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Keep Lake Baikal alive

Lake Baikal, a unique UNESCO world heritage site, is under threat from the Russian Government, after permits have been given to open a toxic pulp and paper mill on its shore. Petition General Director of UNESCO Irina Bokova to step up and defend this unique world heritage!

 

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Petition to the Director General of UNESCO

Dear Ms Bokova,

We hereby want to express our deepest concern regarding the Russian Government’s Decree No.1 of 13 January 2010 “On introduction of amendments into the List of activities prohibited in the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Area”. This Decree has officially permitted the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill and other industrial enterprises to dump toxic waste waters into Lake Baikal with no legally enforced restrictions, as well as store, process, dispose of and incinerate all kinds of waste including hazardous.

Lake Baikal is a truly unique natural phenomenon on our planet and the world’s biggest stock of freshwater. Click to see the rest...

In 1996 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee gave Lake Baikal the status of World Heritage property based on all four natural uniqueness criteria applied to such nominations.

The decision to re-start the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill is a serious threat and may cause irreversible damage to the largest fresh water lake of the world. It has sparked broad public protests both within Russia and outside the country.

We are writing this to appeal to you as a head of a very respected international organisation to intervene to save this site.

We are convinced that there are possibilities to cancel the above mentioned Decree of the Russian Government, as well as opportunities to create favorable conditions for development of environmentally safe alternative industries and tourism in the Baikalsk area.

In the past, only thanks to a proactive position of UNESCO, such unique cultural sites as the Giza Pyramids and Archeological Site of Delphi were saved for future generations. Today Lake Baikal urgently needs UNESCO to take a similar proactive position. Natural heritage is no less valuable for humankind than cultural and if today we fail to stop this ecologically, socially and strategically unreasonable process, tomorrow we shall lose one of the pearls of World Nature.