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News, May 2012

Responsible Water Management for Sustainable Development Program: Cara Wolinsky’s Visit to Samara

On May 24, 2012, the Education Center for Ecology and Safety (Samara), as the implementer of this Program in Samara Oblast, received Russian and international coordinators during their working visit to evaluate the relevancy of issues addressed under the Program for the region, as well as the prospects for the further development of the Program.

The Center has been working on this program of AlCOA Foundation and the Fund for Sustainable Development, Moscow, since 2011.

This two-year Program is carried out in partnership with the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, leading scientists from Moscow State University and Samara Technical University (SamGTU), as well as by leaders and senior staff of local environmental organizations and the regional administration.

The goal of the Program is to promote the improvement of the system of socially responsible management of water resources for sustainable development on a regional level and to change the attitude of the public toward water resources.

A meeting organized at the Center was joined by Program coordinators Cara Wolinsky, senior program officer at the Institute of International Education, New York, and Galina Grigoryeva, Alcoa Foundation Russia program manager, Moscow, and FSD projects manager Elena Bondarchuk, Moscow.

The guests discussed Program progress with the management of the Center and were acquainted with plans and prospects for the future. At the meeting, Irina Saprykina and Artyom Arcentyev, pupils of School # 162, described in English the visit of their class to a water laboratory organized under the Program.

The guests also took part in a round table at SamGTU “The Prospects of Applying Phytotechnology for Oily Waste Cleaning”, at which students of SamGTU presented their papers on waste water treatment with the use of higher aquatic plants; and were also acquainted with the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Center among professional ecologists in the city of Tolyatti. Kara Wolinsky spoke about the activities of the Program in various countries and invited the students to international cooperation.

After the presentations, Alina Kopnina, assistant professor of the Chemical Technology and Industrial Ecology Department invited the participants in the round table to visit her research laboratory.

At the end of the round table, the participants, being guided by the key environmental principle “Think globally, act locally”, installed two billboards at the city’s Botanical Garden with conservation information. They went on a guided tour of the gardens and conservatory led by Irina Ruzayeva, head of the Garden Flora Department, and Alexander Pomogaibin, deputy director. The Center provides support to the Botanical Garden, where it has installed 7 billboards under AlCOA Foundation programs.

The staff of the Botanical Garden presented the guests with the anniversary publication of a book about the Samara Botanical Garden that turned 80 years old in 2010. The Garden originates from a private collection of a local merchant Borshchev, who began planting rare and exotic trees at his estate in the early 19th century. The first to be planted were three blue spruces from North America - these trees, that live for 600 years, were among his most expensive acquisitions. Today, descendents of these three trees adorn the city’s embankment, gardens and parks. The Botanical Garden exchanges seeds with 200 leading botanical gardens of the world.

At a meeting of local and global coordinators	Elena Maksina and Olga Zavodskaya perform tests at the laboratory	During a tour of the Botanical Garden (from left to right: Kara Wolinsky, Elena Bondarchuk, Irina Ruzayeva, Alexander Pomogaibin, Galina Grigoryeva and Irina Zubkova)
Round table at SamGTU	An installed conservation billboard	At the conservatory: Irina Ruzayeva presents the guests with an anniversary publication of a book about Samara Botanical Garden
Irina and Artyom describe their visit to the water laboratory