2.08.2004

From 1st May until 4th July 2004, more than 7518 appeals were made for the defense of the Danube Biosphere reserve by organizations and individual citizens from 90 countries around the world.

Out of these, 944 appeals were dispatched to official figures of the EU urging them to stand for a cessation of work on the Bistraya estuary and for this cessation to become one of the conditions for the Ukraine's particular status as a neighbour of the EC. The appeals state: "29th June marks 10 years in a united effort on all sides of the Danube basin in protecting the largest river in Western Europe. It is incredible that governments can subject this achievement to such dangers, ignoring the opinions of their neighbours and own citizens".

WORK ON THE BISTRAYA: UNDER THE ILLUSION THAT PERMISSION HAS BEEN GIVEN FOR DUMPING IN TWO AREAS TO TAKE PLACE

On 5th June the "Mebius", having been filled with fuel, returned from Rumin with the M-30 hydraulic dredger. The "Mebius" began working on 15th June, and the M-30 on the 18th. Their interaction was conducted as follows: The M-30 chooses earth at the very exit of the Bistraya river into the sea, pumps it 100-150 metres and dumps it in the water where the "Mebius" picks it up and takes it to the dumping ground. Thus, the dredging work was creating a temporary dumping ground of earth in the restricted 5 km zone - whilst at the time permission was granted for the dredging work to take place in order to deepen the river bed, it was agreed only under the conditions that the earth be dumped 8km from the bank.

On 21st June a commission of colleagues from the Danube Biosphere Reserve together with the acting leader in the position of ecological control for the state inspection for protection of the Black Sea, F.M. Polyakov, together drew up an act with regard to the double dumping of dredged up earth and the noticeable trail of cloudy, muddy water coming from the M-30's pipeline.

On 23rd June the colleagues of the governmental inspection left the river to go to the Black Sea for official registration of necessary documents to ban work with the hydraulic dredger M-30.

On 12th June the leaders of the state inspection to save the Black Sea were notified about the fulfillment of a civic deed: that "Delta Lotsman" were fined 100 grivna (although it is unbelievable that the vice-director of the inspection, P. Bulanovich wouldn't disclose the precise amount to the media) - "Due to a violation of rules governing work with certain technologies, it has been promised that the creation of this duel dumping ground will be stopped."

On 27th June P. Bulanovich announced that "Delta Lotsman" had renewed their dredging work in accordance with the technicalities agreed by the state inspectorate.

However, declarations of the state inspection do not reflect the reality of the situation. In fact the duel dumping continues to this day. Only earlier the M-30 dumped the soil onto the surface of the sea, now it is being forced into deeper levels of the sea. Do you remember the manager of the factory in the cartoon about Gena the crocodile and Cheburashka? When he was informed about factory waste going into the river, he promised to stop it, but simply buried the pipes, so it could not be seen. The same logic can be applied to the people doing the dredging work.

The sea close to the Danube Delta is characterized by a north-south current, which displaces the dug-up earth. When the earth is carried to the sea's surface it is heavily dispersed by the strong winds, and then sinks to the bottom more quickly. In the depths there are no winds, which means that the river itself transfers the earth further a field.

6 km South of the Bistraya there is the eastern estuary. In the last few months it has become increasingly shallow rather quickly...

The remaining part of the delta is situated less than 20 km from the Bistraya.

FALSE MONITORING

One of the main conditions for issuing permission for the dredging work was the acceptance of conducting continuous environmental monitoring:

"...The State inspection to protect the Black Sea permits the use of dredging work in order to complete the first phase of hydro-technical work in order to create sea access to the GSH channel Danube - Black Sea from 23.04.04 - 31.12.04 on the following conditions...

- The control/monitoring of the dredging and building work needed to create the sea section of the channel on the Baraboy part of the Bistraya estuary (including using the dredged up soil taken from this part of the channel, comprehensive monitoring of the real state of the environment - with a view to swiftly uncovering possible negative effects early on in the process and to implement the necessary improvements. Special attention should be given to monitoring the state of the natural surroundings and its biology during the fish spawning time.
- To give quarterly information with the results of the monitoring and conclusions and recommendations which calculate the real nature of the damage caused to the sea's ecosystem,
- Contractors should, according to law compensate any damages which are inflicted on the sea's environment by the hydroelectric work."

"Instead of participating in this monitoring of the building of their national deep shipping path from the Danube to the Black Sea along the estuary of the Bistraya, the opponents operated with false information. This is what Vasilli Propenko, the correspondent of the Ukrainian chairman of the board of the Vilkovo regional division of "Delta Lotsman" announced. (The website of this Ukrainian business is  http://www.ukrsphere.com Mr. Prokopenko has passed the buck: This he must not do. It was he himself who misinformed the mass media. Not from the moment the interview began, nor at the beginning of July, did monitoring work begin! Moreover, contracts themselves were not drawn up - not between the central Odessan YUzNIRO nor with InBYUM.

In addition, on the 28th May, we were informed of the start date of the state inspection to protect the Black Sea. This was false information, which we received in a letter from the First Deputy of the State Inspection P. Bulanovich, dated 25.05.04.

It seems that it is easier to look better than to be better!

The absence of monitoring, without which it is impossible to control and evaluate the damages caused to the environment, is very profitable for the transport company, but they must pay compensation, so they themselves in this way have helped to save these important sums of money! In addition, on 15th June before the presidential elections in the Ukraine and soon after they began to work on the Bistraya, G. Kirpa registered his own political party - "Revival". In his own words, the basis of the party would be transport workers.

Considering this complicated situation, the Danube reserve has had to begin independently monitoring itself: on 2nd July, the reserve put out 4 measuring apparatus close to the ever-growing sand banks.

*NOISE FROM THE "MEBIUS" CAN BE HEARD 5-7 KM AROUND THE BISTRAYA

You can get pictures showing the dredging work on the Bistraya from the environmental group "Petchengi".
________

IT'S EASIER TO LOOK BETTER THAN TO BE BETTER! -INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE COMPANY

One of the heroes of V. Pikul's writing's family motto's was "It's easier to try to be better than to try to look better!" The Ukrainian authorities proclaim directly opposite principles. It appears that it is better to pretend to follow the state laws and international agreements than to actually do it.

THE MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (MIA) OF THE UKRAINE (1st half of June)
Prime Minister of the Ukraine V.F. Yanukovich.

Due to the beginning of work to build the Ukraine's own shipping path on the river Danube to the Black Sea, information came to the MIA from various international organisations in the EU and USA, and from neighbouring governments of the Ukraine, in regard to the complex situations surrounding the realization of this project.

Thus, presently we have received demarches from USA and Germany, where they underlined the incompatibility of the international obligations of our state with building the Ukrainian shipping path through reserve territory. The same action can be expected from the European Commission.

According to the existing information of the Ministry for International Affairs, the director of the Department of Environmental Sciences Secretariat of UNESCO, and the secretary of the Ramsky Convention P. Bridgewater, sent a letter to the president of the Ukraine with a statement of concern about the building of the channel on the river Danube to the Black Sea through the Danube Biosphere Reserve. As well as this, a similar letter like the one sent to the President of the Ukraine L.D. Kuchma, will be sent to the director of UNESCO, K. Matsuri.

The chief of environmental sciences of the department secretariat of UNESCO and the leading expert from the program to develop a worldwide network of bio-reserves, J. Robertson, visited the Ukraine on 8-14th May 2004. She confronted the anxiety of the secretariat of the UNESCO program "A Man and the Biosphere", and particularly noted the non-adherence of the Ukraine to the regulations of the worldwide network of bio-reserves, the Ramsky convention about wetlands and the Sevillian strategy for Biosphere Reserves. She made a strong connection that resulted in the decision of UNESCO to activate maximum powers in influencing the Ukraine, in order to avoid the creation of dangerous precedents for this organisation - seemingly useless when a neighbouring country can take action, which so obviously does not meet it's international obligations.

The anxiety felt by the international commission over building this shipping path and the protecting of the River Danube at the same time can be seen by the approval of the resolution concerning the possible negative environmental effects of the project on the situation in the Danube region.

Romania stands particularly actively against the implementation of the project of building the shipping path. They are not interested, understandably, in the creation of an alternative to the existing systems of channels on the River Danube to the Black Sea in Romanian territory.

"Against the implementation of building shipping channels in principle". Whether an intentional or an accidental mistake, this is a phrase often met in the document.

Actually, the international community protests not against the regeneration of shipping in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta, but against the construction of the channel according to its existing variant. To this day, nobody except the Ministry of Transport has taken a stand against the alternatives proposed to this path along the Bistraya. For example, they stood against the construction of the shipping path through the Stenstovska - Zhebriansky Mountains and through the Ochakovskaya estuary as a more likely and realistic option. Some Ukrainian authorities maintain that the existing variant of the channel through the Bistraya estuary is the only possible variant. (For further information see environmental organisation "Petchenegi")...

The main notes of the working meetings of the international organisations and concerned countries and in the address to the MIA, are as follows:

- The construction of the channel is not completely in accordance with the international duties of the Ukraine concerning the special status of the Danube Delta. As the channel goes via the territory of the borders of the reserve included in the worldwide network of UNESCO reserves, the decision concerning the construction must be in coordination with the aforementioned organisations.

"This cannot be partly accomplished, there is no grey area here - you either honour your agreements or you don't."

- In the estimate of the ecological experts of TEO "The creation of a deepwater crew way on the Danube to the Black Sea in the Ukrainian section of the Delta" does not respond to the request, for the advancement of incorporating environmental expertise and does not fully take into consideration the proposal from the international expert from the UNESCO program "Man and the Biosphere", Ya. Kveta, and the secretariat of the Ramsky convention T. Salate, (according to the results of their visit to the Ukraine 27th-31st October 2003).

- To begin the practicalities of building this shipping path without taking into consideration the recommendations of international experts, the Ukraine in fact breaks a range of multi and bi-lateral agreements and amongst them: The convention regarding the influence on the environment in a shard-border context; the convention regarding collaboration on protection and the sustainable usage of the river Danube. The agreement between the governments of Romania and the Ukraine about cooperating re:
water usage on the borders of two countries, which share a river, for example.

Whilst completely supporting the creation of a channel in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta, the MIA also considers it necessary to take urgent measures to prevent a deterioration of the relationship between multi and bi relations and the unpleasant reactions from the international organisations and the world community towards the Ukraine. To help justify the Ukraine's official position on the construction of the channel and to avoid creating a negative image of the government in the world's view, it has been suggested:

1. To organize an inter-institutional working group, whose leader will be the Vice Prime Minister of the Ukraine, A.P. Klyuevim, with the participation of the leaders of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of the Environment (deputy chairman), The Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Law, Ministry of International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Water, Territories, Administration of Odessa, National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine, and representatives of the VR commission of Ukraine in International affairs and environmental policy, the use of natural resources and the Chernobyl catastrophe clean-up commission. (To be agreed)

2. To command the working group to quickly prepare a report of the work taking into consideration the international obligations of the Ukraine with regards to the building of this waterway on the Danube-Black Sea along the estuary of the Bistraya tributary and to compare it with other variants.

3. To command the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of the Environment, Administration of Odessa together with the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine to develop a plan of nature protective actions on the territory of the DBR (Danube Biosphere Reserve) based on the recommendations of the UNESCO and Ramsar convention experts to ensure the fulfillment of the plan, and periodically inform UNESCO and other concerned international organisations.

The National Academy of Sciences is the only governmental agency in the Ukraine which preserves its own opinion about this project and is still able to have the luxury of a stand against the Ministry of Transport. This is why the Ministry of International Affairs rarely consults the NAS in the first place, more often they are the last agency to be consulted re: the problems posed by the channel.

4. To command the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of International Affairs in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences to prepare the necessary materials on their position and to consult with international organisations, particularly UNESCO, with the purpose of looking for ways of regulating the situation that is suitable to both parties.

5. To command the Ministry of the Environment, together with the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine to take part in the meeting of the expert-technical committee program of UNESCO's "Man and the Biosphere" (June, Paris) and to contribute ideas and information about particular actions with the purpose of insuring a positive situation to examine and answer the questions arisen regarding the Danube reserve during the session of the committee board of the international UNESCO program "Man and the Biosphere".

Despite this, only the representatives of the Ministry of Transport and the Environment went to Paris, without the "unreliable" Academy of Sciences. However, the National Committee of the program "Man and the Biosphere" refused to discuss the problems of the Biosphere reserve without the Academy of Sciences being present and instead they made the demands outlined in this letter.

6. To command the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of International Affairs and the Ministry of Transport to prepare and to give to the cabinet ministers the proposals concerning regulation of legal aspects due to changes being made to the zones of the shared-border bio-reserve "Danube Delta".

7. If necessary, to command the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of International Affairs to work in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine to prepare the necessary documents regarding DBR's new zone status as part of the shared border biosphere reserve "Danube Delta" to be confirmed by the committee of the international programme of UNESCO "man and Biosphere" .

8. To command the Ministry of the Environment, the ministry of Transport, the Ministry of International Affairs, Ministry of natural Resources, Water, Economics to work in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine to hold a bi-lateral consultation with Romania with the purpose of discussing the complex problem of their natural resource usage, taking into consideration the negative influence of human impact on the environmental balance in the Ukrainian part of the delta.

During the third meeting of the convention regarding the influence on the environment in a shared-border context (1-4th June 2004, Tsavtat, Croatia) the delegates of Romania stated that the Ukraine had ignored diplomatic notes concerning the channel. However, a joint Ukraine-Romanian commission has been created and its first meeting takes place on 8th July in Ismail. The Ukrainian delegate, Minister of Environmental Protection S. Polyakov leads one of the main lobbies for the channel through the Bistraya.

9. To ask the Ministry of International Affairs through diplomatic institutions abroad to constantly monitor international reaction to the construction, and to inform and explain to the countries they visit about the construction of the Ukraine's shipping point in the river Danube to the Black Sea and their current position on it.

In answer to the appeal of the International Area of Ecologists en Accion (Spain) against the construction of the Bistraya the 1st secretary of the Ukrainian council swore to complain to the Spanish Minister of International Affairs.

Soon the representatives of the countries of the EC are going to become acquainted with the existing situation. There are rumours that together with the EU, even the leader of Cypress will go to the Danube reserve. We do not have more exact information concerning this occasion, as the authorities are keeping silent. However, recently the Willcoro settlement was rapidly bought in to put everything in order.

10. To command that the Minister of the Environment, Minister of Transport and the government media organisations conduct the necessary explanatory work amongst the mass media.

What is really happening in the world seems to be less important than the way the mass media represent it.

Please be attentive to this letter,
Kind Regards,
Acting Minister V. Yu. El'chenko
________

RELEVANT CAMPAIGNS:  http://www.seu.ru/projects/dunay/ (English:  http://www.seu.ru/projects/eng/dunay)

CONTACTS:

Danube Biosphere Reserve: director Alexander Voloshkevich;
Tel/fax: (04843) 4-46-19 or 3-11-95;  reserve@odtel.net

Kiev eco-cultural centre: Vladimir Bor?ko
Tel/fax (044) 443-52-62  kekz@carrier.kiev.ua

Charity Fund "Ecological Rights - Lvov": Olga Melen;
Tel/fax: (0322) 97-14-46,  molya@darkwing.uoregon.edu, www.epl.org.ua

Ecological group "Pechenegi" (Kharkov): Sergei Shaparenko;
Tel. (0572) 52-27-71,  pecheheg@ic.kharkov.ua

Prepared by Ecological Group "Pechenegi"
Ukrainian coalition "For Wild Nature"


-- Danube-Roman list