Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, the recently-appointed President of Buryatia republic in South-Eastern Siberia, surprised people on both sides of the legendary Lake Baikal. The official suggested selling all Baikal’s lakesides to private owners
“Order will be restored on the shores of Baikal only after all lakeside is privately owned. If at least one plot of land there belongs to nobody, it will always be littered”, the President said. According to Mr Nagovitsyn, Buryatia’s government will first purchase all the land that is not part of the tourist recreation zone on the lake’s shores, and then auction the right to use the land.
His idea was sharply criticized in by both Moscow and local officials. Yuri Trutnev, the head of Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry, reminded that Lake Baikal is a unique ecosystem protected by the country’s laws and mentioned on the UNESCO World Heritage list. “I can advise Mr Nagovitsyn to read the federal laws carefully before he comes forward with initiatives like this”, the minister said. Mr Trutnev also doubted the suggestion that selling the shores can help make them cleaner. Drain waters from tourist bases and private cottages were already part of Baikal’s pollution issue, and construction can only lead to an environmental disaster, the minister said.
His criticism was supported by Rosprirodnadzor, the federal authority responsible for environmental issues. “We will do all we can” not to let Baikal’s shore to be sold, said Oleg Mitvol, the vice head of the institution. He claimed the Buryat authorities were trying to sell something that was not their property. “Russia’s current legislation makes it impossible. First, they sell the shores, and then they may want to sell the lake itself, but no private individual can become the owner of one fourth of the world’s fresh water reserves”, - Mitvol is convinced.
In a rare move, ecologists and environmentalist have sided with the government in criticizing Nagovitsyn’s plan. “The territory around Baikal is comprised mostly of national parks and nature reserves that cannot be sold. And if it happens, the same thing will happen to Baikal as to most storage lakes around Moscow – elite cottage villages will be built all along the shoreline, and tourism will die out”, said Roman Vazhenkov from Greenpeace Russia.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
Dmitry Verkhoturov
http://eng.expert.ru/
