Final Report on the 1998 Tahoe-Baikal Environmental Policymakers Exchange

by TBI Staff

I. Summary.

On March 17, 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $50,000 grant to the Tahoe-Baikal Institute (TBI) to carry out a "Tahoe-Baikal Environmental Policymakers Exchange" (Assistance ID No. X826405-01-0).

The stated objective of the grant was "to support a community-level partnership between Lake Tahoe and Lake Baikal to preserve water quality and a unique ecosystem" (from the Assistance Agreement). To carry out this objective, TBI proposed to sponsor, organize, and implement an "environmental policy exchange" between the United States and Russia, which would bring together senior Russian and American environmental policymakers for an extended period of time in both countries. Together, the participants in the exchange would discuss and explore policy-level approaches to preserving the environment, while pursuing national and regional goals in the utilization of natural resources. These discussions would occur alongside visits to threatened natural locales, as well as protected areas, in the two countries.

Initially, the funding for the project consisted of the $50,000 awarded by EPA, with an additional $5,500 pledged by TBI as the grantee's match under the terms of the grant. During May 1998, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund of San Francisco awarded a special grant of $20,000 to TBI to augment the funding of the project.

The exchange was carried out during the summer of 1998, in two parts. The first part occurred in California, from July 24 to August 2, 1998. The second part took place in Russia, from August 27 to September 3, 1998.

Activities during the exchange included a large number of substantive events, in the form of panel discussion and roundtables, as well as informal colloquies and brainstorming sessions, and recreational events.

Many new connections were made, not just on the part of TBI and the core participants in the exchange, but among the various entities which participated in individual events. In the case of TBI, many new ideas and initiatives developed out of the exchange. The activities, content, and results of the exchange are summarized in the following report.

The exchange brought together environmental policymakers from the federal, state, regional, and local levels of government in both countries.

Federal agencies in the U.S. included U.S. Department of State; EPA; U.S. Forest Service; the U.S. Geological Service; and the National Park Service. Federal government entities in Russia included: State Committee on the Environment, including the State Baikal Commission; the Ministry of Natural Resources; and the Forest Service.

In California, six State government agencies participated in the exchange, including; the Resources Agency; the Trade and Commerce Agency; the California Tahoe Conservancy; the California Energy Commission; the Air Resources Board; and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board. Participating bi-state agencies included the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (California and Nevada) and the Columbia River Gorge Commission (Oregon and Washington). Local government participation included the City of South Lake Tahoe. In Russia, there was significant participation from two regions (Irkutsk and Chita) and from the Republic of Buryatia. The California Secretary for Resources participated, as did the environment minister for the Republic of Buryatia and the Governor's environmental deputy for the Irkutsk Region.

Educational institutions and institutes represented in the exchange included, in the U.S.: the University of California at Berkeley and Davis; and the University of Nevada at Reno. In Russia, participating institutions and institutes included: the Irkutsk Technical University; the State Pedagogical University in Chita; the Buryat State University; the Institute on Regional Legislation; and the Limnological Institute and the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Serval leading scientists participated in the sessions in one or both countries, including: Dr. Charles Goldman, University of California, Davis; Dr. Mikhail Grachev of the Limnological Institute, Irkutsk; Dr. V. Fialkov, of the Limnological Institute and the Baikal Museum, Listvyanka; and Dr. John Carroll, University of California, Davis.

The exchange resulted in a series of important contacts, and ideas for future initiatives. Topics discussed included, among others, energy conservation, limnology, trans-boundary pollution, and economic redirection of polluting industries.

II. Planning and Coordination of the Exchange.

In February 1998, while the EPA grant application was pending, TBI retained Sanoma Lee Kellogg as project coordinator for the U.S. side of the exchange, on a short-term contract; she served in this role until September 1998. Ms. Kellogg worked initially in Washington, D.C.; then, in early April, she relocated to South Lake Tahoe, where she was able to work more closely with the TBI board and staff. During June 1998, she travelled to Moscow and Siberia to make advance preparations for the Russia portion of the exchange.

Ms. Kellogg was generally responsible for coordinating the selection of core participants in the exchange, in consultation with the TBI board; as well as the invitation process and follow-up communications with the invitees. She coordinated the international and domestic air travel arrangements; transportation, lodging, and interpreters in Moscow; and many of the logistical arrangements during the U.S. portion of the exchange. Working closely with the chairs of the Board and the Program Committee of TBI-USA, and with members of the Russian delegation and the staff of TBI-Russia, she helped with the scheduling, planning, and coordination of events on both sides of the exchange. Ms. Kellogg also accompanied the policymakers during the U.S. portion of the program, and supervised the taping and audio-visual arrangements during discussion events. Finally, she prepared a detailed report on the planning of the overall project and the implementation of the U.S. portion of the exchange. The main contents of that report have been incorporated in this final report.

Additional coordination help was provided on the U.S. side by Karen Smallwood, then Program Director (now Executive Director) of TBI-U.S.A.; and staff members of the California Tahoe Conservancy, the California Energy Commission, and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Coordination of the exchange from the Russian side was divided amongst several people. Two of the participants in the exchange played a primary role: Valentin Brovchak, Executive Secretary for the Russian Federations' Baikal Commission in Moscow, and Valery Gulgonov, Chair of the State Committee on Natural Resources, Buryat Republic, who hosted the policymakers delegation in Buryatia from August 28-29.

III. Results of the Exchange.

A. Future recommendations for the TBI program.

The most immediate result of the Environmental Policymakers Exchange was a stream of ideas and recommendations, flowing from the participants in the Exchange, concerning the future priorities and direction of TBI. Assembling under TBI auspices, the policymakers were naturally drawn to the question of how TBI can enlarge its role and effectiveness in the environmental field, and what concrete steps might be taken toward this end. The policymakers' interaction with the TBI students at Lake Tahoe further stimulated this on-going discussion.

At the last formal session during the U.S. portion of the exchange, held at the Tenaya Lodge, Yosemite National Park on August 1, 1998, the policymakers participated in a brainstorming session on "Planning the Future Agenda of TBI", and identified a series of priorities for the future development and expansion of TBI. A summary of ideas generated at this session is attached in Appendix II.

Many of the suggestions involved environmental education, e.g., establishing new opportunities for environmental education through TBI exchanges and training programs; facilitating environmental education programs of other entities, in government (e.g., U.S. Forest Services, city governments), industry, and schools; and developing methodologies for improving environmental education.

Another suggestion, from Valentin Brovchak of the Russian Federation's Baikal Commission, was that TBI expand its role in Russia, for example, by serving as an intermediary between federal and local officials, and by facilitating training of specialists.

Nikolai Vlasenko, of the Institute of Regional Legislation, Irkutsk, proposed that TBI organize future exchanges around more specific topics. During 1999, in part through his initiative, TBI was able to organize its first law exchange (see below). This type of activity shows promise as a way of heightening the involvement of TBI in policy-related issues.

Many of these ideas generated during the Policymakers Exchange are being actively pursued in 1999 and 2000.

B. Organizational development and support for TBI.

As hoped, the Policymakers Exchange significantly advanced the prospects for expanding the board of TBI-Russia, for enlarging the base of financial and administrative support, and for drawing in new partners and cooperating organizations.

Since the Policymakers' Exchange, the activity of the TBI-Russia board has greatly increased. The board, which was relatively inactive up until 1998, has now been re-organized and expanded. This effort came to a head in August 1999, with the election of new officers and the adoption of a regular calendar of meetings.

The effect of the Policymakers' Exchange in enlarging the pool of board-level participation in Russia has been particularly noticeable. Two Russian participants in the Policymakers' Exchange are members of the re-organized board of TBI-Russia: Nikolai Vlasenko, head of the Institute of Regional Legislation, and Tatyana Strizhova of the Institute of Natural Resources and the Chita Pedagogical University. (One American participant, Charles Soderquist, who had not previously been involved with TBI, was elected to the TBI-USA board in 1998.

Other persons whose first involvement with TBI began during the Policymakers Exchange, and who are active in the re-organized TBI-Russia are A.V. Vasyanovich, Chief of the Governor's Department of Ecology, Irkutsk Oblast; and Marina Rikhanova, Co-Chair of the Baikal Ecological Wave.

Largely as a result of the Policymakers' Exchange, support for TBI has begun to surface from various new sources within Russia. While the exchange was still underway in Russia, the Limnology Institute offered office space to TBI. Around the same time, at a meeting between the policymakers and TBI alumni, a group of alumni formed to tackle the problem of finding a more permanent base of operations for the annual summer exchange at Baikal. More recently, during the re-organizational activities, Nikolai Vlasenko from the Institute of Regional Legislation offered to take the lead on legal questions relating to the registration of TBI-Russia as a non-governmental organization. TBI-Russia is trying to take advantage of this new level of interest and support to carry out its main priorities, which are to build and strengthen the organization, and to develop well-planned and well-targeted projects for TBI in Russia.

During the Russian portion of the exchange, the policymakers met with representatives of the Open-Society Institute (Soros) and the MacArthur Foundation, all of whom expressed much interest in the TBI program, opening up a prospect of future financial support of TBI's program in Russia.

TBI-USA and TBI-Russia continue to keep in touch with the participants in the Policymakers' Exchange. This occurs in the form of ongoing, informal contacts and consultation, as well as formal communications to maintain the connections begun in 1998. A section of our spring 1999 newsletter was devoted to the Exchange, and we will continue to include news of initiatives growing out of the Exchange in our newsletter and web-site. Also, a copy of this report will be sent to the participants in the exchange.

C. New partnerships.

The environmental Policymakers Exchange has led to a number of significant new partnerships for the Tahoe-Baikal Institute, particularly in Russia.

Because of the visit of the policymakers to the Tunkinsky National Park in Buryatia during the Russian portion of the exchange, TBI developed an important new connection with the National Park. As a result, Yuri Budaev, a ranger and trails specialist with the Tunkinsky Park, was invited by TBI-Russia to participate in the TBI 1999 summer exchange program. Additionally, after attending a conference on sacred sites held at the Ust-Ordinskiy autonomous okrug, a group of TBIers joined up with a youth group from the Tunkinsky region to hike to several sacred sites and explore the means for preserving them.

Also during the policymakers' visit to Tunkinsky Park, discussions began with Valery Gulgonov, Chair of the State Committee on Natural Resources, Buryatia, toward a memorandum of understanding between the State of California and the Buryat Republic, with agreements to sponsor and facilitate future exchanges between the countries. We expect that this MOU will be consummated during 1999-2000.

Connections with the Chita region have also been strengthened as a result of the participation of two policymakers from Chita, Tatyana Strizhova and Valery Gorlachov, in the Policymakers Exchange. This led to a project at Arakhlei Lakes during the 1999 summer program, in which a group of TBIers worked on limnology research and recreation projects in collaboration with graduate students from the State Pedagogical University in Chita. Contacts have been initiated which are expected to lead to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Chita Region and the State of California (along the lines of an MOU signed between the Irkutsk Oblast and the State of California in 1996).

Connections with the Sludyanka District of the Irkutsk Region have also grown as a result of the Policymakers Exchange. During the Exchange, the policymaker group met in Baikalsk with top executives from the city of Baikalsk and from the Sludyanka district. Partly as a result of these contacts, the Sludyanka Administration sponsored a project during the summer of 1999, in which a group of TBIers hiked to the top of Cherskiy Peak, where they helped to repair trail bridges in a high-density tourist area. This project was considered by the participants to be a particularly useful and educational one.

Connections with academic and non-governmental institutions were also advanced by the Policymakers Exchange. During the Russian portion of the exchange, a meeting was held between the policymakers and the Rector and several faculty heads from the Technical University in Irkutsk, in which many ideas for future cooperation were explored. Before the end of the exchange, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two entities. The policymakers also met with representatives of a large group of non-governmental organizations active in and around the Irkutsk Region, which has improved connections with the nonprofit sector, including the Baikal Environmental Wave. During the 1999 summer program, the TBIers met with representatives of the Wave to explore the question of redirection of the economy of Baikalsk along more environmental lines. Other partnership opportunities with the Wave have also been floated. The Wave was represented at the meeting held in Irkutsk on August 18, 1999, to discuss the re-organization and enlargement of the Board of Directors of TBI-Russia. We expect that the Wave will participate in future meetings of the TBI-Russia board.

D. Law Exchange.

As a result of the participation of Nikolai Vlasenko (Institute of Regional Legislation, Irkutsk Region) in the Policymakers Exchange, TBI in 1999 carried out its first law exchange. The participants in this exchange were Tatyana Mogilyova, an attorney with the Irkutsk Institute for Regional Legislation; and Nicole Rinke, a student at Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Rinke conducted an in-depth study of problems which have resulted from the abandonment of the Jamestown Mine in Tuolomne County, California, and which can be traced to deficiencies in federal, state and local government regulation. Ms. Mogilyova carried out a general study of land-use law in California, which included meetings with key persons at various governmental agencies and NGOs.

We are looking forward to a second stage of the law exchange, tentatively scheduled to occur at Baikal in the summer of 2000.

E. Sister Forest agreement.

One idea that had its seed during the Policymakers Exchange is for a "Sister Forests" agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and the National Parks in the Lake Baikal Region (Pribaikalsky, Tunkinsky, and Zabaikalsky.) Bob Harris, a participant in the Policymakers Exchange, and now chair of the board of TBI-USA, is taking the lead in implementing this idea. He has begun discussions with the U.S. Forest Service, USAID, and the three national parks around Baikal, with the idea of exchanging forest rangers, equipment, and forestry training between the two countries. Just this month Mr. Harris met in Washington D.C. with representatives of these agencies. USAID has agreed to support the initial step of sending two representatives from the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (Forest Service) to the Baikal region to set up specifics of the partnership.

F. Interchange of ideas and information in the environmental field.

Throughout the 1999 Environmental Policymakers Exchange, presentations and roundtable discussions were held on a wide range of environmental subjects, including many of a technical nature, from the pollution of lakes to forest health and biodiversity, to energy conservation and global warming. Within the limited time frame of the Exchange, it was not possible for the group to come to any overall conclusions about most of these topics; but it would be true to say that all of the participants came away with a greater appreciation of the environmental challenges faced by both countries, and for the possibilities of international collaboration in this area. We look forward as an organization to helping encourage this collaboration and taking an active part in the results.

We greatly value the work that we were able to carry out with the help of the U.S. EPA. Along with enhancements to our program mentioned above, we plan to concentrate our efforts on developing projects in environmental education, especially in the National Parks and protected forest areas. We hope that we can again enter into successful cooperation with the U.S. EPA to bring about meaningful change in the Tahoe and Baikal watersheds.