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Fortieth Anniversary of Russia's First Student Nature Guards

Forty years ago, on December 13, 1960, the first Student Nature Guards (Druzhina) were created at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University (MSU).

A lot has changed since then. The first curators of the Druzhina – Vadim Nikolayevich Tikhomirov and Konstantin Nikolaevich Blagosklonov – have passed away; we live in a different country and are facing a different socio-economic situation. However, the work that was started by biology students 40 years ago, during Lysenko's time, has not stopped; on the contrary, it is being expanded and diversified.

Russia’s student nature guards are no longer just a group of enthusiasts, but a broad-based youth movement with a membership from all over the former USSR and beyond. Besides catching poachers as they used to do in the Losiny Ostrov Small Nature Reserve in the early 1960s, student nature guards now help set up environmental networks and influence federal policy on nature conservation.

Since 1960, many former student nature guards have gone on to make significant contributions to the country’s nature conservation community. Druzhina graduates work in national, regional and local environmental organizations and several other NIS, in many large national and international non-governmental environmental organizations; teach in secondary and high schools; conduct scientific research; and some of them simply work for the good of Mother Nature as foresters, reserve rangers, hunting inspectors…

Almost all the environmental activities initiated by the Druzhina have attracted the attention of specialists and large groups using the same methods. For example, the system of training environmental inspectors originally developed by the inter-Druzhinas Vystrel Program is now used throughout Russia's nature reserves. The work initiated by the Druzhina in the 1970s in small nature reserves and Fauna Sectors is now carried out in many of regions of Russia. Here, networks and systems of natural protected territories, regional and interregional ecological frameworks are being created. Recreational problems first researched by the Druzhina of the MSU Faculty of Biology and worked on for several years successfully by another students' organization – the Nature Protection Group of the MSU Faculty of Geography – resulted in the establishment of national parks in Russia and in current works to improve control over them. Even this journal you are now reading was written by former members of the Druzhina.

We hope that the Druzhina of the MSU Faculty of Biology will celebrate many more anniversaries and remain a source of educated and principled people interested in nature conservation in general and in Russia’s system of nature reserves in particular.

In conclusion, we append a document, which shows how the campaign against illegal fir logging before the New Year holidays initiated by Druzhina members almost 40 years ago has evolved into a federal enterprise of which senior government officials take note.

Decree of the Mayor of Saint Petersburg
of December 6, 1995 No. 1265-r

On Organization of Enforcement of Environmental Legislation
before the New Year Holiday

With the purpose of preventing unauthorized fir logging before the New Year, I hereby decree:

1. To accept the suggestion of the Forest Committee of the Leningrad Region on organizing inspections at railroad stations and roads of Saint Petersburg, as well as in trade zones, with the purpose of preventing the import of firs and fir branches cut without permission into Saint Petersburg.

2. Before December 10, 1995, the Head of the Committee on City Property Management shall prepare and adopt the staff of the joint headquarters of "Fir campaign – 1995" nature conservation inspections and the joint headquarters regulations.

3. The Department of Nature Conservation of Saint Petersburg shall allot 4 million rubles from the funds of the Saint Petersburg Nature Conservation Fund managed by the Department to the Forest Committee of the Leningrad Region for the purpose of inspections before the New Year Holiday.

4. To authorize the Vice-Mayor of Saint Petersburg (the Head of the Committee on City Property Management) to ensure that this decree is carried out.

Vice-Mayor of Saint Petersburg
V. V. Putin

In the next issue of our Bulletin, we will discuss current activities of the Druzhina aimed at creating and preserving Natural Protected Territories.

Former Druzhina members,
A. V. Zimenko,
Biodiversity Conservation Center General Director ,
V. Shcherbakov,
Head of the BCC Publishing House

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