VII Baikal Economic Forum with participants from almost 30 countries started off in Irkutsk. The Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal presents its current and future projects at BEF as part of Siberia and the Far East as Land of Opportunities Exhibition held in Sibexpocentre Pavilion No.1.
The exhibition was opened by the Russian Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin, the plenipotentiary of the Russian President in Siberian Federal Region Viktor Tolokonsky, Irkutsk Region Governor Dmitry Mezentsev, who is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal.
This year’s BEF focal point is the Strategic Social and Economic Development of the Far East and the Baikal Region. The forum agenda includes preservation of the Lake Baikal ecosystem, as well as the development of timber industry, energy conservation and energy efficiency.
The President of Buryatia Republic Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn remarked that, according to the World Tourism Organisation, Lake Baikal is the fifth top foreign tourist attraction in Russia. He reminded the delegates about the major project carried out by the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal – the international scientific Mirs at Baikal Expedition. “The scientific expedition conducted the exploration of the bottom of the Lake Baikal by means of two manned submersibles Mir. Many scientific discoveries at Baikal, popularization and promotion of Baikal as one of the most interesting tourist attractions were the results of the expedition,” said the President of Buryatia.
As the Baikal Economic Forum approached, the Governor of the Irkutsk Region Dmitry Mezentsev expressed his view on the issues regarding preservation of Lake Baikal and possible alternatives to the Baikal Pulp-and-Paper Mill to the mass media. “The Mill should be working close cycle only and observe all the ecological requirements… Our task is to be extremely consistent and to create such a demand on the labour market for the Baikalsk town citizens which they will accept favourably. One of alternatives is to create commercial greenhouses where the citizens will be able to, for example, grow strawberries all year round. We encourage the idea of the greenhouses having full-scale operations next year,” D.Mezentsev told a correspondent from ITAR-TASS.
The preservation of Lake Baikal and the care towards nature is a constant topic of discussions at Baikal Economic Forum. The Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal, which presented its projects at BEF, is willing to cooperate with businesses and authorities in development of cutting-edge ecologically friendly technologies and their industrial implementation, to give practical recommendations based on the research of the protection of Lake Baikal and biodiversity of the lake and the Baikal Region on the whole.
