Greenpeace Russia has been working on defending Lake Baikal, the world's larget fresh water lake, for many years. As that unique site is treatened once again, they are asking for your help.
Lake Baikal is a place of superlatives: the deepest, the oldest, the clearest, the cleanest, with the highest level of biodiversity, the largest volume (20%) of the total stock of freshwater in the world, and it is home to an endemic freshwater seal. For this reason Lake Baikal has been on the World Heritage List of UNESCO since 1996.
Greenpeace Russia has worked for protection of Lake Baikal for many years. One of the most burning environmental issues of the lake is the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) launched back in 1966. Since then it has remained the only industrial enterprise dumping toxic waste waters directly into the Sea of Baikal and responsible for over 80% of the discharges into the lake. Long years of joint effort, negotiations and actions brought fruit in October 2008 when the mill had to stop for economic reasons: it could not bring profit without polluting Lake Baikal.
But on January 13, 2010, Vladimir Putin, prime-minister of the Russian Federation, signed Government Resolution number 1 that read:
- the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill is allowed to discharge waste into Lake Baikal without restrictions;
- any waste is allowed to be stored, recycled and burnt on the shores of the lake.
Resolution No.1 contradicts the Russian and the international laws and violates the UNESCO World Heritage Convention
More than 40,000 people in Russia have signed the letter to the Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova asking to protect the unique lake. You can help too!
>> Sign the petition!