Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan

12 February 2013, Tuesday

Today, the session of the Board of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan “On the results of work of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2012 and tasks for 2013” took place in the Cabinet of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Sergey Donskoy, the Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation, Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of the Republic of Tatarstan, Marina Seliverstova, the Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources, Vera Soldatova, the Prosecutor of the Volga Interregional Nature Protection Prosecutor's Office, Alexey Sukhov, the Deputy Authorized Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District as well as heads of the ministries and departments of the subjects of the Volga Federal District took part in the Board session.

Artem Sidorov, the Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, made a keynote report in which he summed up the results of the Ministry work in 2012 and told about tasks for the year of 2013. The following tasks were set as the first priority ones:

- decrease in environmental footprint on free air;

- protection and rational use of water resources;

- improvement of the effectiveness of waste management system;

- environmental safety ensuring when preparing for the World Summer Student Games;

- increase of population environmental culture level, active involving of public associations and youth into participation in the solution of environmental problems;

- improvement of the effectiveness of investment activity in the environmental protection sphere.

The Minister’s comprehensive report is posted on the website http://eco.tatarstan.ru in the section “Press Service — Minister’s Official Reports”.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, pointed out that in 2013, in view of the forthcoming Student Games, beautification and landscaping of the Republic of Tatarstan come to the fore. In his opinion, it is necessary to improve the state of the “lungs” of the capital. The “Green Record” project is a vivid example of the city landscaping, set up in the autumn of the last year. 1,224 sites and 829 yards were planted with trees and shrubs within the framework of the campaign. This year the project carrying out will go on. Embankments of the city of Kazan are being beautified with the support of the Federal Center now.

Reports were also made by the following invited guests of the Board: Anna Kurbatova, the Head of the Research, Design and Surveying Institute of Ecology, Alla Albegova, the Head of Department of Ecology and Environmental Management of the Kirov region, Alexander Nesterov, the Acting as the Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Udmurtian Republic, Alexey Sukhov, the Deputy Authorized Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District, and Vera Soldatova, the Prosecutor of the Volga Interregional Nature Protection Prosecutor's Office.

Marina Seliverstova, the Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources, expressed her high opinion of Tatarstan leadership’s activity in the sphere of environmental protection. She thanked the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan for responsible position regarding the issues of the use of water reservoirs and water resources and expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan for high level of organization of the work on exercise of certain powers of the Russian Federation in the field of water relations.

Marina Seliverstova also noted that the work on preservation of water objects requires a more systematic approach than simple cleaning. Environment-oriented work, in her opinion, should include the largest community of people.

The Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Sergey Donskoy, noted in his speech that effective cooperation is possible only when all authorities take part in it. He thanked Rustam Minnikhanov for effective implementation of large-scale environmental projects. Sergey Donskoy expressed confidence that in the field of ecology Tatarstan will achieve higher results since the work pace enables it. This year it is planned to implement a project “Public control” in Russia based on an analogous project that is being successfully implemented in Tatarstan.

According to Sergey Donskoy, the Year for Environmental Protection requires consolidation of all the efforts of authorities and society in order to achieve necessary results. The Universiade is a good stimulus for implementation of environment-oriented projects. The projects planned in the framework of the Universiade will be completed. This will promote them in other cities of the republic.

President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, thanked participants of the expanded board session for participation in the sitting, and he mentioned the work of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan with public organizations. Moreover, he pointed out perspectives of implementation of gas engine transport and also urged to limit the use of ecologically unfriendly transport. Among other orders given to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, the President of Tatarstan named pre-mining of the sites of potential development, cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and Building regarding development planning, as well as prevention of ecological violations. According to Rustam Minnikhanov, every building process should correspond with the “green standard”.

During the interview with journalists, at the end of the board sitting, the President of Tatarstan noted that people present environment. Human attitude to nature is to a large extent determined by their manners and family relations. That is why it is very important to involve children into the world of ecology from an early childhood. Sergey Donskoy supported the President of Tatarstan saying: “Only parents can teach a child to treat nature carefully”.

At the end of the final board sitting, the President Rustam Minnikhanov and the Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Sergey Donskoy awarded the best experts of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan.

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Board Session on the Work Results in 2012