Biodiversity conservation
As part of its environmental effort, Russian Railways places a special focus on the development and implementation of measures to preserve natural ecosystems and flora and fauna, primarily rare and protected species.
In 2022, the Company carried out a number of biodiversity conservation projects aimed at protecting rare and endangered species placed on the Red Lists.
2022 highlights:
- 15 feeders installed in the Irkutny and Kochergatsky regional nature reserves to support the population of moose, Siberian roe deer and red deer;
- 20 information signs and boards installed;
- 572,000 trees planted on a territory the size of 145 football fields;
- rootballed seedlings of the Scots pine planted on an area of 4.5 ha located in Slyudyanka Forestry in September 2022.
Environmental conservation in Lake Baikal’s natural territory
In 2022, we carried out the following initiatives under the Action Plan to protect Lake Baikal’s natural territory:
- the environmental control and monitoring system was integrated with the digital system of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the data on atmospheric air control is publicly available via Rosgidromet information service;
- a facility to process industrial rubber products was launched at the Tulun station;
- Russian Railways’ volunteers took part in six full-scale environmental events to clean up territories and plant trees;
- A comprehensive waste management solution from waste collection and sorting to the production of finished products using secondary materials was put in place on the Circum-Baikal Railway.
The opening of the Tankhoy Mile nature trail took place on 4 September 2022 in the village of Tankhoy on the Baikal coast. The event was combined with cleaning the shores of Lake Baikal as part of the Water of Russia campaign and planting trees along the trail.
The Tankhoy Mile trail was established at Russian Railways’ initiative by the Zapovedniki Environmental Education Centre jointly with the Baikal Nature Reserve.
The trail connects the Tankhoy railway station with the Baikal Nature Reserve visitor centre. The new trail is part of the tourist infrastructure in the Baikal Reserve. It forms a loop around the perimeter of the already existing trails, offering an eight kilometre walk to see all the sights.
The trail lets tourists step back 100 years when Tankhoy was crucial for the railway development thanks to its ferry line between two sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Later it became the place where the Circum-Baikal Railway was built. For its complexity, the Circum-Baikal Railway was called the Golden Buckle of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Fifty years later, Tankhoy became home for the Central Estate of the Baikal Nature Reserve.
On 5 September 2022, a special ceremony was held to present the themed train dedicated to the Amur tiger.
The campaign aims to raise environmental awareness and contribute to the protection of endangered animal species. One of the Rossiya trains running between Vladivostok and Moscow is tiger-themed. Outside, 12 carriages are decorated with images of tigers and tiger cubs. The train interiors feature posters familiarising passengers with Russia’s rare animal species that require priority restoration measures. In addition to the Amur tiger, these are the Persian and Amur leopards, snow leopard, saiga, European bison, argali and others. All of them are included in the 13 priority animal species of the Environment national project.
It is only natural that the Rossiya train was chosen for the campaign as it runs along the longest railway passenger route in the world stretching from Vladivostok to Moscow.
