More evidence that Russia lives up to its international agreements is also good news for preserving biodiversity. The government has decided to increase protected areas to nearly 3% of its land mass. Russia is huge, stretching over 11 time zones so 3% means nine new nature reserves and 13 national parks covering 3.8 million hectares. One million hectares will be devoted to marine buffer zones. The existing nine reserves and a national park will be increased in size by a half million hectares. These conservation decisions will help Russia meet the goals set for it by the International Convention on Biodiversity. The UN has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. A summit conference is planned for October in Nagoya, Japan. Despite a pledge in 2002 to reduce the rate of species loss by 2010, governments have not net their commitments and biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming rate. It is simple citizens, as
US Person said at last year's Netroots meeting in Pittsburgh, "healthy animals means health people".
