PRESS RELEASE (94)73                5 September 1994

     NATO WORKSHOP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
            OF THE LAKE BAIKAL REGION

A NATO Advanced Research Worksop, examining
sustainable development of the Lake Baikal region, is
being held from 12-17 September, 1994 in Ulan Ude,
Siberia, Russia.  Co-directors are Profs. Martin
Uppenbrink (President of the German Federal Agency of
Environmental Protection) and Valentin Koptyug
(Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences).

The Lake Baikal region is being considered as a model
project for working out the concept of sustainable
development as a follow-up to the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio
de Janeiro in 1992.  The workshop will be devoted to
the discussion of the scientific basis of this
project.

Lake Baikal is one of the oldest lakes on our planet
- approximately 25 million years old - and has a
surface area almost the size of Belgium.  It is the
world's deepest freshwater lake (1641 m), storing
about 20 per cent of the Earth's freshwater
resources, and has soil sedimentation up to 10 km
deep, concealing a great deal of invaluable
information on the paleoclimate of Central Asia over
a period of millions of years.  The lake provides a
habitat for more than 2,000 species of plant and
animal, with approximately 84 per cent of the fauna
species not occurring anywhere else in the world.

The aims of the workshop are, among other things, to:

-    consolidate existing data on the current state
of the environment and economics of the region;
-    develop a system of indicators for sustainable
development for the region;
-    make recommendations on additional components to
the existing monitoring system of the region;
-    consider a legislative framework and mechanism
for its implementation.

The high degree of interest displayed by the Russian
authorities in the workshop is reflected in the
participation of the President of the Republic of
Buryatia, Leonid V. Potapov and the Russian Federal
Minister of Environmental Protection and
Natural Resources, Prof. Victor I. Danilov-Danilyan.

For further information, please contact: Prof. Martin
Uppenbrink at the Federal Agency of Environmental
Protection in Germany, tel: Int'l-49-228-849 12 10,
fax: Int'l-49-228-849 12 00, or Mr Schmauder, tel:
Int'l-49-228-49 11 81.