Baikal Information Center, with NGO Forum and Business and Industry Partnerships
Sergey Kudelya
UNOPS
Asia
The Baikal Basin: Although Lake Baikal is located entirely in Russia, the Baikal Basin is a transboundary ecosystem encompassing over 500,000 km2 shared between Russia and Mongolia, with over 400 rivers and streams. The Selenga River is a major transboundary water system in the heart of Asia, and the biggest tributary to Lake Baikal. On average it brings 30 km3 of water annually to the Lake, equaling nearly 60% of the total inflow to the Lake. Forty-six percent of the annual run-off of the Selenga river is generated in Mongolia. The catchment area of the Selenga River is 447,060 km2, of which 148,060 km2 (33%) is within Russia and 67% within Mongolia. The Selenga Basin comprises over 80% of the Baikal Basin, illustrating the importance of Mongolia to the lake’s long term ecological health. The Selenga Delta of Lake Baikal is one of the world’s largest fresh water deltas, occupying 680 km2.
The territory of the Baikal basin is complex in terms of its political and administrative arrangements. Political borders split the Basin practically in half between Russia and Mongolia. Within the Baikal basin there are three separate Russian regions (Oblast, Krai and Republic); 12 different Mongolian states (Aimags); over 45 national parks, strict nature reserves and significant cultural sites in both regions; and over 25 counties (rayons) in Russia and 116 counties (soums) in Mongolia, 28 of which are divided by the Basin boundary. Differences in economic development both among the Russian states of the basin and between the Russian and Mongolian portions of the basin are significant.
- effective and successful
- sustainable
- environmentally sound
- socially acceptable
- technically applicable
- economically efficient
- inherently participatory
- replicable and adaptable
The Baikal Informational Center (BIC) enhances data and information sharing through the specialized Web portal, incorporating available environment status data. The portal is destined to enhance cooperation, knowledge-sharing and networking between the stakeholders, industries, NGOs and public society. The BIC promotes data collection, monitoring, analysis, harmonization and public communication. It includes data of harmonized Baikal Basin Water Quality Monitoring Program (WQMP), sharing related environmental reports on the Internet.
In addition to refreshable collection of documents (including both governmental normative legal documents and relevant scientific research papers), the web-portal also contains visualized data available as online map format: hydrochemical monitoring system (from monitoring stations), intercalibration data and the following:
• WEAP (Water Evaluation And Planning system) based model of water balance of the Lake Baikal basin.
• Results of space spreading of pollutants’ characteristics in weighted and dissolved form of burden of river drift (turbidity, heavy metals, tracers) under different nature-anthropogenic conditions (maps, graphics, tables).
• Estimation of characteristics of water drift stocks and dissolved substances for different hydrological conditions.
• Forecast modeling of volume of accumulated material in river channel and in floodplain along the length of river systems; estimation of geochemical barriers.
• Development of model structure and water balance web-page.
• Ecological Atlas of Baikal basin, which consists of more than 100 maps.
The BIC portal is based on open source software, and has multilingual structure (English, Russian, Mongolian). The BIC served as a basis for the preparation of a biennial report on the state of the environment of the Baikal Basin. A Baikal NGO Forum was established through the BIC, providing a link to local NGOs and a mechanism to generate NGO support and advice on TDA/SAP development, plus participation in SAP implementation.
- legal and institutional aspects
- climate change adaptation and mitigation
- involvement of non-state stakeholders
- water quality
- transboundary aquifers
- cooperation over transboundary ecosystems and freshwater protected areas
- monitoring and assessment
- exchange of data
- impacts on the coastal/marine areas
- other
Accessibility and transparency of information is a critical element of good transboundary environmental governance. Public awareness surveys are also being conducted, including surveys of tourists of the region.
The BIC portal provides a great support for enhanced public awareness of the conditions, challenges and threats to the environment of the Baikal Basin. Adequate information distribution is relevant to all concerned stakeholders at all levels in the civil society. The aims of this activity are ensuring and improving of the availability of regular comprehensive reports providing accurate, up-to-date and accessible information about environmental conditions of the Baikal Basin and thereby enhancing the consciousness of the civil society.
The biennial report is prepared in close collaboration with main stakeholders and on the basis of scientific assessment. The activity also contributes to the preparation of other relevant information/education materials. All materials will be accessible through the BIC and will be widely distributed to the public.
Moreover, on the BIC basis a new concise public participation strategy is prepared to better support the requirements of the existing bilateral agreements on the Baikal Basin. Work focuses on strengthening the involvement of industry, business and civil society in the Baikal Basin. A Baikal Industry Roundtable is established and carried out by the Baikal Information Centre, providing a regular forum for feedback from the business sector and used to initiate public/private partnerships for water quality and biodiversity protection measures.
Thanks to web based technology, Baikal informational Center is able to provide the widest distribution of information (including visualized mapping data), engages lots of stakeholders, and obviates informational gaps in many areas. In this way it can be considered as financially acceptable and replicable.