“All-Russian Ecological Saturday work – Green Russia”CampaignwillbeheldonAugust 31, 2013

This event is aimed at improvement of ecological state of Russian cities and regions. Itisassumedthatmorethan 10 millionpeopleallaroundthecountrywillparticipateinthecampaign, including representatives of public organizations and movements, large, small and medium business involved with the problems of nature pollution.

Campaign program includes entertaining and educational events for children, as well as educational programs for adults, and waste collection. 

The campaign is organized by public ecological movements and the Russian Ecological Fund “TECHECO” with Anatoly Karpov, former world chess champion, as its president.

Coordination headquarters is located in Moscow. Regional teams of the Saturday work coordinators are organized in constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Asforrightnow, 61 Russian constituententitieshave confirmed their participation in the campaign.

TheideaofSaturday work belongs to Estonia, where a large-scale annual campaign “We’ll do” has been held since 2008. InRussiasucheventswere held in May 2011for the first time. 

ThiscampaignwillbeheldwiththesupportoftheFederation Council of the Russian Federation, the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia, as well asthe Regional Development Ministry, and it coincides with the Year of Nature Protection in Russia. 

The Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service has also been holding large-scale events on detection and liquidation of unauthorized deposits of residential solid waste since August 2011 in pursuance of the Order of the Ministry for Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. 

AsofAugust 2013, afterexecutionofthegivenorder, allinall, 56567 sites of unauthorized placement of residential solid waste (over total area of 17346 ha) were detected on the territory of the Russian Federation, whereof 40663 sites (over total area of7587 ha)have already been liquidated.

Thegreatestamountofdepositsofresidentialsolidwasteislocatedon urban lands – 55%, in water protection areas – 16%, on the lands of agricultural designation – 15%, and on designated forest lands – 7%. 

Allinall, 44048 violations of nature protection legislation have been revealed throughout the country. 

The Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service has initiated 3666 proceedings regarding administrative offences; 2691 fines have been imposed so far amounting to 50.9 million rubles,whereof 1946 were collected in the amount of 24.4 million rubles.

Allinall, 1990 casesofadministrativeoffencesweresubmittedto law-enforcement agencies, while 7189 materials containing the information on the sites of unauthorized placement of residential solid wastewere submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Allinall, 55 All-Russian events and 26 international events should be held intheframeworkoftheYearofNatureProtection.

Inthecourseofcelebratory week, coinciding with celebration of the Day of Environmental Specialist on June 5, 2013, the following events were organized in more than 200 reserves and national parks: cleaning of territories, festivals and photo exhibitions, as well as contests and entertaining programs.

TheMinistryofNaturalResourcesand Ecology of the Russian Federation initiated the campaign “Zero negative impact on the environment” implying participation of around 1 thousand companies. Morethan 400 companiesfully or partially ceased their activity, while more than 300 companiesconducted work on beautification, cleaned the territory and held thematic events (lectures, seminars) and so on. 

Videoclip regarding “All-Russian Ecological Saturday work – Green Russia” campaign”:http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=h9tcN4JMU3w&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dh9tcN4JMU3w%26feature%3Dyoutu.be

Source of the information: Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation

Press Service of the Ministry