(May 23, 2002 – 30th Anniversary of the signing of the U.S.-USSR Environmental Agreement)

Ministry of Natural Resources, Moscow, Russia
U.S.-Russia Environmental Cooperation Over the Years

U.S.-Russia environmental cooperation began in 1972 with the signing of an Agreement between the Governments of the former USSR and U.S. In June 1994 a new Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources was signed by both governments. Cooperation was carried out within the framework of the Joint U.S.-Russia Commission on Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources, and later the Environmental Committee of the U.S.-Russia Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation.

Through the years several governmental agreements were signed: on collaboration and prevention of environmental pollution in the Arctic, the GLOBE program (ecological education for schoolchildren), the Convention Concerning the Conservation of Migratory Birds and Their Environment, as well as an Agreement between the U.S. and Russian Commissioners of the International Whaling Commission on the joint allocation of quotas for native subsistence whaling.

In October 2000 in Washington, D.C. the Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Alaska-Chukotka Polar Bear Population was signed, thus laying the groundwork for a unified strategy to conserve this population, with provision for subsistence use by the native peoples of Chukotka and Alaska.

A major topic of cooperation, called "Protected Natural Areas and Biodiversity Conservation", is administered by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Regularly conducted activities include Working Group meetings, exchanges of individual specialists, and visits by directors of Russian nature reserves and national parks to U.S. protected areas, and by their U.S. counterparts to analogous Russian areas. The most recent visit by six Russian reserve directors to the U.S. took place in the summer of 2000. Preparations are currently underway for the return visit of their U.S. colleagues to Russian nature reserves.

At its latest meeting in March 2002 in Washington, D.C., Working Group participants agreed on further joint activities. The two sides will emphasize continued collaboration in the conservation of protected areas, environmental education in refuges, reserves and national parks, continuation of studies of migratory birds, marine mammals, anadromous fish, and other plant and animal species of mutual interest.

Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Press Office