Foreign Ornithologists Insist on Better Protection of Geese in Russia

Ornithologists from 11 countries have signed a resolution on the need for better protection of Russian geese. This problem was discussed at an international symposium in the town of Olonets, Karelia (north eastern part of the European Russia), which closed Monday.

As RIA Novosti was told by Yevgeny Syroyechkovsky, one of the Russian participants of the symposium, according to observations, the number of sites in Russia where migrating flocks of geese traditionally rest on their way from Northern Europe to the Urals and Siberia, has dwindled. According to the Russian ornithologist, some 100 such sites are known on the White Sea/Baltic Sea migration route, but only 30 percent of them provide the necessary conditions. Others are badly damaged by agricultural companies and poachers. As a result, the number of livestock at some of them has reduced to almost nothing from thousands of species.

The geese resting site in the Olonets District, Karelia, is an example of a most successful combination of interests: those of the geese, of the local agricultural companies and of hunters, the participants of the symposium noted. Hunting is prohibited here, and a special re-cultivation of plough land is obligatory.

According to the participants, Russia needs to adopt legal acts meeting international standards in this domain. Therefore the symposium resolution includes a proposal about Russia's joining the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement.