Summit County Citizens Voice

A NASA satellite view of Russia's Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake.

Pulp mill pollution a concern at world’s oldest and deepest lake

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest lake, is in danger of losing its World Heritage status because of continued impacts from a pulp mill.

World Heritage sites are picked because they have ecological, social and cultural values of global significance. Mesa Verde National Park is the only World Heritage site in Colorado.

Two U.S. sites are candidates this year: The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii and Mt. Vernon. The Bikini Atoll nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands is also on the list.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meets this week in Brasilia to consider new additions to the list of sites, and the debate about Lake Baikal may take center stage at some point, as a global coalition of environmental groups take issue with the Russian government’s decision to permit operation of the mill.

In January, Russian president Vladimir Putin decided to exclude the production of pulp, paper and cardboard from the list of operations banned in protected areas around Lake Baikal. The move drew protests from all over the world. In advance of the committee meeting, activists delivered a petition to UNESCO officials that protests Putin’s decision.

Lake Baikal is estimated to be 25 million years old. It’s more than a mile deep. its age and isolation have produced one of the world’s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas — including a freshwater seal — which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.

The lake contains about 20 percent of the world’s fresh water — about twice as much as all the Great Lakes combined. Baikal is about 700 kilometers long and has 2,000 kilometers of shoreline. It was first designated as a World Heritage site in 1996.

UNESCO officials acknowledged receiving the petition in a press release.

“The World Heritage Committee will discuss the Baikal issue at its meeting in Brasilia, and will offer recommendations and support to Russia to define the most appropriate solutions,” said Francesco Bandarin UNESCO assistant director-general for culture.

“We have had, in the past, proof of the Russian Government’s commitment to the conservation of World Heritage sites,” he added. “We are confident that the authorities will understand that Lake Baikal requires decisions that will effectively protect its conservation.”

Greenpeace Russia campaign director Ivan Blokov urged UNESCO “to do everything within it’s power to protect Lake Baikal from the catastrophic consequences that would inevitably result from the re-opening of the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mill (BPPM) on its shores.

“The 125,000 signatures on the petition we have presented to UNESCO today provide ample testimony to the concern of people the world over about this unique site,” he said.

The World Heritage Committee previously expressed its concern about impacts from a proposed oil pipeline crossing the World Heritage site. Those concerns date back to 1995. Seal numbers have dropped by about a third in the past few decades and monitoring shows signs of increasing pollution.

Russia’s Supreme Court heard a Greenpeace complaint on the decision to permit the mill in mid-June, according to this story by Reuters.

More information on the list of new sites under consideration for listing:

Thirty two new properties in total were submitted for inscription on the World Heritage List this year: 6 natural, 24 cultural and 2 mixed (i.e. both natural and cultural) properties, including four transnational nominations. In addition, 9 extensions to properties already listed have been proposed (see list below).

The Committee will also review the state of conservation of the 31 World Heritage properties inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger and may decide to add to that list new properties whose preservation requires special attention. The In Danger List features sites which are threatened by a variety of problems such as pollution, urban development, poorly managed mass tourism, wars, and natural disasters, which have a negative impact on the outstanding values for which the sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List.

To date, the World Heritage List recognizes 890 properties of “outstanding universal value,” including 689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed properties in 148 States Parties.

The Convention encourages international cooperation to safeguard the common heritage of humanity. With 187 States Parties, it is one of the most widely ratified international legal instruments. When signing the Convention, States Parties commit to identifying sites for potential inscription and to preserving sites on the World Heritage List, as well as sites of national and regional importance, notably by providing an appropriate legal and regulatory framework.

The World Heritage Committee, responsible for the implementation of the 1972 Convention, comprises representatives of 21 countries, elected by the States Parties for up to six years. Each year, the Committee adds new sites to the List. The sites are proposed by the States Parties. Applications are then reviewed by two advisory bodies: cultural sites by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and natural sites by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which inform the Committee of their recommendations. The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ICCROM) provides expert advice on conservation and training in restoration techniques.

The World Heritage Committee also examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed sites and asks States Parties to take appropriate conservation and preservation measures when necessary. The Committee supervises the disbursement of over USD4 million annually from the World Heritage Fund, aimed, among other purposes, at emergency action, training of experts and encouraging technical cooperation. UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre is the Secretariat of the World Heritage Committee.

Accredited journalists will be able to attend the opening ceremony of the 34th session (25 July), which will include the participation of the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian Ministry of culture, João Luiz Silva Ferreira and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. Journalists will be informed of the work and decisions of the Committee in regular press conferences during the Committee session.

Natural properties submitted for inscription to the World Heritage List:

Pirin National Park (extension, Bulgaria)
Danxia (China)
Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island (France)
Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Kiribati)
Dinosaur Ichnites of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal / Spain)
Putorana Plateau (Russian Federation)
Monte San Giorgio (extension of “Monte San Giorgio”, Switzerland, Italy)
Tajik National Park, Mountains of the Pamirs (Tajikistan)

Cultural properties submitted for inscription to the World Heritage List:

Australian Convict Sites (Australia)
City of Graz – Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg (extension of “City of Graz – Historic Centre”) (Austria)
Augustowski Canal – a work of man and nature (Belarus / Poland)
Major Mining Sites of Wallonia (Belgium)
São Francisco Square in the Town of São Cristóvão (Brazil)
Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in “The Centre of Heaven and Earth” (Originally “Historic monuments of Mount Songshan”) (China)
Konso Cultural Landscape (Ethiopia)
Episcopal City of Albi (France)
Upper Harz Water Management System (extension of “Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar”) (Germany)
The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur (India)
Matheran Light Railway (extension of the “Mountain Railways of India”) (India)
Sheikh Safi al-din Khānegāh and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex (Islamic Republic of Iran)
The Triple-arch Gate at Dan (Israel)
Fort Jesus, Mombasa (Kenya)
Bikini Atoll, nuclear tests site (Marshall Islands)
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Mexico)
Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla in the Central Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico)
Seventeenth-century canal ring area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht (Netherlands)
Røros Mining Town and the Circumference (extension of “Røros Mining Town”) (Norway)
Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yangdong (Republic of Korea)
Church of the Resurrection of Suceviţa Monastery (extension of the “Churches of Moldavia”) (Romania)
At-Turaif District in ad-Dir’iyah (Saudi Arabia)
Palaeolithic Rock Art Ensemble in Siega Verde (extension of “Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley”), (Portugal, Spain)
The Mercury and Silver Binomial. Almadén and Idrija with San Luis Potosí (Spain / Mexico /Slovenia)
Sarazm (Tajikistan)
Kiev: Saint-Sophia Cathedral with Related Monastic Buildings, St. Cyril’s and St. Andrew’s Churches, Kiev Pechersk Lavra (extension of “Kiev: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kiev Pechersk Lavra”) (Ukraine)
Darwin’s Landscape Laboratory (United Kingdom)
Ngorongoro Conservation Area (re-nomination under additional criteria) (United Republic of Tanzania)
Mount Vernon (United States of America)
Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long – Hanoi (Viet Nam)

Mixed properties submitted for inscription to the World Heritage List:

Central Highlands of Sri Lanka: its Cultural and Natural Heritage ( Sri Lanka)
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawaii (United States of America)

Please note that States Parties can withdraw a nomination request before the start of the Committee meeting.

More information:

http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/34COM/

Filed under: Environment, Summit County Colorado Tagged: | international news, Lake Baikal environmental threats, Lake Baikal Russia, Lake Baikal world heritage listing, Summit County News, World Heritage Committee, World Heritage committee meeting Brasilia