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Caspian Sea Media Tour
GRID-Arendal supported a group of 16 journalists
who went to Astrakhan, Russia in May 2015 on
a media tour to examine the sturgeon-poaching
situation in the Northern Caspian. Participants met
with representatives of the main government bodies
responsible for the management of sturgeon stocks
and poaching control, including the Volga-Caspian
territorial department of the Ministry of Fisheries
(Rosrybolovstvo), the Office of Internal Affairs
of Russia and the department of Agriculture and
the fishing industry in the Astrakhan region. The
journalists toured an area known for its high poaching
activity and visited the Astrakhan Nature Reserve and
a private aqua-farm where “Beluga” sturgeon caviar
is produced. A follow-up media tour for journalists
to the leading Russian sturgeon breeding company
“Russian caviar house” in Kaduy, Vologda, was
organised in December.
Transnational organised environmental crime is a rapidly growing threat to the environment, revenues
from natural resources, state security, and to sustainable development. It involves everything from
logging and deforestation, fisheries, mining and trade in minerals, dumping and trade in hazardous
and toxic wastes and trade in and poaching of wildlife and plants.
The journalists’ tours produced 10 stories on the
topic in local and national print media, and 23 online
publications. A 25-minute report on sturgeon poaching
was included in a prime time TV Channel 1 show in
Russia, and a 15-minute report for the environmental
programme “Territory Tomorrow” appeared on Russian
state TV, ORT Channel.
An outcome of the media campaign was a high-level
meeting held in the Moscow Public Chamber on the legal
aspects of trade in sturgeon products in Moscow, where
much of the illegal sturgeon is consumed. Organised by
GRID-Arendal in partnership with WWF-Russia and the
“Union of Sturgeon Breeders”, the meeting led to policy
decisions on the issue by the Government of Moscow.
Recommendations were forwarded to the Russian
State Duma calling for poaching to be included
in parliamentary hearings of the Committee on
Environment scheduled for March 2016.
A private aqua-farmwhere sturgeon caviar
is produced. Photo: iStock/Pro-syanov