|
UPDATE - AND ACTION - SEPTEMBER 2003
This request was received from our colleagues in the Ukraine and the Russian Federation:
Dear Proact!
We are grateful for your welcome support for the campaigns to protect the Danube biosphere reserve, the Bialovezha forest and the Tunkinsky
national park!
Unfortunately the situation with regard to the Danube reserve got worse - more information below. We ask you once more to help the reserve and to write to or mail the Ukrainian
President. We know that the ministry of Transport the main project lobbyist - hopes that international community will get
tired of the problem and will let the canal project go ahead.
[For new readers the background to the problem is here ]
Dear friends and colleagues!
You will have heard that, at the beginning
of August 2003, the Ukraine Ministry of Transport proposed the next variant of a draft
presidential decree on the restructuring of the Danube biosphere reserve for the purpose of construction of a canal connecting the River Danube and the Black Sea. The threat to the biodiversity of the reserve continues.
TO PRESERVE THE BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY OF THE DANUBE BIOSPHERE RESERVE, WE ASK YOU TO AGAIN APPEAL TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UKRAINE.
Serguey Shaparenko, Ecological group Pechenegy
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
President Kuchma may sign this decree very soon.
Write to him and help to try and prevent this degradation of an important European wetland.
Use the draft text below (or write in your own words to the President).
CLICK FOR DIRECT MAIL FORM
... and copy your mail, letter or fax to your nearest Ukrainian
Embassy or Consulate (or deliver it yourself!). Addresses at:
e-postoffices please pass print or mail texts to:
President Leonid
Danilovich Kuchma
per e-mail
IT IS YOUR RESPONISIBILITY TO THE REST OF THE CONTINENT TO PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY OF THE DANUBE
DELTA BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Dear President Kuchma,
In the wake of the EU Ministerial Conference "Environment
for Europe" in Kiev,
the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine have resumed their efforts to lobby for the construction of a navigable channel
from the Danube to the Black Sea through the specially protected zone of the Danube biosphere reserve, in the Bystroye estuary.
This project will result in degradation of the natural
biodiversity of the Danube delta, will destroy traditional ways of
management, and could also result in a worsening of economic conditions in the region. It conflicts with the principles of
the function of a biosphere reserve defined by UNESCO's program "Man and the Biosphere".
The proposals to construct this channel through the
reserve are based on the conclusions of the environmental assessment conducted by Kiev National University. This assessment is basically and factually
flawed and several NGOs already have lodged complaints against its conclusions.
The Ukraine Ministry of Transport has already prepared
a draft presidential decree and submitted it for approval. According to this draft decree, it is planned to exclude all water
areas and channels from the delta zone of the Danube biosphere reserve and to reduce the area of especially protected zone by a factor of 10.
In addition - in defiance of existing legislation - the Transport Ministry
has already begun preparations for the construction of the canal in the Bystroye estuary.
The realisation of this project will to irreversible
destruction of the Danube biosphere reserve, one of most valuable
natural areas in Europe, part of the World Heritage, one of only
200 biosphere reserves worldwide, water and marsh land of international value. This will also cast a dark shadow on the international
prestige of the Ukraine.
Mr President. We appeal to you urgently you not to sign the proposed presidential decree; thereby contributing to sustaining the integrity of this valuable
natural resource which is the heritage of present and future generations of all Europeans.
Yours sincerely,
[Name and Address]
The Office of the
President of the Ukraine
President Leonid
Danilovich Kuchma
Vul. Bankova, 11
01220 Kiev
Ukraine
Fax: +380-44-255
6161 (situated in the waiting room of the President's office)
email:
portal@kmu.gov.ua
with
copies to:
Mr Sergey Shaparenko
President of the
Council Environmental Group "Pechenegy"
13, Zabaikal'ski
Lane, Apt. 6,
61105 Kharkiv,
Ukraine,
email: pecheneg@ic.kharkov.ua
and
Mr Vladimir Boreyko
Kiev Ecological
and Cultural Centre
Raduzhnaya str.
31-48,
02218 Kiev
Ukraine
tel\fax + 038 044
433 52 62,
email: kekz@carrier.kiev.ua
A Proact Personal Support Initiative!
|
