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UPDATE - AND
ACTION - MAY 2004
This request was received from our colleagues in the Ukraine and the Russian Federation:
"Dear Proact!
We are grateful for your support of our joint attempts to save the Danube Delta and the Danube Biosphere reserve.
We really need your support this time. We understand that there have been many false alerts before. However unlike before
we do know that a foreign company has been contracted and that they are now setting up for business.
Regardless of whether the construction starts today or not we need to take action.
We ask you to address Moebius, German Ambassador and President Kuchma."
Serguey Shaparenko, Ecological group Pechenegy
[For new readers the background to the problem is here ]
Now read on ...
It has now been confirmed that the German dredging company, Josef Moebius of Hamburg, has been contracted to dredge a channel through the Bystroye estuary in the Danube
Biosphere reserve.
The dredging vessel "Josef Moebius" is already on site. Only a miracle is preventing them from starting the
work at any time. Among their first victims could be the potential anf former breeding site of the Slender-billed Curlew
(Numenius tenuirostris) which is thought to be close to extinction.
As at 25th April, the marine sand bar near Bystroye was populated by the following breeding birds: 948 gulls,
6 Greylag Geese, 550 terns (Common, Sandwich and Little Terns), 32 Avocets, 6 Spoonbills,
8 Stilts, 4 Plovers, 4 Oystercatchers and 435 other birds. Almost all birds are listed in the Ukraine Red Book.
Among other threatened birds on the IUCN Red List are 3 Dalmatian and 25 Great White, Pelicans, 25 Pygmy Cormorants
and a pair of White-tailed Eagles.
WHAT
YOU CAN DO!
Please send an urgent email, fax or letter to the operating company
Josef Moebius and the responsible German ministries
at the email link below. Draft texts are provided.
Thank you.
David Conlin
Proact
DIRECT MAIL to JOSEF MOEBIUS GmbH
... and click here below to read the response from German ministries
...
DANUBE DELTA - German Reply
DO NOT CAUSE IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE DANUBE DELTA BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Josef Moebius GmbH,
Hamburg
per e-mail
Dear Sirs,
It is now common knowledge that your company has been contracted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Transportation
to begin dredging work on Danube - Black Sea deep water canal construction and that one of
your vessels is now in the area and may even have begun work.
You should be aware that the planned work is illegal and will cause serious damage to the environment. The
canal is planned to traverse the Bystroe estuary, through the core area of the
Ukrainian part of the bilaterally protected area, the Danube Biosphere Reserve. The Danube Biosphere is a Ramsar site and
a subject to different international environmental agreements. It is a habitat for many endangered species. Ramsar and UNESCO
commission experts who have investigated and reported on the project concluded that whilst the economic value of the canal
was unquestionable, the option favoured by the Ukrainian Transport Ministry would have the worst possible impact on the environment
and local inhabitants. The Ramsar mission report is available at:
http://www.ramsar.org/ram_rpt_53e.htm
The Ukrainian Transport Ministry continues to push this project despite strong opposition from the national
and international environmental community. The project has already developed into an international scandal for its participants.
Your participation in the project as planned could have a drastic and negative effect on your companys reputation.
We therefore urge you to withdraw from the project as presently conceived and disassociate yourselves from
an illegal, and potentially extremely harmful interference, in a globally important natural resource area.
More information is available at www.seu.ru/projects/eng/dunay
Letters are also being addressed to the responsible German ministries.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address)
SENDING A FAX TO THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT HAS
BEEN SIMPLIFIED THANKS TO THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF)
Go to: http://passport.panda.org/index.cfm?uNC=71376223
This will also greatly assist in the present situation.
A Proact Personal Support Initiative!
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