Collaboration in the Interests of Nature
A meeting of the representatives of the international corporation Mondi (Mondi Group), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Silver Taiga Foundation was held on August 27.
The reason for the meeting was the initiative to conclude a cooperation agreement between the international corporation Mondi and WWF-International on the assessment of the pulp and paper industry impact on the ecological situation in the regions of the company operation. Such assessment has been made on the Mondi mills in the Republic of South Africa jointly with WWF for several years and a relevant experience contributing to minimizing the negative impact on the environment both of the forest use and the pulp and paper production itself has been accumulated. The corporation considers it appropriate to disseminate this experience to other areas of its activity – Danube-Carpathian region and Russia.
The meeting was attended by the Mondi Group natural resources manager Peter Gardiner and environmental manager Christian Ramaseder, Head of wood supply department of Mondi Syktyvkar Vasily Chuprov, and Head of forest certification and sustainable forest management group Denis Popov. World Wildlife Fund was represented by Nikolay Shmatkov (WWF Russia) and Andrey Shchogolev (Arkhangelsk branch of WWF), and “Silver Taiga” was represented by the Foundation Director Yury Pautov. The parties have discussed the goals and objectives of the agreement under preparation at the international level, as well as the possibilities of its implementation in Russia – in the Komi Republic and Arkhangelsk region.
During the meeting, the representatives of the Mondi Group have affirmed a strong interest in the results of the High Conservation Value Forests project implemented by the Silver Taiga Foundation. They have expressed particular appreciation of such project results as conservation of the low-disturbed forest massifs on the boarder of Komi and Arkhangelsk region, as well as the Model River Mezen project initiatives. Besides, the importance of the implementation of the new foundation project aimed at the study of a long-term impact of the logging on the condition of the river ecosystems and hydrological functions of the taiga forests has been specifically mentioned. It was stressed that the results of these Silver Taiga projects should be disseminated as widely as possible, in particular, through the national and international WWF network.
During the meeting, an agreement to include the Mondi Group proposals into the WWF Russia strategy and continue a close collaboration between WWF and Silver Taiga Foundation on the conservation of the low-disturbed forests of the European part of Russia has been reached.
Valentina Semyashkina
Translated by Irina Sokolova
