Between August 29 and 5 September, a large-scale environmental forum was held in Kamchatka in the Laguna ecopolis. The event attracted over 450 young conservationists from 85 regions of the country. Yakov Lebedev, a master's degree student from the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism, was the only participant of the forum representing the Voronezh Region.
The purpose of the forum “Ecosystem. Conservation Area” is uniting efforts of young people in the field of conservation of natural resources for sustainable development of our country. The educational programme of the forum consisted of over 100 speeches by public figures and political leaders, including: Irina Yarovaya, a Deputy Chair of the State Duma, Sergey Ivanov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport, and Vladimir Solodov, the Governor of the Kamchatka Krai. The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, also met with environmentalists at one of the educational events.
“At the forum, I was lucky to become part of a unique community which shaped the special atmosphere of the “Ecosystem”. Our community included volunteers, the administration, speakers, and participants. In total, the forum was attended by more than 700 people. The “Ecosystem” brought together people from different areas: economists, political analysts, and high-profile environmentalists. Their mind was set on communication and creativity,” said Yakov Lebedev, a master's degree student from the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism.
Young conversationalists worked within three tracks: “Awareness. Ecology”, “Ecology starts with you”, “Circular Economy and Territorial Ecology”. The programme of the forum was full of events: during the educational week, young ecologists went on specialised trips and conducted research within the territory of the peninsula.
“I was assigned to the track “Awareness. Ecology” implemented jointly with the Russian Foundation “Znaniye”. Our team went to the Khalaktyrsky Beach of the Pacific Ocean where in cooperation with the Hydrometeorological Centre we took water samples to assess the degree of the hydrosphere pollution and discussed the problem of “red tides”. Also, we worked with seismologists and studied the issue of earthquakes and tsunamis, a sensitive problem for Kamchatka. For me, the cherry on the cake of the field workshop was surfing in the Pacific Ocean,” said Yakov Lebedev.
An important stage of the forum was presentation of thematic projects. The implementation of the presented research cases was supported by grants amounting to over 10 million roubles. The participant of the “Ecosystems. Conservation Area” forum from VSU took part in a project aimed at creating a single information portal on environmental monitoring in Kamchatka. Now, the finalised project has been submitted for implementation to a private IT company and the government of the Kamchatka Krai.
“It was my decision to go to the forum. I needed ideas and inspiration to solve applied environmental problems and to continue creating large projects in our region. I got the necessary experience and practical knowledge from participating in the development of cases and communicating with speakers. I already noted down a couple of ideas with regard to environmental projects in the Voronezh Region while flying back home. In the nearest future, my team and I will finalise them and, hopefully, implement them. After all, the environmental agenda is really urgent,” said Yakov Lebedev.
