International Moscow ECO Festival “Novaya Era”
May 31, 2016
On the 25th of March in the Tsytsin Main Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences it was hold the International Moscow ECO Festival “Novaya Era” organized with support of UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and Moscow Department of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Protection.
Within the Festival framework it has been carried out the round-table discussion “UNIDO projects in Russia for Stockholm Convention implementation” where UNIDO results in environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs in the Russian Federation have been presented. Parallel with UNIDO officials, the representatives of “Russian railway network”, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Russian energy agency, Tsytsin Main Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences have participated in this discussion. Along the discussion the importance of Stockholm Convention on POPs has been especially marked. The discussions of UNIDO project, its contribution in the implementation of Stockholm Convention as well as the problems of river, soil and water contamination have been raised during this event. There has been marked the necessity of further improvement of the normative legal base to activate the work in this regard. Special attention has been paid to the importance of not only inventory of PCB-contaminated equipment and waste but their environmentally sound disposal as in consequence of cleanout it is necessary to avoid the recontamination and cross-contamination of the equipment and while disposal it is important not to form new hazardous substances.
The high-profile award ceremony of the winners for National Ecological Award “ERAECO 2015” has become the main event of the Festival. The award has been established by social movement “ERAECO” under the aegis of UNESCO. It is handed out for the projects in the field of ecology which are made in the territory of the Russian Federation. The main task of this award is to unify the efforts of the civil society, government and business for ecological problems solution and environment protection, popularization and environmental culture introduction into the public life.
The laureates have been established in the categories such as “ECO-Education”, “ECO-Management”, “ECO-World” and “ECO-technologies”. This year there has been presented more than 150 applications from 17 regions. Among candidates there have been scientists, ecologists, volunteers, mass media, industrial enterprises, retailers, research institutes.
