At the end of 2025, the Russian government and legislature undertook an unprecedented attempt to weaken key nature conservation laws. After two years of intense debate, the ‘Law on the Protection of Lake Baikal’ was amended by the Russian State Duma on 9 December 2025 and signed by the President …
Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal. In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting “inter-social …
People from throughout the world who love Mongolia, its rivers and local communities, are truly concerned with current new push to build hydropower dams on Mongolia’s majestic free-flowing rivers. This piece republished with permission of the author – Peter Fong – is a vivid evidence of such concerns. Way back …
On December 15, 2022, 90 civil society groups from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the world called on Chinese authorities and actors to protect biodiversity and people in its overseas investments. As China is chairing the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP) currently …
by Eugene Simonov UWEC. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent changes in political and economic cooperation between Russia and the world inevitably impact the Russian government’s management of its internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots. Today, Russia has many fewer incentives to follow international laws and procedures in any sphere, nature conservation …
This story published in Novaya Gazeta reflects new ugly grimace of war. Using now very popular “Russia’s energy dependence” rhetoric and fabricated “evidence” the Mongolian proponents of large dams are trying to take revenge and silence local citizens and conservation NGOs who oppose construction of Erdeneburen Hydro by Power China …
