Editors: Julia Kalinicheva, Katya Pal

Photo on the cover: WWF Russia, Victor Nikiforov, Alexander Numerov, Leonid Kruglov, Sergey Kischenko, Peter Prokosch, Sylvia Earle, W.Bilenduke/T.Davis/Getty Images, Mauri Rautkari, WWF-UK

Art and design: Olesya Vazhnik, Sergey Trukhanov, design studio "ORBIS PICTUS"

Printed by: "ORBIS RICTUS" Circulation: 2000

The edition was produced with the help of "RESO-Garantya" Insurance Company

Tel.+70957303000

July 2002, WWF Russia,

Moscow, Russia

Any reproduction in full or in part of this publication must mention WWF.

Use of photographs from this publication is prohibited without written permission of WWF Russia.

What is WWF? 2

Forests 4

Seas 8

Climate 10

Specially Protected Areas 12

Rare Species 14

WWF in Central Asia 16

Together We Are a Great Force 18

Russian Charity for Nature 20

WWF Russia's Income and Expenditures for 2001 24

And You Can Help! 25

This year has offered us not only new experience and new victories, but new disappointments. There is still no independent governmental body of nature conservation in Russia, many decisions of our legislators are open to question and cause alarm. Even more so are important the real results of our work at WWF and support of our members. This report will tell you about our common successes, each of them - our input into the common cause. We know, that only professional and honest work in the nature conservation can change the situation to the better. And the obstacles - well, it is hardly ever happens with no obstacles in Russia...

Together we can overcome!

Igor Chestin,

WWF Russia Director

WHAT IS WWF?

The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the largest international organizations, with offices in more than 90 countries and more than million members. WWF organizes the practical realization of ecological projects and programmes and strives to influence environmental governmental policies.

WWF conducts more than 1,200 projects each year, on which it spends more than 273 million U. S. dollars.

The mission of WWF is to prevent the planet's ever-increasing environmental degradation, and to achieve harmony between humans and

nature. Its main goal the planet's biological diversity.

" WWF celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2001. Throughout the years,

WWF has been able to achieve not only impressive results in the protection of nature, but also to become the most prestigious and influential nature preservation organization.

Our History

1960s

Support of the Charles Darwin Foundation on the Galapagos Islands. WWF facilitated the work of research vessels, financed educational programmes, and helped to control and eradicate feral animals.
In 1964 there were no more than 25 rhinos left on the Western Java. Today there are about 60 animals protected in the reserve with the help of WWF.
Establishing Donana in Spain as a protected area. This is an important stopover for wintering birds, and one of the last strongholds of the highly endangered Iberian lynx.

1970s

Contribution to establishing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the TRAFFIC (Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce) programme.
Operation Tiger in India focused on preserving the rare predators that numbered only 1,800. Today there are between 2,500 and 3,750 tigers in the wild in India.
The first international rainforest campaign that raised funds and helped establish several dozen areas as national parks or reserves around the world.

1980s

• Supporting panda conservation in China. WWF was the first international environmental organization to be invited into the country.

• Innovative debt-for-nature swaps -the buying of foreign currency debt at a substantial discount, converting the debt into 100 per cent of its value in local currency, and using the proceeds to fund conservation projects in the debtor country.

1990s

Opening of the WWF representative office in Russia in 1994. One of WWF Russia's first successes was the revival of the endangered Amur tiger.
The Gifts to the Earth initiative - public celebrations by WWF of conservation actions by governments or companies that are both demonstrations of environmental leadership and contributions of global significance to the protection of the living world.
Active participation in creating and subsequently improving the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb global warming.
The leading role in creating the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to oversee the independent certification of wood and wood products coming from well-managed forests. To date at least 20 million hectares of forests in 35 countries have been independently certified under the FSC certification and more than 20,000 products worldwide carry the FSC label.

The Russian Programme Office

WWF Russia was opened in 1994 primarily thanks to the efforts of several concerned enthusiasts. After seven years of work, WWF has invested more than 17 million U.S. dollars in projects on rescuing and augmenting Russia's natural resources. Today it is one of the most powerful and influential nongovernmental nature protection organizations in Russia and conducts around 100 projects in 35 regions of the Russian Federation.

The WWF Russia Strategy

In 2001 WWF Russia developed a wildlife management strategy for the next five years. The strategy defines the priorities and objectives for work in

11 terrestrial and three marine ecore-gions that have been included in the Global 200, a list of 200 priority ecore-gions around the planet.

Principal Programmes of WWF Russia

The Forest Programme: conservation and restoration of large forest territories in Russia.

The Marine Programme: protection of marine resources and protection of marine fauna and flora.

The Climate Change Programme: prevention of climatic change and its consequences.

FORESTS

Russian forests are of immense national and global value:

Russia accounts for 22% of the total world forests and about 21% of the world's wood resources.
Russia consists 70% of the world's taiga forests.
Russian forests accumulate up to 15% of the carbon stored by the Earth's forest ecosystems, and are thus of great importance in preventing climatic change.
Russia асcounts for about 25% of the world's pristine forests.

The state of Russian forests

Illegal wood in Russia currently constitutes 20 to 30% of the total wood harvest.
Illegal harvesting results in the rapid decrease of the most valuable forests in the Far East and Caucasus, such as Manchurian cedar pine, and broadleaved, chestnut and wild fruit forests.
About 20 million hectares of harvested forest areas are not properly reforested.
The WWF Russia programme of sustainable forest management and conservation (WWF Forest Programme) is a part of the global Forests for Life Programme, which was developed by WWF in response to the forest degradation all around the world.
The target of the Forest Programme in Russia is to protect the biological diversity of forests.
Up to 2-3 million hectares of forest is annually burned in Russia, with 90% of these fires caused by humans.
About one million hectares of forests are in bad condition, damaged or diseased.
Over 5 million hectares of forest areas are polluted with industrial waste and radio nuclides.

WWF Forest Programme

The Forest Programme focuses on two basic realms:

• protection of high conservation value forests and establishing protected areas;

• sustainable management of forests outside protected areas.

WWF Russia Strategy for 2002-2007

Forests

1. Determining and preserving high conservation value forests in priority ecoregions; maintaining their legal status, effective protection and management. This contributes to the creation networks of protected forest areas as a basis for protecting Russian biological diversity.

2. Achieving transparency in the forest sector and responsible forest management with regard to both society and nature. Responsible use of wood resources by companies based on their own ecological policies.

3. Assuring the activities of large forest companies are in compliance with standards of sustainable forest management; production of FSC certified products.

4. Influencing the state policies of the G-8 countries and the world's largest wood-importing companies; adhering to the requirements of Russian NGOs for responsible forest business and combating illegal trade; establishing beneficial and optimal conditions for producers of certified forest products; and developing a certified forest products sector of the global market.

5. Participation in designing of modern forest policy of Russia on the federal and regional level.

Establishing Protected Areas

In 2001, WWF initiated the establishment of new protected forest areas of about 4 million hectares:

• Sakha Region (Yakutia) - 2 resource reserves (3.5 million hectares);

• Primorskiy Krai, Amurskaya Oblast, Jewish Autonomous District, and Khabarovskiy Krai -nine nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries of 217,165 hectares.

The governor of Khabarovskiy Krai proclaimed the establishment of the Anyuyskiy National Park (429,598 hectares), which is waiting approval of the government of the Russian Federation.

Combating Illegal Harvesting

A WWF survey of illegal harvesting in Primorskiy Krai revealed that about 30 to 40% of softwood and 50 to 70% of hardwood was illegally harvested without payment of forest fees. In northwestern Russia, illegal harvesting constitutes 25 to 30% of total harvests. Illegal wood is sold and exported; hence the state loses about 1 billion U.S. dollars per year while the legal revenue constitutes about 6 billion U.S. dollars per year. Unfortunately, the federal forest security service that controls forest harvesting is extremely ineffective. Therefore the most progressive form of combating illegal harvesting is with mobile anti-poaching brigades.

The WWF-supported mobile Cedar and Tiger brigades of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation made 30 raids against illegal harvesting. They revealed more than 24 cases of illegal logging, for which 14 proceedings were initiated. Penalties of over 1 million roubles were imposed, and about 652 cubic meters of wood, along with tractors, chainsaws, and other equipment used by illegal loggers were confiscated.

To make the combat with illegal harvesting more effective, WWF established two courses for groups in the Far East in order to assist the struggle against illegal harvesting. These courses covered issues of federal control and monitoring of the prevention of forest harvesting crimes, as well as the study of current legislation. Forty inspectors received legal training. On the basis of carefully documented infringements, the court of the Primorskiy Krai convicted an employee of the Adonis Company involved in illegal logging of 50 Manchurian pine trees and sentenced him to two years of disciplinary labour and fined him 47,000 roubles.

The experience of WWF and other NGOs attracted the interest of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, which conducted a large-scale inspection of forest areas to pinpoint logging infringements.

Another important result of this work was an analytical report entitled "Illegal Turnover of Wood - Serious Threat to the Existence of Far Eastern Forests." Press conferences were held in Moscow and Vladivostok based on the results of this report, which encouraged official agencies to conduct specific measures to prevent illegal revenue from harvesting. The issue of illegal harvesting was included in the agenda of the G-8 summit that was held in Canada at the end of June 2002.

Struggle Against Forest Fires

Under the auspices of a joint project by WWF and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), seven mechanized Tiger brigades for fighting fires in Primorskiy Krai and Khabarovskiy Krai were equipped with more than 500 radio stations. A communication network was formed to connect the fire fighting brigades, forest management units, and protected areas. Largely because of this, monitoring, detection, and the quick extinguishing of forest fires takes place in the habitats of Amur tiger, one of Russia's most rare tigers. One of the greatest values of these brigades is that they control fires in the habitats of tigers and other rare species in protected areas.

With the support of WWF in the spring of 2001, fire-fighting training was conducted for brigades of Khabarovskiy Krai, where issues of management, cooperation and coordination of various fire prevention and fire-fighting agencies were discussed. That fall the effectiveness of the Tiger fire-fighting brigades was proven as they became one of the main forces in fighting forest fires in an area of over 5 million hectares.

Conservation of Valuable Pristine Forests

The first region in Russia where authorities paid considerable attention to pristine forests is the Komi region. The Republican Committee of Natural Resources issued an order to survey the pristine forests, while the Head of the Republic endorsed an act entitled "Measures to conserve and sustain-able manage of intact forest lands in Komi Region, 2001-2008". For the first time in Russia, the inventory and conservation of pristine forests are financed by the regional budget.

WWF, along with other environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, the Socio-Ecological Union and the Biodiversity Conservation Centre, has drawn up specific requirements for environmentally responsible timber trade and plans to collaborate with Russian wood-producing companies toward their implementation.

Under the influence of WWF and other NGOs, the largest wood-producing company in the Far East, Terneyles, for the first time committed to solving the problem in a civilized way by adopting a two-year moratorium on logging in the Samarga River basin. During this time, a broad analysis will be conducted that will cover: its value for biodiversity protection, economic development of the region, interests of the local population, including the indigenous people (udege), cooperative decision making to satisfy each stakeholder, and the possibility of conducting not only logging but other types of activities as well.

Model Forests

In 2001, WWF projects continued in the model forests of Priluziye (Komi region) and Pskov. It is here that new approaches to forest management are developed with the aim of ensuring economically viable, environmentally appropriate and socially beneficial forest management.

Some of the most important accomplishments of the model forest in Komi in 2001 were the development of inventory principles, an analysis of the ecological worth of pristine forests, the conducting of inventories, and protection of the most valuable forest areas. Significant progress was achieved in developing and piloting the principles of sustainable forest management according to FSC standards.

The Pskov Model Forest demonstrated a new approach to forest management, in which during the planning of forest use key protected sections are delineated and analysis is conducted to consider various methods of logging in scenarios for 50 and 100-year periods. For the first time in Russia, communities are actively involved in forest management; public opinion carries the same weight as that of wood producers and forest managers.

Voluntary Forest Certification

WWF actively supports the implementation of FSC forest certification in Russia. The voluntary international certificate is a guarantee that products supplied to world markets are harvested in an environmentally sound manner.

Draft of Russian national standards of sustainable forest management under the FSC system were completed in 2001. Russian experts and specialists from GFA Terra System, a German FSC-accredited certification company, participated in piloting this programme.

FSC certification was conducted during 2001 in the following companies: Madok (Malovisherskiy Leskhoz), Volga (Koverninskiy Leskhoz), and Dammers (Dvinskiy and Bobrovskiy Leskhozes). Along with forest management certificates, Madok and

Dammers also received chain-of-cus-tody certificates. A large portion of the products of these companies is exported to Europe.

Around 250,000 hectares of forest were certified and around 1 million hectares were in the process of being certified during 2001-2002.

In 2001, "Forest Certification" magazine continued to be published with WWF financial support. The magazine became the most complete professional publication on voluntary forest certification both in Russia and abroad. The magazine has a wide distribution and provides information to more than 500 companies and governmental, scientific, and community organizations.

Association of Environmentally Responsible Timber Producers of Russia

Under a partnership between WWF and the World Bank, the Association of Environmentally Responsible Timber Producers of Russia, which is a part of the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN), was established in April 2000. Sixteen companies joined the Association, including the largest companies of all, the Volga and Arkhangelskiy Pulp and Paper enterprises. These companies are convinced that sustainable forest management, conservation of the environment, and the fulfilment of social demands are impossible without a responsible and respectful attitude to the forest.

In 2001, WWF conducted seminars in Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk to involve companies of Siberia and the Far East in the Association of Environmentally Responsible Timber Producers of Russia. As a result, the largest wood producing companies, such as Terneyles, Him Pulp Enterprise and Lesosibirskiy LDK-1, seek to join the Association.

In discussion with members of the Association, WWF developed basic guidelines for the ecological policies of wood-producing companies, which should become the primary document for all members of the Association. The document reflects the most critical issues that concern both foreign communities and forest products buyers abroad, such as the protection of high conservation value forests, turnover from illegally harvested wood, and voluntary forest certification.

SEAS

Russia has vast marine expanses, and the sea plays a huge role in the life of the country.

The general area of water of Russia’s seas is 7 million square kilometres
The Okhotsk and Japan Seas are each two times richer in diverse flora and fauna than the entire north-eastern Atlantic
Nearly half of the inhabitants of the Caspian Sea аre endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world

In the years 1999-2001 WWF developed and began implementation of first Russian Marine Strategy for the Far East - where it is not too late to preserve a significant part of marine ecosystem in a natural state.