The Lake Baikal Foundation for Environmental Applications and Research was established on November 22, 2016. The Foundation aims to deliver its assistance to academic institutions, protected areas, and other entities, interested in the preservation of Lake Baikal and its natural area.

Besides, the mission of the Foundation is to build an expert dialogue with the government, business, scientific community, and society within the Lake Baikal natural area context.

“Establishment of the Foundation is the consistent continuation of the corporate development strategy, which offers the systematic approach to corporate social responsibility and serves the global UN Millennium Development Goals in terms of ensuring environmental sustainability. 10% of the company’s profits will be granted to the development of the Foundation. Thus, the company will contribute to the implementation of specific projects within the Lake Baikal natural area and all the company’s customers will automatically become participants of the Foundation initiatives,”

– CEO of Baikal Communications Group Eduard Voytenko said.

Recently the Lake Baikal Foundation has reached an agreement with the Research Institute of Biology of Irkutsk State University to support one of its key projects “Point No1”, long-term ecological monitoring of Lake Baikal. This project is at risk of being suspended due to the specifics of budgetary allocations for science. More than 5 million records have been collected throughout the period of monitoring, a heritage for various scientific studies. The monitoring was included in the Russian Book of Records as the longest (70 years-long) project of regular environmental monitoring in the history of science.

In addition to supporting basic research, the Foundation identifies the work dedicated to the development of educational and eco-tourism as a priority for the next year. Currently, the interaction formats with reserved territories are negotiated, and a special educational program on the popularization and promotion of smart tourism is being developed for the Mass Communications and Multimedia Department of Irkutsk State University.

As part of the project’s launch, in October 2016 the Lake Baikal Foundation in cooperation with the Analytical Center of the National Agency for Financial Studies conducted a poll entitled “What is Lake Baikal for the Russians?” According to the survey, the Russians take pride in Baikal and call it the second popular attraction in Russia after the Kremlin. 37% of respondents would like to travel to Lake Baikal; Lake Baikal is ranked among the top 3 destinations in Russia for our citizens (following Crimea (44%) and St. Petersburg (40%)). However, only every second respondent knows where the lake is situated. It is noteworthy that the majority of respondents (62%) agree with the statement that budgetary funds should be allocated for the environmental protection of Lake Baikal. The results of the poll were presented during the Tass press conference on December 5, 2016, on the 20th anniversary of Lake Baikal’s designation as a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO.

For more information please visit www.baikalfoundation.ru.

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