Capital construction in specially protected natural areas of Moscow

Problems of nature protection in past times (30–40 or more years ago) often rested on the inaccessibility of information. The authorities were not obliged to notify anyone about the plans of their nature-transformation projects. Now we have to. What has changed and will change this valuable circumstance in our lives?

At the beginning of June this year, messages appeared on the government procurement website ( zakupki.gov.ru ) about an open competition for the development of regulations on specially protected natural areas (SPNA). They concern several protected areas in Moscow at once: natural-historical parks “Ostankino”, “Kuzminki-Lublino”, “Tsaritsyno”, “Izmailovo”, natural reserves “Valley of the Setuni River” and “Zhulebinsky”, landscape reserve “Valley of the Ramenki River” 1 . The tender documentation can be found on the website in the “Purchase Documents” section, in the subsection “Tender Documentation, Changes in Tender Documentation”. Particularly interesting is clause 5 of the List of Basic Requirements “Basic Requirements and Composition of the Work Performed” of the “Technical Specifications” file (and in it, first of all, clause 3.4). It shows that the purpose of developing these provisions is “ Preparing proposals for establishing zones for the planned placement of capital construction projects .” To date, the tenders have already been completed and contracts have been concluded - or will be concluded - for the implementation of this “responsible task”.

Let us remind you that skating rinks, indoor stadiums (“blowers”), wooden administrative buildings, under which clearings and meadows have disappeared in recent years in a number of protected areas, are NOT capital construction. “ Non-permanent buildings, structures - buildings, structures that do not have a strong connection with the ground and whose design characteristics allow their movement and (or) dismantling and subsequent assembly without disproportionate damage to the purpose and without changing the basic characteristics of buildings, structures (including kiosks , sheds and other similar buildings, structures) » 2 . Capital construction involves a much deeper (both literally and figuratively) intervention in the natural environment and a wider range of buildings, including shopping centers, residential buildings, etc. However, it is quite possible that, as has often happened, in such cases, at first the population will be promised swimming pools and sports complexes so that they will not object to capital construction in protected areas, and only then they will unexpectedly change the original plans and erect buildings for a completely different purpose.

It also needs to be recalled that protected areas are not parks, not public gardens, not just “green areas”. Their creation is the result of many years of scientific, organizational and educational work. Work to identify rare species of plants and animals in Moscow as indicators of full-fledged living conditions, develop recommendations for the preservation of these conditions, and regulations necessary for the formation of interconnected components of the ecological network is an extremely long and complex process. And now the decision of the Moscow government to prepare capital construction projects in protected areas is a cancellation of many years of collective efforts to preserve a human-friendly living environment in the city. It is clear that this is not the first attempt, but I still want to hope that the Russian scientific community has not yet lost enough self-respect to accept it calmly.

Finally, in the situation that has developed in recent years, urban protected areas are not only refugia of Red Book species, but the last islands of urban nature in general. The intensity of intervention by public utilities in the life of natural communities in all other areas of the natural complex outside the protected areas is so great that by now it has already greatly weakened their environment-stabilizing function. This includes extremely intense lighting, visible from half a city away at night, and continuous mowing of grass in the summer, and removal of leaves in the fall, and the destruction of undergrowth (shrubs, thickets) 3 . The soil dries out and dust formation increases, with negative consequences for the health of residents 4 . Against this background, the role of protected areas as the last refuges for natural communities and the preservation of natural balance in general is especially great. However, recently, “improvement” measures have begun to partially extend to them.

One way or another, the general outlines of a new attack on nature are already visible and, at least formally, are in the public domain. What will change in the fate of our protected areas? We urge everyone who is interested in preserving their habitat not to look at this “philosophically”, but to familiarize themselves with the urban planning plans, called “development of regulations on protected areas”, and form their opinion about them.

Vasily Ptushenko, Ksenia Avilova
(M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University)

1 zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/common-info.html?regNumber=0173200001419000736
zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/common-info.html?regNumber=0373200003119000145
zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/common-info.html?regNumber=0373200003119000146
zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/common-info.html?regNumber=0373200003119000147
zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ok504/view/common-info.html?regNumber=0373200003119000148

2 Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation, art. 1.

3 For the consequences of such intervention, see:

4 Ptushenko V.V., Martsevich S.Yu. Dust: heartfelt response // Science and Life, 2015, No. 1, p. 36–38.