13 Mar 2007 - Moscow,
Russia – Responding to appeals from WWF
and other conservationists, the Russian
government agreed to re-route part of the
new East Siberia-Pacific Ocean Pipeline,
sparing the last remaining habitat of the
Amur leopard, the world’s most endangered
cat.
The decision announced by Rostekhnadzor
— Russia’s federal service for ecological,
technical and atomic supervision — marks
the end of a two-year battle by WWF to have
the oil terminal moved to Kozmino Bay from
the originally proposed site at Perevoznaya
Bay, south-west of Vladivostok, which required
the pipeline to run through the centre of
the Amur leopard’s last remaining habitat
in Russia’s south-western Primorskii Province.
“This is a truly momentous victory for
Russian conservation,” said Dr Evgeny Shvarts,
WWF’s director of conservation policy in
Russia.
“The decision to re-route the pipeline
to a new terminal site in Kozmino Bay spares
the Amur leopard’s habitat, avoiding the
kind of environmental destruction that could
have pushed them into extinction.”
Designed to carry crude oil from the Russian
Far East to markets in Japan, Korea and
the United States, the 4200-kilometre-long
East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline will
be the world’s longest when completed in
2008. It is the largest development project
in Russia’s history, expected to cost US$11.5–$15
billion.
Construction of the terminal is scheduled
to begin next month. When complete, the
East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline will
cross 50 rivers and include 32 pumping stations.
It will have the potential to transport
as much as 56 millions tons of oil a year
from the town of Tayshet — 400 kilometres
north-west of Lake Baikal — to the Sea of
Japan. The terminal’s loading complex will
be 400 metres from the coast and minimal
dredging works will be required at Kozmino.
The latest in storage and pumping technology
will be used to help preserve the ecosystem
of the bay and its surrounding areas.
The pipeline and terminal are a project
of Transneft, the legal successor to the
USSR Ministry of Oil Department for Oil
Transportation and Supplies.
“WWF applauds the Russian government’s
decision to relocate the pipeline and terminal,”
said Dr Shvarts. “Transneft had simply underestimated
the ecological importance of Pervoznaya
Bay.”
When WWF and a number of leading institutes
and universities in Russia’s Far East examined
ten possible locations for the terminal,
Perevoznaya Bay was considered the worst
site because it is an open and shallow bay
close to two state nature reserves — the
Far Eastern Marine Reserve and the Kedrovaya
Pad Nature Reserve, home to endangered species
such as the Amur leopard and the Siberian
tiger.
“These are the most critically endangered
big cats in the world with only 40 individuals
left. A pipeline slicing through the heart
of their last outpost could have spelled
disaster,” said Darron Collins, WWF’s leader
for Amur-Heilong conservation.
“Russia’s decision to re-route the pipeline
gives the Amur leopard a chance to survive
in the wild.”
Daria Kudryavtseva, Press Officer
