more wetland oriented land management responses to fluctuating water levels.
  1. Local overexploitation of natural resources: Stocks of many fish species decreased until the 1960s as a result of overexploitation by the fishing industry. Following the introduction of new laws and a stricter control system, some stocks have partly recovered. However, the cumulative effects of unsustainable fishing in the Caspian Sea in the 1990s, the obstruction and partial loss of former spawning beds as a result of dam construction, and poaching in the Lower Volga region have caused a collapse of sturgeon populations, and decreases in commercial stocks. Fishery resources were further stressed by increasing pollution loads and associated disease frequencies, resulting in reduced reproduction rates. The situation is exacerbated further by the lack of agreements on catch quotas among Caspian littoral states. Waterfowl hunting is a major activity throughout the region during autumn, and is of significant economic importance to local communities. Bag limits exist, but effective control is lacking. Hunting by local and international hunters may constitute a serious threat to populations of certain protected species (including Russian Red Data Book species, such as Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis and Pygmy Cormorant) and globally endangered species (including Red-breasted and Lesser White-fronted Goose, White-headed and Ferruginous Duck, and Dalmatian Pelican), but reliable data are presently lacking.
  1. Local pollution: The region has extensive local sources of pollution. The worsening of the economic situation in the 1990s resulted in a strong reduction in industrial activity throughout the Volga basin. Many industrial complexes were forced to close or greatly reduce production. The Astrakhan cellulose-paper plant closed down in 1995, eliminating one important source of local surface water pollution. Total industrial pollution, however, has decreased only slightly, mainly because the amount of pollution per unit of remaining production has increased. Industries in the Lower Volga region also cause air pollution, which undoubtedly also affects biodiversity. Irrigation of agricultural fields results in pollution of drainage water by pesticides and herbicides, while poor management of diked lands often results in secondary salinization. The direct effects of local water and air pollution on biodiversity, however, remain poorly understood and require further appraisal. Thus, locally derived pollution is a threat that requires further examination during the PDF B phase.
  1. Petrochemical pollution is a potential threat to biodiversity due to the increasing production of oil and gas in the Caspian Sea. Currently, new off-shore fields are being actively explored in Kazakhstan territorial waters, drilling has recently began in Russian territorial waters where it was forbidden until two years ago, a new pipeline is being planned to cross the Volga-Akhtuba floodplains, and the frequency of oil and gas transport by ship will likely soon increase. Although hydrocarbon development often proceeds in accordance with international environmental protection standards and practices, it is expected that as a result of these new production activities, the risk of oil pollution in the Caspian Sea, as well as in the Delta and the floodplains, may likely increase.
  1. In the PDF B, more in-depth information on the above threats and their root causes will be gathered. The PDF B work may also reveal other threats to biodiversity in the project region, such as the introduction of exotic species and genetic “pollution” of fish populations through the cross-breeding of sub-species by hatcheries.
  1. Thus, while supporting the advancement and realization of the goals and objectives of related basin wide and Caspian Sea programmes and initiatives, the project focus will be upon region specific threats to biodiversity. These include: local sources of pollution, wetland loss and degradation, and local natural resource overexploitation (including unsustainable fishing and poaching). The project is designed to both take advantage of benefits accruing from co-operation with related regional initiatives, while maintaining its own specific focus and expectation of discrete attainable results. Such independent results include: strengthening of local management capacity, heightened community involvement in sustainable wetlands management, increased wetland awareness and improved valuation of benefits, development of alternative livelihoods, the implementation of adaptive land management strategies, and others. Thus, lags or failings in the related initiatives will not deter from the project's realization of its specific set of objectives.
  1. During the PDF A, the root causes of the threats were preliminarily identified as being:

1)Local land and water management practices. Irrigation and diking have resulted in direct wetland loss and degradation. Secondary impacts include salinization of soils and pollution of surface waters by pesticides and herbicides as a result of run off from agricultural fields.