Today the Moscow City Duma has declined amendments into the draft law “On Specially Protected Natural Territories in Moscow” that would allow to conduct once in three years the so-called “corrections” [i.e. reductions] of such natural zones not exceeding 1 per cent of the territory.
To prove to the deputies that such an initiative will inevitably lead to shrinking of forests and parks Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the YABLOKO party and its faction in the Moscow Duma, visited on June 22 with deputy’s inspection one of such specially protected natural territories (The Valley of the Riva Skhadnaya in Kurkino), where a nameless elite settlement is situated. The allowance to build cottages in a specially protected natural territory was given by Viktor Kozlov, Prefect of the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow. The information got wide coverage in the media, in particular Vesti-Moscow broadcasted a piece on this inspection.
The day after the inspection deputy of the Moscow Duma Stepanenko said that the law would be excluded from the agenda of the Moscow City Duma, as “a lot has changed [since the adoption of the aforementioned amendments in the first reading], and the law on specially protected natural territories requires wider amendments”. She made such a statement in her interview to the Gazeta paper.
Sergei Mitrokhin expressed his satisfaction with such an outcome. “We are going to keep this matter under control and will not allow them to cut a single tree in specially protected natural territories,” he said.
See also:
Yabloko for Environmental Safety
Video piece from Vesti-Moscow
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