An onsite meeting of the Federal Environmental Council of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been held in Kazan, Tatarstan, to discuss the implementation of the key issues on the six-month agenda of the Year of the Environment. The event was attended by representatives from the Federation Council, the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) and the Institute of Environmental Protection (VNII Ecology), heads of the natural resources ministries and agencies from 85 Russian regions and representatives from public environmental protection organisations.

Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi and Head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustem Minnikhanov held a working meeting on the sidelines of the event to discuss the establishment of an interregional centre for the captive breeding of snow leopards in Tatarstan under the ministry’s strategy for the preservation of this endangered species. The establishment of a five-hectare centre at the Sviyazhsk hunting reserve will cost some 270 million roubles. The snow leopards bred at the centre will be released in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.