The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UNDP are allocating $133,000 to finance the first steps leading to a large-scale international project to conserve the globally significant salmonid biological diversity in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The importance of the project is reflected in the fact that an estimated one-third of the world's total salmonid population, including all six species of Pacific salmon, spawn in Kamchatka rivers. According to the most-recent studies, salmon and the nutrients they bring are the biological cornerstone of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, not only in Kamchatka but also in the north-western United States and Canada.

The aims of the project, which might take several years to implement and cost up to $10 million, are the following: 1) to establish salmonid refuges; 2) to strengthen the legal and policy framework;

3) to establish a biological baseline, stock monitoring programmes and outlet goals that ensure salmonid diversity; 4) to assist local, environmentally sustainable, salmon-based economic development; and 5) to develop educational and outreach programmes to build on existing regional support for salmonid fish conservation and sustainable use.

The UNDP and the Administration of the Nizhny Novgorod Region are joining efforts to muster international support for a project titled "Volga Triangle: Sustainable Development of Contiguous Industrial Complexes and Natural Territories."

Formed by the basins of two great Russian rivers, the Volga and the Oka, the 5,000-square-kilometre area has a population of almost 1 million people. The high density of industrial enterprises has had negative effects on the local ecosystem, with its rare and unique species of flora and fauna and its protected territories.

According to Philippe Elghouayel, UNDP Resident Representative in the Russian Federation, the comprehensive project contains elements designed to ensure that social development, environmental protection and regeneration will proceed hand in hand. They include working out model legal documents, encouraging initiatives from environmental NGOs and citizens, the preservation of biodiversity and improvement of river-water quality, the introduction of waste recycling methods, and comprehensive monitoring of the environment.

The integrated model solutions suggested for the "Volga Triangle" project will be discussed at the "Recovery of the Great Rivers of the World" International Congress to be held in Nizhny Novgorod in May.

The UNDP together with the Global Ecological Facility (GEF) will participate in the project to develop effective management mechanisms for Kamchatka's protected areas at a time when federal and regional resources have dwindled due to financial crises. One of the suggested means to attract additional funds is ecological tourism: whereby an area's unique, natural beauty can attract visitors, especially from the Pacific countries. It is expected that any additional money raised tthis way will help preserve the area's biodiversity.