CASE NUMBER: 523
CASE MNEMONIC: LADOGA
CASE NAME: Lake Ladoga Water Quality
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I. Identification
1. The Issue
Lake Ladoga is the largest freshwater lake in Europe and the primary source of drinking water for St. Petersburg, Russia, and the autonomous republic of Karelia. Lake Ladoga is a historic site, where Soviet troops valiantly hindered the advance of German and Finnish troops during World War Two. Pollution from various industrial and agricultural materials threaten the Lagoda water supply. The pollution of Lake Ladoga is only one instance of many in Soviet history where the desire for economic development took precedence over the preservation of nature's gifts. Authorities now must weigh the health and environmental hazards to St. Petersburg (and to other countries, including Finland, Estonia, and the Baltic Sea littoral countries) against the economic effect of remedial measures on the polluting industries of the Ladoga basin.
2. Description
The city of St. Petersburg, the fourth largest city in Europe (eclipsed by London, Paris, and Moscow, respectively) and the second largest city in Russia, is nicknamed the "Venice of the North" based on Tsar Peter the Great's vision to construct a capital city for Russia with rivaled Venice, Italy, itself (photo taken by the author, June 1993). Ten percent of St. Petersburg's territory is occupied by water, and 86 rivers and canals weave over a total distance of 300 kilometers through the city (Beloshchutska, 1993).
St. Petersburg is located at the nexus of an immense ecological system. Lake Ladoga, the largest freshwater lake in Europe and the primary source for drinking and industrial water for St. Petersburg and the autonomous republic of Karelia, is located outside St. Petersburg. Lake Ladoga, like the Great Lakes of North America, is of glacial origin. (By contrast, the Caspian and Aral Seas and Lake Baikal are lakes of tectonic origin, formed following shifts in the earth's crust.) Thirty-two rivers flow directly into Lake Ladoga (whose reservoir basin spans a total area of 280,00 square kilometers), and only one river, the Neva, flows out. St. Petersburg actually is a series of islands and banks along the Neva River. The city is located at the Neva delta which empties into the Gulf of Finland. (Photo courtesy of ILEC World Lakes Database. See reference in "Relevant Literature" section.)
Lake Ladoga in History
The name "Ladoga" (as well as "Neva," "Izhora," "Vuoksi," and "Svir") is Balto-Fennic in origin, testifying to the convergence of Slavonic settlers from the south, Varangian (Scandinavian) traders attempting to reach the Byzantine Empire, and Finnic nations. The ancient Russian state, "Rus," was founded at the end of the 9th century, and the fortress of Staraya Ladoga (Old Ladoga), which was founded in the 750s, become was one of Rus' first main towns, according to Aleksandr Saksa (1996: 31-34).
The land surrounding Lake Ladoga was annexed to the Novgorod principality in the second half of the thirteenth century (the formal name for the city at that time was "Lord Novgorod the Great"). The city of Novgorod was located on the Volkhov River. Lake Ladoga, therefore, connected the Novgorod principality with points north, opening the way to the Baltic Sea and other trade centers. One of Novgorod's favorite sons was Prince Alexandr (b. 1219, d. 1263), also known as "Aleksandr Nevskiy." Alexandr faced Mongol invasion and defended the principality successfully against the Swedes (on the banks of the Neva River, hence the "Nevskiy" in "Alexandr Nevskiy") and against the Teutonic Knights, whom Alexandr defeated in the famed "massacre on the ice" at Lake Chud on April 5, 1242. This battle is remembered in music and film, in works by Prokofiev and Eisenstein, respectively (Riasanovskiy, 79-80). The land surrounding Lake Ladoga is the site of many fortresses which were built in the 12th-16th centuries, according to Ljudmila Wampilova (1996: 149).
Lake Ladoga and the Siege of Leningrad
Lake Ladoga was the site of fierce Russian resistance to the German advance during World War Two (the Great Patriotic War). Leningrad (the Soviet-era name for St. Petersburg) lay under siege from advancing German forces for nearly two and a half years, from September 1941 through January 1944 (Hosking, 1990: 279). Leningrad was virtually cut off from the rest of the country.
During the siege, Russian forces maintained a line of sea defense across Lake Ladoga. This military barrier by sea combined with a line of land defense across the Vsevolozhskiy district (the land to the southwest between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland) to stymie the German-Finnish advance and to protect Leningrad from capture. Russian forces established motor routes spanning thirty miles across the frozen Lake Ladoga in the south, between the towns Novaya Ladoga, Lednevo, and Lake Ladoga.
(The single dotted line on Lake Ladoga marks Leningrad's sea defense line, held throughout the siege. The pointed border on land marks the siege line from September 1941 through January 1943. The double dotted line over Lake Ladoga marks the Russian motor routes over the frozen lake. Map is reprinted from Gilbert, 1993.)
These two routes were a path for some Leningrad residents to escape during the siege and the only supply lines for the remaining besieged and starving Leningrad population. The Ladoga supply routes tragically were not enough to sustain the city over the course of the siege. According to Russian historian Nicholas Riasanovsky, during the siege period Leningrad's population "was decreased by starvation, disease, and war from four to two and a half million" (Riasanovsky, 1993: 518). For more information, see the War on Lake Ladoga page of the "Window to Karelia" Web site for a chronicle of Soviet-Finnish skirmishes during World War II.
Lake Ladoga's Pollution Woes
Excessive fertilization, soil erosion, and livestock and industrial waste have polluted Lake Ladoga. Ironically, one Soviet-era author asserted that Lake Ladoga now is in the throes of an "industrial blockade" which threatens the life of the lake as the Nazi siege threatened the lives of the Leningrad population (Tsybulskiy, 1990). According to an International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC) survey, nearly 75 percent of the pollutant load in Lake Ladoga comes from domestic (municipal) wastewater (11 percent), industrial wastewater (40 percent), and agricultural runoff (23 percent). Industries in the area of Lake Ladoga include machine-building, metalworking, chemicals, oil, forestry, woodworking, and pulp and paper; most of these industries are marked by high water consumption and emission of materials damaging to the environment. Of the livestock facilities in the region, only 25 percent are equipped with water treatment facilities. (The photo at left shows industrial pollutants entering Lake Ladoga from a plant near Pitkaranta in the south end of the lake where no invertebrates can survive (photo used courtesy of Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola, 1996: 117).)
With each day of inaction, the potential for ecological degradation worsens in the Lake Ladoga basin. As recently as February 1999, Russian Greenpeace activists warned of dangers from new waste hazards. According to press reports, a waste pit at the Syas pulp and paper plant burst on 20 December, leaking "no less than 700,000 cubic meters (184.8 million gallons)" of waste not far from Lake Ladoga. The waste material contains copper, lead, and chrome at levels exceeding the norm by three to twenty times. Despite assurances from the Leningrad region State Environmental Committee that "everything is under control," Greenpeace representatives claim that the wastes, now perilously contained because of the Ladoga region's seasonal freeze, will threaten "the life and health of millions of people" when the snow and ice begin to melt later this year" (Environmental Data Services, ENDS Environment Daily, 16 February 1999; Interfax Russian news agency, 9 February 1999, 1122 GMT).
The pollution of Lake Ladoga presents manifold negative effects on St. Petersburg's environment and industry. First, Lake Ladoga pollution fundamentally threatens the drinking water supply for the residents of St. Petersburg city and others in the region. Second, Ladoga pollution threatens the fishing in Lake Ladoga and potentially the fishing industry in the Gulf of Finland. The agricultural runoff in particular causes a process called anthropogenic eutrophication, in which the excess of nutrients (from organic waste products) causes an overgrowth of algae which in turn decrease the amount of oxygen in the water. Eutrophication, by sapping the oxygen from the water, degrades the habitat for fish. Third, the pollution of Lake Ladoga could threaten the tourist industry. The "death" of the lake would not make a very attractive spot for vacationing local residents or for foreigners who take cruises to Lake Ladoga via the Gulf of Finland and the Neva River. If Ladoga pollution increases and extends to St. Petersburg itself, that city's tourism industry may suffer at the hands of the Neva's fetid waters.
Eutrophication also has plagued the Great Lakes of North America. The US and Canadian Governments established an International Joint Commission to address common environmental and other problems; a Great Lakes Research Advisory Board and a Standing Committee on Eutrophication were subsumed within the purview of the Commission. Their studies indicated that scientists and policymakers paid little attention to eutrophication and cladophora, the offending algal growth in the Great Lakes, until the middle 1950s, when complaints of algal accumulations and offensive odors became common.
These studies concluded that the eutrophication problem in the Great Lakes probably is attributable in large part to the interference of human activity in the "balance of nature" of the Great Lakes ecosystem. This conclusion likely can be applied to the Lake Ladoga case as well. From the 1975 International Joint Commission report (regarding the Great Lakes):
The 1975 study summarized a few procedures which could alleviate the excesses of the eutrophication process. The study highlighted chemical control (including aquatic herbicides, although they could represent a different and serious threat to the environment), mechanical control/physical removal (using front-end loaders, tractors, bulldozers, or plows to remove beach accumulation of algal growth), biological control (which would require research to determine predators or pathogens to combat the algal growth), nutrient control (elimination of some agricultural and domestic organic wastes from water which flows into the aquatic habitat), changes in life style (learning to produce less waste), or beneficial uses (researching means to market the algal growth and harvest it for commercial uses) (Sheer and Konasewich, eds., 1975: 131-152). The Great Lakes studies have recognized that excessive algal growth can cause manifold problems. For example, a 1984 study of Cladophora in Lake Erie noted serious possible nuisance effects resulting from algal growth (though the study underscored that the eutrophication issue in the Great Lakes was still within manageable proportions at the time of the publication and that these effects were not an issue for the Great Lakes at the time).
Pollution Versus Lake Ladoga Health: The Trade-Environment Conflict
Actions to stem the flow of pollutants into Lake Ladoga likely will threaten the activity of industries which empty their waste into the lake. Many of these industries have little money to spare to send their wastes to alternate sites. (A February 1997 US Department of Commerce market analysis report cites Russian State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat) figures which reveal that, during the first half of 1996, 52 percent of enterprises in the woodworking, cellulose and pulp and paper industries were operating in debt (Gunn and Ristau, 1997).)
Ironically, an economic crisis may appear to be good for the environment. If the industries in the Lake Ladoga region are operating in arrears and eventually close, then the offending industries will no longer produce their pollutants and Lake Ladoga will improve. However, such a condition would produce only a short-term fix without addressing the greater problem--the Russian proclivity to prioritize trade and industrial development over the sustainable development and preservation of the ecosystems of the land. In other words, once the Russian economy is back on its feet, the country's industrial practices would again threaten Lake Ladoga's health.
Russian officials do recognize that pollution in the Lake Ladoga basin is harmful to the life of the lake and those that depend on the lake for drinking water or industrial use (listed above). Substantive action to curb the level of pollution into Lake Ladoga, however, is lacking. According to the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC), the USSR Council of Ministers in 1984 adopted a resolution on protecting measures for Lake Ladoga and its basin. Implementing this resolution, a large pulp and paper plant in Priozersk was closed. Press reports claim that Priozersk waste reservoirs were never cleaned after the plant was closed and the waste reportedly continues to flow into the lake (Averbukh, 1999: 2). Marina Kamayeva notes in a 1997 report that no less than 500 enterprises located on the lake's shore continue to contaminate the lake.
Unfortunately, the pollution of Lake Ladoga is only the latest in a series of polluted waters following endemic neglect in the name of development. Feshbach and Friendly charge that the pollution of Lake Baikal in Siberia, as well as many other Soviet-sphere bodies of water (including Lake Ladoga), were attributable to "the recklessness of much Soviet development." Of the total volume of surface water in the USSR (44 billion cubic meters, measured in 1989), "32.7 billion--nearly three-fourths--were classified as polluted. Fully one-third of the unclean water was totally untreated" (1992: 113-114).
*Not an exhaustive list of all cases related to this study in the Trade and Environment Database (TED).
Courtney M. Nero (May 1999)
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Russian officials do recognize that pollution in the Lake Ladoga basin is harmful to the life of the lake and those that depend on the lake for drinking water or other industries. Substantive action to curb the level of pollution into Lake Ladoga, however, is not dynamic. According to the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC), the USSR Council of Ministers in 1984 adopted a resolution on protecting measures for Lake Ladoga and its basin. Implementing this resolution, a large pulp and paper plant in Priozersk was closed. Press reports claim that Priozersk waste reservoirs were never cleaned after the plant was closed and the waste reportedly continues to flow into the lake (Averbukh, 1999: 2). Marina Kamayeva notes in a 1997 report that no less than 500 enterprises located on the lake's shore continue to contaminate the lake.
The forum and scope currently involve Russia. The immediate parties involved include St. Petersburg-area inhabitants, who are affected by the polluted water, and St. Petersburg-area industries, whose operations may be affected if they are forced to take remedial measures to decrease the waste and other materials polluting Lake Ladoga.
The pollution of Lake Ladoga potentially could affect Finland and Estonia at least, and the Baltic Sea littoral countries at most, if the pollution is left untreated or increases. The Neva River is the only river flowing out of Lake Ladoga. The Neva then flows through St. Petersburg and into the Gulf of Finland. If Lake Ladoga's pollution continues unabated, the volume of pollution could flow down the Neva and into the Gulf, possibly affecting fishing or tourism for Finland, particularly Helsinki, which is located on the Gulf coast.
At the least, Russia is the only country included in the decision breadth. However, if pollution continues, the decision breadth could include Finland and Estonia, which are located on the Gulf of Finland about 200 miles from the Neva River delta, as well as the Baltic Sea littoral (Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and Denmark) and catchment (Norway, Belarus, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic) countries.
As a unilateral case, a law (such as the 1984 USSR Council of Ministers resolution) would be a sufficient venue to ensure proper management and control of pollution into Lake Ladoga. According to the US Consulate in St. Petersburg, as of April 1995 a Federal program for the protection of the Lake Ladoga basin and the recovery of submerged timber from Lake Ladoga to stabilize the supply of phenols to the lake had been proposed as priorities for regional and municipal budgeting. According to the consulate report, Russian companies investing in environmental projects are eligible to receive tax breaks (US Department of State, 1995).
Recognizing the importance of Lake Ladoga to the regional ecosystem, Russia in 1992 signed an environmental agreement with Finland, forming a coordinating subgroup between Finland and Russia's Leningrad oblast. The alliance has proposed the creation of a "free ecological and economic zone" in Svetogorsk, Russia, to promote environmentally-sound economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union; the "Baltic Pallette" project, to coordinate planning for the development of the Baltic Sea coast; and a project promoting the protection and stable use of Lake Ladoga water resources (Fomichyova, 1999). In addition, Russia at the interstate level is a signatory to the April 1992 Baltic Sea Joint Environmental Action Program, a "joint understanding" (technically not a treaty) among fourteen Baltic Sea littoral or catchment area countries, which calls for, among other things, "a set of policy, legal, and regulatory reforms that establish a long-term environmental management framework" in each signatory country and "a program for infrastructure investment in specific measures to control point and nonpoint sources of pollution and to minimize and dispose of wastes" (Kocher, TED Case Study on Baltic Sea Pollution (BALTIC).
Lastly, Russia signed and ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. Each Party to the Convention must take the appropriate measures to:
a. Geographic Domain: Europe
b. Geographic Site: North Europe
c. Geographic Impact: Russia
The Russian Government (that is, at the federal level) has enacted legislation in the past concerning the water quality of Lake Ladoga. Any local laws (for example, from the regional governments in St. Petersburg or the autonomous republic of Karelia) passed concerning Lake Ladoga probably could be subject to amendment or even annulment if found to contravene federal law.
The Lake Ladoga basin may be considered snow forests. The lake is frozen typically from February through May.
The key to minimizing the environmental effects of Lake Ladoga pollution is for the Russian Federation Government to establish and enforce standards for municipal, industrial, and agricultural waste in the lake. Enforcement of such standards may require the government to close some industries, as the Soviet-era government did with the Priozersk pulp and paper plant in 1984. See also the Impact on Trade Restriction below for social and economic impediments to sustainable development of the Lake Ladoga environment.
a. Directly Related to Product: Yes (fishing)
b. Indirectly Related to Product: No
c. Not Related to Product: No
d. Related to Process: Yes (Pollution Sea)
The implementation and enforcement of regulatory standards against pollution in Lake Ladoga would reduce the threat to the drinking water supply of St. Petersburg and the Ladoga region and ensure the health of the lake. Regulatory standards against pollution also would benefit the tourism industry in the Lake Ladoga basin; numerous travel agencies book cruises that feature lakes and rivers from the Gulf of Finland to Moscow.
The trade products above are and will continue to be affected negatively by pollution of Lake Ladoga. Lake Ladoga pollution not only affects fishing and tourism in Russia but also potentially the Gulf of Finland and Baltic Sea littoral countries.
Fishing. Forty eight species and forms of fish have been encountered in Lake Ladoga. Of these, 25 are commercially significant and 11 are mass commercial fish; the salmonids, coregonids, and pike perch are the most valuable ones, according to Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola (1996: 114).
Tourism. Wampilova (1996: 143-151) notes that Lake Ladoga is apt to attract tourists for water-related recreational purposes, for historical excursions (e.g. the 12th-16th century Ladoga area fortresses of the Novgorod principality), for ecological and geological research and excursions (e.g. visiting the Ladoga Islets Nature Park, which is planned to occupy 124,000 hectares), and for cruises which sample Russia's northwest waterways.
Potable Water Supply. The import of potable water for the population of Russia's Leningrad region probably would be a significant expense. Lake Ladoga provides a supply of drinking water for much of Leningrad region as well as the Karelian autonomous republic. Domestic use of Lake Ladoga water is at a rate of 26.3 cubic meters per second, according to ILEC.
Lake Ladoga's pollution concerns presently are not at a critical stage. However, inattention to pollution over the medium- and long-term could decrease the St. Petersburg and regional drinking water supply, pollute the Neva River, the Gulf of Finland, and possibly the Baltic Sea, and undermine the aesthetic viability of St. Petersburg, Lake Ladoga, and the Ladoga-Neva ecosystem as tourist attractions.
On the other hand, strict measures against the polluting industries (including potential closures) would lead to increased unemployment within the Ladoga region. In Russia's current situation of economic hardship, a bureaucratic decision to close industries, thereby increasing unemployment, may be politically costly. Scott Kocher notes that former Soviet states may be less inclined to follow environmental regulations if economic difficulties persist (See the Baltic case.). Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly relate an anecdote which exemplifies this (albeit short-sighted) perspective:
If the Ladoga basin drinking water supply were seriously contaminated, St. Petersburg and other regions would have to import water from elsewhere or appropriate funds for water treatment facilities. The loss of tourism, however, could not be replaced (that is, the region can not import tourism).
Name: Atlantic sturgeon, Volkhov whitefish
Type:
Diversity: ENDANGered.
Name: Ladoga Ringed Seal
Type:
Diversity: Not yet endangered
Forty eight species and forms of fish have been encountered in Lake Ladoga. Of these, 25 are commercially significant and 11 are mass commercial fish; the salmonids, coregonids, and pike perch are the most valuable ones, according to Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola (1996: 114).
According to Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola (1996: 107-124), annual total fish catches in Lake Ladoga have declined from a peak of about 7,000 tons in 1981 to some 2,000-2,250 tons in 1994 (114). In addition, the authors note that the annual catches of pike perch in Lake Ladoga have declined from a peak of some 1,200 tons in 1986 to a low of some 200 tons in 1994. The authors attribute these declines directly to anthropogenic factors.
Many fish in Lake Ladoga suffer from toxicoses. Seventy to eighty percent of the fish in Volkhov Bay are affected, and 20-60 percent of the fish smell of oil products (Viljanen et. al, 120).
Other studies have observed tumor-like anomalies on the bodies of nauplii (a crustacean larva with three pairs of appendages, a median eye, and little or no segmentation) resident in Lake Ladoga (especially in the Bay of Petrokrepost and the Volkhov Inlet) and on zooplankton organisms. These tumors have been observed as early as 1986 in Lake Ladoga, in the Neva Gulf, and later in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. The observers regard these tumors as an effect of dangerous levels of carcinogenic contamination of the Ladoga water environment (Preobrazhenskiy, Silina, Stepanova, Brinken, and Taganov, 1995: 66). The most heavily polluted areas of Lake Ladoga are characterized as "lifeless bottom," according to Viljanen; in these areas no invertebrates can survive.
The Ladoga ringed seal is a subspecies related to the Baltic ringed seal and the Saimaa ringed seal. Glacial forms separated the subspecies about 11,000 years ago, prompting the differentiation among them. According to Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola (115-116), the Ladoga ringed seal population includes some 5,000 animals. While concentrations of mercury in the liver and kidney of the Ladoga ringed seal are elevated, the level of other toxic substances is relatively low.
Substantive abatement of pollution in the Lake Ladoga basin has a medium urgency. The ILEC study, for example, classifies several hazards in Lake Ladoga, including toxic contamination, enhanced siltation, and acidification, as "detected but not serious." Nonetheless, with some 500 polluting enterprises along the Ladoga shore (according to Kamayeva 1997), since the 1980s only a handful of those industries have been closed for reasons of harm to the environment. Studies note that Lake Ladoga rapidly is losing its ability to absorb and disperse the harmful effects of pollutants, presumably because of the sheer volume of pollutants dumped into the lake and ecosystem with little, if any, regulation. The reports surveyed for this case study imply that the greatest pollution to Lake Ladoga comes from effluent waste from pulp and paper plants (like the Priozersk and Syas plants), which contains more than 300 toxic substances (Viljanen, Rumyantsev, Slepukhina, and Simola, 116), from agricultural enterprises (which cause epidemiological risks through their concentration of microbes and parasites), and from the concentration of phenols from timber which is floated and allowed to sink in the lake.
Similar to the US-Venezuela gasoline case, the "scorecard" of trade cost versus environmental benefit in the Ladoga case is ambiguous in terms of measurement. The trade costs generated from closing down Ladoga industry plants or farms close to the Ladoga shoreline would be offset by 1) clear, though diffuse, health benefits and decreasing medical expenditures for the treatment of diseases and conditions borne of contact with the pollutant waste; 2) avoidance of the need to find alternative municipal drinking water supply for St. Petersburg and other regions; and 3) the maintenance of fishing and tourism income from Lake Ladoga, St. Petersburg, and within the Gulf of Finland.
The key means to save Lake Ladoga from environmental degradation at the hands of municipal and industrial pollutants is to adopt more stringent waste treatment measures for existing enterprises or to close some of the polluting industries. Agricultural pesticide and herbicide runoff may be curbed by adopting organic farming methods.
Lean and Hinrichsen (1994) highlight integrated pest management and biological control as a means to reduce hazardous and other waste from agricultural sites. Integrated pest management involves a "combination of techniques to control the growth of pests, weeds, and pathogens," including "rotation of crops and intercropping in the same field and careful spraying with pesticides more benign to the environment." Biological control underscores the utility of natural checks and balances in the environment. Examples include the introduction of natural predators to limit the pest population or the release of sterilized male pests to disturb breeding (Lean and Hinrichsen, 1994: 107-108).
For other possible methods of controlling the pollution, see the Laurentian Great Lakes Comparative Perspective above.
As noted above, pollution of Lake Ladoga continuing unabated threatens to disturb the environmental health of the Gulf of Finland (affecting Finland and Estonia) and the Baltic Sea (potentially affecting Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and Denmark).
"It is reasonable to assume that Cladophora played a relatively minor role in aquatic communities before the activities of man led to widespread nutrient enrichment. Certainly, it is hard to imagine a situation where massive growths could develop in flowing waters without man's activities." (Shear and Konasewich, eds., 1975: 3).
3. Related Cases*
Other Russia, NIS Cases
Other Sea Pollution Cases
CASPIAN Case
MEDIT Case
BAIKAL Case
SANDIEGO Case
KOMI Case
VENICE Case
ANDREEVA Case
HONGKONG Case
DONBAS Case
JAPANOIL Case
BALTIC Case
ARCTIC Case
ARAL Case
JAPANSEA Case
ESTONIA Case
TIJUANA Case
AMBER Case
RIOGRANDE Case
MINIMATA Case
DOOSAN Case
BASEL Case 4. Draft Author:
II. Legal
Clusters5. Discourse and Status: DISagreement and INPROGress
6. Forum and Scope: Baltic Sea littoral countries and REGional
7. Decision Breadth: 14
8. Legal Standing: Law, Treaty
(a) Ensure that the generation of hazardous wastes and other wastes within it is reduced to a minimum, taking into account social, technological and economic aspects;
(b) Ensure the availability of adequate disposal facilities, for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes and other wastes, that shall be located, to the extent possible, within it, whatever the place of their disposal;
(c) Ensure that persons involved in the management of hazardous wastes or other wastes within it take such steps as are necessary to prevent pollution due to hazardous wastes and other wastes arising from such management and, if such pollution occurs, to minimize the consequences thereof for human health and the environment;
(d) Ensure that the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes is reduced to the minimum consistent with the environmentally sound and efficient management of such wastes, and is conducted in a manner which will protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects which may result from such movement; and
Each Party shall take appropriate legal, administrative and other measures to implement and enforce the provisions of this
Convention, including measures to prevent and punish conduct in contravention of the Convention [through interstate agreement or, failing that venue, through the International Court of Justice]. (See the full text of the Basel Convention at www.unep.ch/basel/.)
III. Geographic
Clusters9. Geographic Locations
10. Sub-National Factors: No
11. Type of Habitat: COOL
IV. Trade
Clusters12. Type of Measure: Regulatory Standard (REGSTD)
13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts: DIRect
14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact
15. Trade Product Identification: Fish, Tourism, Food (Drinking Water)
16. Economic Data
Period (Years)
Average Annual Fish Catch (tons)
1945-1954
4,000
1955-1963
less than 2,000
1964-1989
about 5,000
1990-1994
around 3,500
17. Impact of Trade Restriction
: Medium
A year before he was named Ukrainian minister of the environment, Yury Shcherbak went to the United States to take part in a parliamentarians' conference on global ecological problems. A Russian-speaking American introduced himself to Shcherbak and . . . asked him how Soviets proposed to finance their ambitious environmental programs. [Shcherbak replied,] "You tell me first how we're going to feed and clothe the Soviet people . . . and then I'll tell you when we'll start talking about the cost of cleaning up the environment," [adding] "it's rich countries that can allow themselves the luxury of comprehensive environmental protection." (Feshbach and Friendly, 1992: 253).
18. Industry Sector: FOOD (fishing and drinking water), TOURism
19. Exporters and Importers: Russia and Many
V. Environment
Clusters20. Environmental Problem Type: POLS (Sink, Sea Pollution)
21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species
22. Resource Impact and Effect:MEDium and Regulatory
23. Urgency and Lifetime:MEDium and 100s of years
24. Substitutes:BIODG (biodegradable)
VI. Other
Factors25. Culture: No
26. Trans-Boundary Issues: Yes
27. Rights: No
28. Relevant Literature
I would like to acknowledge Eira Varis at the Karelian Institute of the
University of Joensuu, Finland, for her invaluable assistance with research
in support of this case study.
The background image displayed is employed with permission from WebGround.
Averbukh, Viktoriya, 1999. "A Total of 700,000 Tons of Poison in Lake
Ladoga/Famous Lake is Threatened With Ecological Disaster,"
Izvestiya, 26 January 1999, page 2 (translated by FBIS).
Beloshchutska, Tatyana, 1993. "Poisoned Peter: All of Mendeleyev's Table Frolics
in a Glass of Drinking Water From the Neva," Komsomolskaya Pravda,
17 July 1993, page 2 (translated by the Foreign Broadcast Information
Service (FBIS)).
Butterfield, Jim and Judith B. Sedatis, eds, 1991. Perestroika From Below:
Social Movements in the Soviet Union, San Francisco: Westview Press.
Feshbach, Murray and Alfred Friendly, Jr., 1992. Ecocide in the USSR: Health
and Nature Under Siege, New York: Basic Books.
Feshbach, Murray, 1995. Ecological Disaster: Cleaning Up the Hidden Legacy
of the Soviet Regime, New York: The Twentieth Century Fund Press.
Fomichyova, Lyudmila, 1999. "Leningrad Region, Finland Cooperation
'Successful'," ITAR-TASS World Service in English (Russian news
agency), 3 March 1999, 1741 GMT (FBIS).
Gilbert, Martin, 1993. Atlas of Russian History (second edition)
New York: Oxford University Press.
Gunn, Trevor, and Barbara Ristau, 1997. "Timber: The Growing Russian
Forest Products Market," updated February 28, 1997.
www.iep.doc.gov/bisnis/ (downloaded 8 March 1999)
Hosking, Geoffrey, 1990. The First Socialist Society: A History of the
Soviet Union from Within, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC) Web page (www.ilec.or.jp).
For a detailed survey of Lake Ladoga, visit the Lake Ladoga entry
within the ILEC World Lakes Database.
Kamayeva, Marina, "The Market for Municipal and Industrial Water Treatment
Equipment in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region" (May 13, 1997),
industrial report completed for the United States Department of Commerce,
Business Information Service for the New Independent States (BISNIS),
at http://www.iep.doc.gov/bisnis.
Kamayeva, Marina, "Overview of the Current Trends for Solid Waste Treatment
in St. Petersburg (January 1998), industrial report completed for
the United States Department of Commerce, Business Information Service
for the New Independent States (BISNIS), at http://www.iep.doc.gov/bisnis.
Lean, Geoffrey, and Don Hinrichsen, 1994. Atlas of the Environment,
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Preobrazhenskiy, L. Yu., N. I. Silina, N. V. Stepanova, A. O. Brinken,
and I. N. Taganov, "Ecological Monitoring of Great Russian Lakes," in
Izvestiya Russkogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva, in Russian,
vol. 127, no. 2, March-April 1995, pages 57-67 (translated by FBIS).
Rathke, 1984. Lake Erie Intensive Study 1978-1979: Final Report,
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