Читать книгу Review of the System of Environmental Monitoring in the Russian Federation and Former Soviet Union and Related Environmental Policy Issues. Thesis for MSc Degree, MCMXCVII - Vladislav Larin - Страница 13

Role and Place of the Main Environmental Organisations in the System for Collection of Environmental Information

2.1. System for collection of environmental information in the Russian Federation

Before the collapse of the USSR the Russian Federation had main role in the system of environmental monitoring and collection of data on the state of the environment for all the territory of the country. In Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Rostov-na-Donu, Obninsk and several others centres, situated in the Russian Federation, all data of monitoring, more or less processed, was accumulated.

Russian research and methodological institutions were the leading in the development of methods for proper and correct collection of primary data for all republics of the former Soviet Union. As an example, could be named the last edition of the «Manual Instruction for the Control of Atmospherics Pollution RD 52.04.186—89» (Rukovodstvo po kontrolu…, 1991), prepared under the supervision of the State Committee of the USSR for Hydrometeorology (Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of the Russian Federation at present) and Ministry of Health of the USSR.

The Russian system for collection of environmental information was affected to lesser degree after the collapse of the USSR in comparison with similar systems of the other NIS countries. In spite of the financial and structural crisis collecting of data on the state of environment did not stop, moreover in some cases it even increased (Tsaturov, pers.comm.).

The centralised system existing in the USSR enforced republics to send information to the Center – Moscow and several main centres – not only for keeping of data but also for data processing. Therefore, almost all data, collected during the history of the USSR is stored in several main organisations. Most of the data on the state of environment and its influence on public health, presented in annual reports of the RosGidromet, GosComStat, MinZdrav, etc. could be founded in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Rostov-na-Donu and Obninsk.

The former Soviet republics kept information which was only on the state of environment on their respective territories. In many Newly Independent States the volume of data collecting decreased as a result of political, financial and other reasons. Data on the state of the environment after 1991 in the whole volume could be founded only in maim environmental organisations NIS, located in Moscow – if it is collected, processed and published.

Main parts of the data collected before the collapse of the USSR could be found in Moscow or in several regional centres, specialised in collecting special environmental information. For example, in the system of RosGidromet St.-Petersburg specialised in information on the state of air pollution (monitoring, processing of collected primary data, methodical support of all these actions). Rostov-na-Donu specialised in information on the state of fresh water pollution (monitoring, processing of collected data, methodical support). In Moscow is located the main office and several specialised departments (for monitoring of sea pollution, soil pollution, radioactive contamination, etc.). In Obninsk is located the International Center for data collection all meteorological information and data on environmental monitoring is kept (for details see Chapter 2.3.).

Within the system of GosComStat all environmental information, collected in the regions, comes to the main office in Moscow, where it is used for of preparation reference books and data collections (for details see Chapter 2.4.).

However, most of all environmental information of the former USSR and partly of NIS kept in the governmental organisations of Russian Federation.

2.2. Existing sources of environmental information

2.2.1. Institutional and organisational set-up of reporting and indicator framework

in the NIS

In the recent work «Environmental Reporting in Central and Eastern Europe: A Review of Selected Publications and Frameworks», the authors notice, that:

Only in very few cases in the required data collected within the systems of national environmental authorities. More often they have to count on information obtained by monitoring networks belonging to other agencies. These agencies are either responsible for the exploitation of natural resources not covered by the mandate of an environmental authority (e.g., mineral resources, waters, forests, lands, commercial wildlife and fish resources),for specific aspects of environmental issues (e.g., public health, emergency situations) or for collecting and managing specific types of information (e.g., national statistical offices, surveying and cartographic agencies, networks of hydrological and meteorological observations). Information may also be received from research and academic institutions and NGOs, however the extent of such co-operation depends upon a country’s attitude towards «unofficial» sources of information. (UNDP/CEU, Denisov et al., 1997).

From the point of view of governmental officers all reliable environmental information could be collected only by official organisations specialised for environmental monitoring (RosGidromet) or in collecting data about environmental pollution and influence of pollution on public health (GosComStat, MinZdrav, GosComSanEpidNadzor) (for details about limitations of official and non-official environmental information see Chapter 2.2.2. and 2.5.3.).

2.2.2. Limitations of reliability of collected data

Every system for collecting environmental information has limitations linking with the reliability of collected data. This limitation could be:

– methodological, due to incorrect or wrong methods of collecting and processing of data;

– technical, due to differences in equipment and used to wrong regulation of this equipment;

– organisational, due to problems of organisation of permanent work of system for collection of unified data from the vast territory. There is not enough control for quality of environmental information collected by the remote stations of environmental monitoring.

All listed limitations in reliability of collected data, as a rule, are minimised by the implementation of unified methods, used in large information frameworks. That is why it is possible to speak about good quality of environmental information collected by different official organisations. Anyway, the Russian Federation and NIS have no alternative systems for collection of environmental information and researchers are forced to use official data.

2.2.3. New participants in the process collecting environmental information

In the last years small organisations and are trying to compete in this sphere with state monopolists. For years analysis of the environment in the USSR was restricted for independent experts. All data on the state of the environment was confidential and any unauthorised activity around this problem was considered as illegal and prohibited. Citizens and independent researchers did not have access to official data and could not collect their own data about the state of environment (independent researchers are professionals and experts in the field of environmental problems which are not staff of governmental bodies – researchers, scientific journalists and writers, chemists, biologists and geographers, experts of NGOs, etc.).

This situation started to change during the «perestroyka» times when «ecological glasnost» become effective weapon for the new political reformers. Legal regulations in this sphere were not formed and holders of environmental information did not make it available for public use. It was the time when independent environmentalists wrote serious articles and books on the basis of newspaper publications.

At that time with the growing public concern about environmental problems small private enterprises started to appear, offering services for of air, water and soil analyses. Under the conditions of information vacuum this activity was successful. But the reliability of the information obtained was not better (and very frequently ever worse) than the data from official organisations. This was a result of poor equipment; bad training of the staff; absence of knowledge about existing methods for analysis of environmental samples; willingness to present not real, but expected information.

Data on the state of the environment at that time was collected by the following bodies, besides official organisations: