Philip R. Pryde

PANEL ON NATIONALISM IN THE USSR: ENVIRONMENTAL AND TERRITORIAL ASPECTS

A panel of geographers, demographers, and political scientists discusses a broad range of issues related to the resurgence of nationalism in the USSR and its relationship to environmental protest and territorial disputes: the emergence of nationality politics; differential rates of nationality population growth and urbanization; various conceptions of (and levels of autonomy within) ethnic homelands; the spatial pattern of actual and potential territorial claims; linkages between environmentalism and nationalism (with an emphasis on the Baltic and Central Asian republics); parallels and differences between the USSR and other countries; and consequences of efforts to implement republic-level economic autonomy and khozraschet.

Post-Soviet Development and Status of Russian Nature Reserves

An American specialist on Russian environmental problems assesses the post-Soviet situation of Russias zapovedniki (nature reserve) system. Attention is focused on the 19 new reserves that have been created in the 1992-1996 period, which cover a combined 10,171,000 ha. The main characteristics of these new reserves is reviewed, with special attention given to the adequacy of their location vis-a-vis natural zones and endangered species distribution in Russia. The main spatial, fiscal, and biotic trends characterizing Russian zapovedniki in the 1990s are noted, and recent initiatives to cope with a variety of problems currently besetting the system are critically reviewed. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: Q24, Q26. 3 figures, 6 tables, 42 references.

PANEL ON SIBERIA: ECONOMIC AND TERRITORIAL ISSUES

A panel of geographers and other specialists on the Soviet Union examines a range of economic and territorial issues shaping Siberias past, present, and future. These include a history of local particularism and colonial rule imposed by the center; internal contradictions reflecting the regions enormous size and diversity; dynamics of population migration, natural increase, and ethnic composition; investment policy; current economic problems; foreign trade prospects and joint venture activity; environmental degradation; alternative scenarios of the regions future; and the need for multiple regionalization schemes in geographical analysis.

The "decade of the environment" in the u.s.s.R.

The decade of the 1970s was for the U.S.S.R, as for the United States, a period of increased awareness of environmental deterioration. In response, new laws were passed, pollution control funding was increased, and natural resource conservation was heavily stressed. Despite such good intentions, the cumulative effects of new technologies, inadequate budgets and enforcement, the primacy of production goals, and various institutional impediments resulted in an uneven and in some places inadequate level of environmental enhancement.

PANEL ON THE SOVIET UNION IN THE YEAR 2000

A panel of geographers debates possible future developments in the Soviet Union in regional and environmental policy, water resource management, agriculture, industry, energy, population, urban growth and planning, transportation, and foreign trade. The present emphasis on modernization of existing plant capacity in cities of the western, more heavily settled regions of the USSR seems destined to continue, although it will be constrained by a growing shortage of industrial labor, declining terms of trade and resource oversupply in increasingly competitive export markets, and the continued resistance of Central Asian populations to urbanization and industrial employment.

THE FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA OF THE USSR

A set of contemporary and increasingly urgent environmental problems in the USSR are surveyed, emerging as a result of continued development and technological change and mandating, in effect, a new environmental agenda. Analysis of specific problems reveals ways in which the new agenda must differ from the old: it must be more ecologically based, more comprehensive, and more global in scope. A concluding section examines how this agenda appears to be evolving over time, and identifies components which will be essential in order for it to effectively address the environmental challenges of the next century.

The distribution of endangered fauna in the USSR

The Soviet Unions 1985 Red Book lists 23 species (or sub-species) of mammals, 21 species of birds, and 26 species from other classes as officially endangered. The spatial distribution of these 70 species throughout the country is examined, and a very uneven pattern revealed. The southern European steppe regions, the Transcaucasus region, the rivers and mountains of Central Asia, the southern portion of the Soviet Far East, and offshore marine areas account for the vast majority of all 70 species. Possible contributing factors to species becoming endangered in the Soviet Union include the USSR being a peripheral locale for certain species, the presence of isolated mountain and desert island habitats along the southern borderlands, a high degree of landscape transformation during the Soviet period, various forms of environmental pollution, and ongoing hostilities in several countris through which some of these species must migrate.

Strategies and problems of wildlife preservation in the USSR

Abstract The Soviet Union, like all other industrialised countries, has encountered serious problems of wildlife conservation in the course of its development. These include loss of habitat due to economic expansion, problems of protecting endangered species, controlling hunting and combating poaching, mitigating the adverse effects of economic development, and enforcing the legislation that has been passed to regulate all the foregoing. Despite the existence of numerous conservation laws, the compilation of a Soviet Red Book, and an increasing amount of public awareness of the need for wildlife protection, the goals of wildlife conservation remain hard pressed to keep up with the predictable consequences of a half-century of intensive economic advancement.

NUCLEAR ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOVIET UNION

After a relatively slow start in nuclear energy development compared with the Western industrial countries, the Soviet Union is now giving a high degree of priority to the construction of nuclear power stations, particularly in the European part of the USSR, which is short of fossil fuels. The current five-year plan (1976–80) calls for the addition of about 14,000 MW of nuclear power capacity, from 5,500 MW in 1975 to 19,400 MW in 1980, when nuclear power would account for nearly 7% of total generating capacity. More rapid rates of growth are envisaged for the 1980s. Nuclear stations under construction or projected in the European part of the USSR account for almost 40% of the total capacity additions envisaged for that part of the country. There is a trend toward the construction of large-capacity reactors (1,000 MW and 1,500 MW), clustered in stations with generating capacities of 4,000 to 6,000 MW.

Recent Trends in Preserved Natural Areas in the U.S.S.R.

Large natural preserves, known as zapovedniki , represent the main territorial entities employed in biosphere preservation in the Soviet Union. In the past decade, a large expansion of the zapovedniki system has taken place, 35 new preserves totalling 4,477,000 ha having been created. In all, the system totalled (in 1976) 107 preserves covering about nine million hectares. The period since 1970 has also seen the creation of the U.S.S.R.s first three national parks, one in each of the three Baltic republics. Both zapovedniki and national parks in the Soviet Union are still in the process of having uniform administrative policies formulated for their management, which represents a difficult task in view of the fact that they have traditionally been managed by a wide variety of concerned agencies. The zapovedniki network represents one of the great biosphere preservation systems of the world, and remaining problems associated with ecosystem management, tourism, economic uses, and administrative coordination, are being given thoughtful attention.