Volcanoes of Kamchatka fell into bad company

UNESCO proposed to include the natural object “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” in the list of world heritage sites in danger. The reason is the plans to build resorts next to volcanoes. UNESCO will make the final decision in September at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh. Ecologists warn that getting into such a list would be fraught with image losses for Russia. The issue of the fate of volcanoes has already been raised for consideration by the committee in 2021, but then a negative decision was avoided. The Ministry of Natural Resources is “conducting a comprehensive assessment” of UNESCO’s concerns, but already now expects that at the upcoming session of the committee “politically oriented accusations against Russia will be heard from the “collective West”.

The UNESCO World Heritage Center recommended that the “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” be included in the list of endangered sites. This is stated on the 45th page of the published draft decisions, which are scheduled to be adopted in September at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh. Such a list includes objects that, in the opinion of the committee, are threatened by a serious and specific danger.

Recall that in July 2021, UNESCO already raised the issue of including the “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” in the list of objects under threat. Then, during the correspondence session of the committee in Fuzhou (China), the organization was apprehensive about the plans to create the Three Volcanoes tourism cluster in the region. We are talking about the project of the Interros group of Vladimir Potanin – to build a resort with hotels and ski slopes, as well as eco-camps and a geopark near the Mutnovsky, Vilyuchinsky and Gorely volcanoes (the planned completion date is 2027, the announced cost is 39.2 billion rubles.) . To avoid claims by UNESCO, the Governor of the Kamchatka Territory, Vladimir Solodov, decided to make changes to the boundaries of the South Kamchatsky Natural Park. Parts of the territory of the Vilyuchinsky volcano, Vilyuchinskaya and Zhirovaya bays, where construction is planned, were excluded from the composition of the specially protected natural area of ​​regional significance. As a result, “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” was not included in the list of objects under threat.

But this time, UNESCO’s draft decisions state: the organization “reiterates its extreme concern that the boundaries of the South Kamchatka Natural Park have been changed at the national level.” The decision to add the Volcanoes to the list will be taken by the World Heritage Committee, which includes 21 countries on an elective basis. “Whether it will be accepted will depend on the alignment — who is friends with whom,” Mikhail Kreindlin, a member of the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs, believes. about changing this paragraph of the project. The ecologist does not undertake to analyze this year’s “layouts”, “because both the composition of the committee and external circumstances have changed.”

Mr. Kreindlin points out that the inclusion of objects in the list of “under threat” is fraught with image losses for the country. “This is another way to “sand” the country. Because no civilized state should be a threat to its own nature,” the expert notes. Nevertheless, this list contains objects, for example, from the USA and Austria, he recalls.

It should be noted that the Russian UNESCO World Heritage Sites have never been included in the “under threat” list. However, the organization has already proposed to include Baikal and the “Virgin Komi Forests” in this list. In addition to the “Three Volcanoes”, UNESCO is concerned about the state of three other natural world heritage sites – “Lake Baikal”, “Wrangel Island” and “Western Caucasus”. The organization’s experts do not yet recommend changing the status of these objects, but emphasize that serious measures may be required to preserve the “Western Caucasus”.

Kommersant’s interlocutor, close to the Duma Committee on Ecology, admits that such a draft decision by the World Heritage Committee “causes concern”, including among regional authorities, and hopes that it will not be adopted.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is now conducting a “comprehensive assessment of the published decisions of UNESCO,” the press service told Kommersant, so it’s “premature to talk” about the position of the ministry. “By the way, the issue of recognizing the city of Venice as falling into the list of endangered sites is also being submitted to the 45th session of UNESCO,” the Ministry of Natural Resources added. Also, the department “considered it important to recall” that the 45th session of UNESCO “was to be held in June 2022 in Kazan, but at the last moment it was canceled and rescheduled for September 2023 in Riyadh.” Therefore, the Ministry of Natural Resources believes: “We can say that at this session, politically oriented accusations against Russia will be heard from the” collective West “.

Polina Yachmennikova