Alexander Shadrikov: "The snow leopard for Tatarstan is our symbol, our coat of arms is a winged leopard"
Today at KazanForum, Tatarstan Ecology Minister Alexander Shadrikov spoke at the session "In the footsteps of the snow leopard: the disappearance and restoration of rare animal species".
The session was moderated by Irina Makanova, Director of the Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. The session was also attended by Olga Krever, Deputy Director of Roszapovedcenter, Chyngyz Kochorov, Head of the Secretariat of the Global Program for the Conservation of Snow Leopards and Ecosystems, Anvar Aminov, Executive Director of Karym LLC and others.
At the beginning of the session, Irina Makanova noted that the restoration of rare animal species is one of the important directions of the national Ecology project. The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation has developed a draft comprehensive action plan for the creation of centers for the study and conservation of snow leopards in the country. "I would like to note that within the framework of the national project, we have made special changes to the articles for the preservation of the snow leopard, where we paid special attention to the creation of snow leopard restoration centers to carry out work on reintroduction and strengthening of those groups that are now dying out or restoring those that are now lost," the moderator noted. The action plan contains the 10 most important blocks. The speaker highlighted the work of Tatarstan in this direction. "I would like to say separately that it was the Republic of Tatarstan that initiated the creation, then it was still the first center for the study and conservation of the snow leopard. This is how this initiative developed and grew into such a comprehensive plan," the Director of the Department emphasized.
Minister of Ecology of the Republic of Tatarstan Alexander Shadrikov made a report at the session. In his speech, he noted that today the snow leopard has the status of a rare, endangered species. Tatarstan, whose coat of arms depicts a white leopard, has been studying the problems of conservation and breeding of snow leopards for several years. In particular, the Ministry of Ecology of Tatarstan is implementing a project to create a Center for the study of rare species of cats. With the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, the event is included in the federal project "Conservation of biological diversity and development of ecological tourism" of the national project "Ecology".
"The Ministry of Ecology, together with the scientific community, including with the participation of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Rozhnov, has developed a concept for the creation of the Center. A research program has been prepared taking into account the capabilities of Tatarstan's research base," said the Head of the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Tatarstan.
According to the project, the Ak Bars Center in Tatarstan will focus on studying the physical and genetic abilities of animals. Scientists of Kazan Federal University maintain their cryobank, which will be used to preserve biomaterials of rare species of cats.
In continuation of the initiative of Tatarstan, taking into account climatic features, together with the Altai Republic, it is also proposed to create a second project site on the territory of this mountainous region – this will be the Center for the Conservation of Biological Diversity "Snow Leopard". For the placement of objects, a land plot was selected in the Mayminsky district of the Altai Republic within the boundaries of LLC "Karym". Its area is more than 9 thousand hectares.
And again, the project has been under the close scientific supervision of specialists from the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences from the very beginning.
The composition of the Center's facilities, their placement, content and functionality are approved only after expert evaluation by scientific specialists.
"Scientific institutions of Tatarstan, which have a high material and technical base and competencies, will also be involved in research work. The federal research center "Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences" and KFU are ready to join the work. On the basis of Kazan University, a modern laboratory and scientific base has been created for conducting a large complex of studies," Alexander Shadrikov said.
The university's specialists are already conducting fundamental and applied research. Students and postgraduates are being trained in the field of ethology, physiology, nature conservation, veterinary medicine, genetics, cytology.
"The winged leopard is a symbol of our republic, it is our coat of arms. I believe that our task is to ensure the conservation of the population and do everything possible to increase the number of these rare animals and make them feel safe in their natural habitats", – the Minister of Ecology noted.
The speaker noted that active work is currently underway to create a Snow Leopard center in Altai. The tasks of preserving and studying rare animal species united specialists of Tatarstan and Altai, concluded Alexander Shadrikov.
At the end of the session, moderator Irina Makanova thanked Tatarstan once again for the warm welcome and for the work that is being done in the republic to preserve rare species of animals. "Once again I would like to say a huge thank you to the owners of the site and for the initiatives that are born in the bowels of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Ministry of Ecology of Tatarstan and directly to the leadership of the republic because, thanks to the initiatives that are put forward by the leadership at the highest level, these ideas have the right to life and implementation."