About WWF

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		Pskov Model Forest: Phase II
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		Lisino Forestry College

		Model For More Intensive And Sustainable Forest Management
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		Mechanisms Of Public Involvement

The site has been produced with financial support
from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

What is WWF?

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is the world's largest environmental organization with a network of 27 National Organizations, 22 Program Offices and 5 Associate organizations. Its 5 million members and supporters work as a team towards an overall goal to halt the destruction of the environment. WWF's projects are chiefly financed by donations coming from individuals, governments, international agencies and companies. Since 1985, WWF invested over 1.5 billion US dollars in 11,000 conservation programs and campaigns in 130 countries worldwide.

WWF's mission is to stop, and eventually reverse, the accelerated degradation of the planet's natural environment, and to help build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Russian Program Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF RPO) was opened on July 1, 1994. The Fund is carrying out over 50 projects in various regions of Russia (the Arctic region, the Far East, Kamchatka, Volga, Altai, Baikal and other regions).

WWF's priorities in Russia are the following:

The creation of and support for an ecologically representative network of protected areas. After perestroika reforms in Russia in the mid 1980ies, the network of nature reserves funded from the state budget was under threat of collapse. Being well aware of considerable scientific and environmental value of Russia's unique reserves, WWF launched programs of financial and technical aid for the protected areas. Among those are nature reserves in Sikhote-Alin, Ussuriysk, Baikal, Astrakhan and other regions.

The protection of endangered species of animals and birds. The Amur tiger, the Amur leopard, the Siberian crane, the Russian desman, the snow leopard, and other rare and endangered species are under the patronage of WWF RPO.

The concept of sustainable resource use. The concept is centered around the possibility of balancing interests of man and the environment. WWF experts say that if people learn how to compensate for their interference in the environment, nature will 'take care' of sustainable development and human well-being as well as its own sustainable reproduction. Since 1994, programs of sustainable resource use have been under way in the regions of Kalmykia, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Altai, Pskov and other territories of Russia.

The program of forest conservation and sustainable forest management. The program was launched in 1997 in connection with the global importance of Russian forests as the biosphere framework for the planet. It was admitted that conservation measures should be applied not only to the nature reserves and national parks but also to forests outside the protected areas. Russian Forest Program is focused on applying modern methods of sustainable forest management on the model territories with further voluntary certification of forest products.

The development of mechanisms of nature conservation and ecological education. The goal of the Environmental Education Program is to demonstrate the connection between everyday interests of man and the conservation of the environment. Another important goal is to create sustainable mechanisms, structures and associations capable of independent functioning without the Fund's support after the environmental projects have been completed.