- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2121
Barguzinsky Nature Reserve. Photo: Sergio Tittarini – flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
The Soviet Union was a cradle of environmentalism, a global pioneer in nature conservation. Two days after taking power in the October 1917 Revolution Lenin’s government issued the decree ‘On Land,’ declaring all forests, waters, and subsoil minerals to be the property of the state. On 14 May 1918 the government enacted the ‘On Forests’ law that created a Central Administration of Forests of the Republic to manage the forests on the basis of planned reforestation and sustained yield. Forests were divided into an exploitable sector and a protected sector, which included erosion control, protection of water basins, and the preservation of ‘monuments of nature.’
In January 1919, after listening to conservationists, Lenin proposed that the ecologists should draw up a general decree on conservation to be applied throughout the USSR. Nikolai Podyapolski discussed with Lenin the creation of a new zapovednik (nature sanctuary), which Lenin agreed was of “urgent value.” In 920 the first national zapovednik was created, the first protected territory created by a government exclusively for the scientific study of nature. In 1921 Lenin signed into law, On the Protection of Monuments of Nature, Gardens, and Parks. Under Lenin significant areas of nature were protected across the continent and the USSR began the most audacious programme in nature conservancy in the 20th century.
In 1921, Lenin argued: “In order to protect the sources of our resources, we must act in accordance with scientific-technical laws. For example, if the subject is the renting out of forests we must see to it that the forestry industry conducts itself properly. If we are talking about oil, then we must organise against spillage. This, it is necessary to enforce adherence to scientific-technical laws and to the principle of rational exploitation.”
The zapovedniks were far more ambitious than comparable acts signed in the US, to create the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior, responsible for the protection of thirty-five national parks and monuments. After Lenin’s death, there was pressure to remove the protected status of the zapovedniks and adapt a capitalist system to produce profit rather than serve human needs. The Soviet agencies withstood these pressures and extended the areas throughout the 1920s under Joseph Stalin.
By late 1934 the zapovedniks had achieved what Lenin had envisioned. Comrade S Veitsman said before the Committee for Zapovedniki that a “zapovedniki of a new type” would serve as “models of what the creative will of man can do with nature under socialism … [ahead beckoned] the questions of the restoration and development of climate and of the hydrological regime, especially in resort areas, questions of drought control, flood control, and of combating sukhovei and other phenomena that imperil the harvest.” In 1948 the ambitious programme was named the “Stalin Plan for the Great Transformation of Nature.”
By the 1950s, 121,406 square kilometres from the Caucasus mountains to the volcanoes of Kamchatka were set aside in 128 reserves. The Barguzinsky nature reserve consists of 103 zapovedniks that protect 275,186 sq km of Russia. Soviet zapovedniks provided the world’s highest level of protection, under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s designation of “strict nature reserves.” Visitors are refused entry to avoid human impact.
During the Cold War the achievements of the USSR were ignored or criticised. What the Soviet Union achieved was to provide conditions to preserve intact natural ecosystems. The zapovedniks are the only large system of protected areas created primarily for this purpose. The long-term monitoring of nature in zapovedniks has provided a datum point for assessing the impact of climate change and anthropogenic pressures on natural ecosystems.
More recently, Russia has suggested a well-funded global network of zapovedniks would allow a far better understanding of anthropogenic pressures on the world’s ecosystems, such as the global collapse of many bird populations. So far few have listened.
