Gold mining near the borders of the Kronotsky Reserve can cause serious damage to nature. The Reserve notes that the talk is about allotting a site in the Milkovsky District for the exploration and further development of a placer gold deposit. Moreover, the federal specially protected natural area is just one and a half kilometres away from it. The ecologists emphasize that the most important spawning streams on the Peninsula and rare animal habitats are located in this area.
It is in this area that the winter pastures of wild reindeer are located, the number of the animals in Kamchatka has dramatically decreased over the past decade. The only large group of wild reindeer has survived in the Reserve, however, they migrate beyond its borders in search of food. Also, there are bighorn sheep in the mountains at the Reserve’s border, and the number of sheep on the Peninsula is small.
“The ‘Tyomny (Dark)’ site where the mining operations are supposed to be carried out is located in the Shchapina River basin that flows into the Kamchatka River, the largest water artery on the Peninsula. It is an object of the highest commercial fishing activity category, and in addition, it’s the fishing zone used by the local communities and they carry on other traditional economic activities here,” the press centre of the Kronotsky Reserve says.
According to environmentalists, gold mining in this area can lead to the disruption of the river ecosystems and degradation of fish resources. At the same time, the Law of the Russian Federation ‘On Subsoil’ provides for a ban on the use of subsoil if it can pose a threat to the life or health of people, cause damage to economic facilities and the environment.
The ecologists remind that the Milkovsky District is included into the co-operation zone of the Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve created for the preservation of the biological diversity and the items of cultural value, as well as for the sustainable development of the local communities and the entire region, rational nature management, the implementation of environmentally friendly technologies, and the revival of traditional crafts.
As Pyotr Shpilenok, the Director of the Kronotsky State Reserve, noted, “The immediate benefit from gold mining in the unique places of the Kamchatka Peninsula will never compensate for the environmental damage.”
At present, in accordance with the Concept for the Development of a System of Federal Specially Protected Natural Areas for the period up to 2020, the determining of the protected zone around the Kronotsky Reserve perimeter is being completed, which should help reduce the load on the nature. The ‘Tyomny’ site will be in the protected zone.
However, the Reserve is extremely concerned that in the near future, it is planned to approve the ‘Tyomny’ site for the alluvial gold deposit development. This issue will be considered in Khabarovsk at a meeting of the commission of the Rosnedra’s (Federal Agency for Subsoil Usage) Department for the subsoil use in the Far Eastern Federal District.
This is not the first time that the environmentalists in the region have to confront the gold miners. The reports about illegal logging and open-pit gold mining in the protected natural area were on the social media in May 2020. It was about the mining of the alluvial gold on the banks of the (spawning) Bystraya River in the Elizovsky District.
In August 2020, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources of the RF to work out a mechanism for involving the Kamchatka Territory in determining the subsoil plots in the Territory when making the lists of the objects to be licensed by Rosnedra. This instruction was not fulfilled.
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