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NATURE RESERVE BRIGADES: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The Student Brigade Movement for Nature Conservation recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary. The history of the Student Brigade Movement and its future plans deserve mention.

Kazan State University was the cradle of the Student Brigade Movement: the first special brigade for working in nature reserves was created there under the aegis of the Nature Conservation Brigade in 1977. Brigades from many other universities soon followed suit. In 1978, an inter-brigade detachment consisted of nature conservation brigades from Voronezh, Donetsk, Kazan, Kalinin, Lvov, Perm, Kharkov, Leningrad, Bryansk, Kirov and Ulyanovsk.

The detachment’s combined membership exceeded 90 people. The students managed conservation work in 15 nature reserves throughout the former Soviet Union: in its European part and in the Caucasus, in Siberia and in the Far East. The results of their work are very impressive. Over the years, brigade members have drawn up 187 reports and acts on conservation violations and detained 1,319 offenders. In the Baikal Nature Reserve, poachers from the surrounding villages feared encounters with the students long after the brigades had gone.

The work of these student brigades was not limited to nature protection. The brigades also did research and provided facilities for nature reserves. Efforts were made to improve outreach work; however, these activities were not that successful.

The number of reports is not an absolute indicator of the success of the work done. However, it conveys a great deal — it shows at least that these young people put their back into conservation work. It was like a stellar explosion! Unfortunately, like any stellar explosion, it declined with time.

The second birth of the Student Brigade Movement took place in the mid 1990s. In 1995 representatives of nature conservation brigades from Novosibirsk and Altai universities made a number of patrol raids in nature reserves in the Far East. The patrol raids were quite successful, judging by the number of reports made and the amount of poaching equipment confiscated. The Student Brigade Movement is still working on a regular basis, covering an increasingly wide area. These young people have already drawn up long-term plans for collaboration with nature reserves.

1997 was a benchmark in the development of the Student Brigade Movement. That year a workshop for students wanting to work in nature reserves was organized at the Altai Nature Reserve. Since then the Siberian interregional nature reserves center (which grew out of the Siberian Student Brigade Movement) has organized such workshops regularly. Now they are a national event. Other brigades have organized similar workshops as well.

These brigades are to be congratulated for their increased activity. At the same time, they lack vocational training and are unable to back up their good efforts with strong PR-campaigns at the local and federal levels.

The future of this student movement is unclear. However, we know that their brigades must become more professional. They should also try to involve not only scientists in their activities, but also law professors, journalists, etc. While in the past the Student Brigade Movement was a sort of launching pad for young people, today it affords them a chance to fulfill themselves and to find a paid job in conservation. This has become possible thanks to the creation of public organizations in post-Soviet Russia. The government and society have come to understand the important role these organizations can play and the continuity they can afford over generations. We lacked this continuity in the past when a brigade’s active membership changed completely every 3 to 4 years. That said, these self-sufficient organizations should not forget to involve young people in activities of value to the community.

Student brigades and the organizations that have grown out of them will begin to accumulate intellectual and material assets. They will play a significant role in conservation. It is to be hoped that the archaic coordination and communication systems of student brigades developed in the 1970s and early ‘80s will be substantially modernized in the near future.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the Student Brigade Movement is the achievement of the entire youth nature conservation movement. These students have contributed greatly to the protection and conservation of unique intact nature. What is even more important, student brigades mark a significant stage in the professional growth of their members. Countless experts working in nature conservation today began their professional careers in these brigades. The still untapped potential of these student brigades is vast – as great as an ocean. Our aim is to use that potential in the best possible way.

V. G. Trigubovich, A. L. Strelnikov, E. A. Anochin,
Siberian interregional nature reserves center

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