Irina Chebakova This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Russia's Zapovednik System Reaches Out

   www.isar.org/pubs/ST/RUzbd47.h - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/24/2006   Last Visited: 11/22/2007

   - Irina Chebakova, coordinator of March for Parks at the Biodiversity Conservation Center [Courtesy of Russian Conservation News.]

2. 2. Rolex Awards for Enterprise

   www.rolexawards.com/news-updat - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/8/2006   Last Visited: 8/26/2007

   In the mid-1990s, Irina Chebakova, inspired by an American colleague who told her of the annual March for Parks in the United States, started a campaign in the Russian Federation to encourage people to undertake marches in support of parks and protected areas. In April 1995, in the first such event in Russia and surrounding countries, 5,000 people took part in 20 marches to natural reserves.
   
   The March for Parks has been growing ever since, and is now a widely publicised, annual event that includes more than 200 marches across the region.
   
   'In 1998, there were roughly half-a-million marchers,' says Chebakova, who won an Associate Laureate Award in that year for her plan to boost public support for the marches. 'Now there are about a million marchers a year.
   ...
   Chebakova's proven track record as a successful communicator - demonstrated by the growing support for the marches - led to her representing her region at a communications workshop organised by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union, in Switzerland, in summer 2003. Since 1994, Chebakova has been working for the Moscow-based Biodiversity Conservation Centre (BCC), through which she organises the March for Parks. The BCC is also linked to the IUCN, and in 1997 Chebakova became a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas - which has 1,300 members worldwide. In January 2002 she was appointed IUCN membership officer and coordinator for protected areas in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, grouping Russia and other former states of the USSR.)
   
   Frequently interviewed by journalists, Irina Chebakova says that there is one question nearly every Russian asks: Faced with major problems like poverty and high unemployment, why should Russians bother about parks? 'People have lawyers to defend them,' she responds, 'but parks have no lawyers to plead their cause.
   ...
   Much of March for Parks' success is due to Chebakova's highly organised lobbying at all levels, from park wardens to the governors of the Russian Federation's 89 republics and regions. 'We write to the governors every year, encouraging them to support the march, but also urging them to take other action,' Chebakova explains. 'Each letter is different, we remind the governor what protected areas lie within the region and of their status under Council of Europe or UNESCO listings.
   
   'And the media also put pressure on the governors. Some governors have rung us after reading newspaper articles about a forthcoming march and asked: 'What time do you want me to address the crowd?' The governors just cannot afford to ignore these events.' Another group targeted by Chebakova are the managers of zapovedniks. 'Traditionally zapovedniks have been closed to the public and reserved for scientists and specialists,' she says. 'Zapovednik means 'forbidden territory'.

3. 3. www.rolexawards.com

   www.rolexawards.com/laureates/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/8/2006   Last Visited: 8/26/2007

   Irina Chebakova, a 39-year-old nature reserve specialist, was inspired by an American friend to introduce the movement "March for Parks" to Russia in 1995. Since that date, Chebakova has organised dozens of marches attended by hundreds of thousands of people, and these annual events are helping to change public attitudes and to involve Russian civil society , including the private sector , in nature conservation.
   ...
   And they can be traced back to one woman: Irina Chebakova.
   
   Since 1995 Chebakova has organised dozens of annual fundraising and public awareness marches that have raised around half a million US dollars for nature protection. She has already helped to extend March for Parks to the republics of the former Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. Her ultimate goal is to involve every single protected area in her native Russia in this public movement and to constitute a core of Russian businesses to support the parks.
   ...
   Chebakova saw public support as the key to protecting the reserves, and she also saw the challenge this represented in Russia. For despite Russians' deep love of nature, it was necessary to empower them to take charge of their natural heritage and not rely merely on the state. "It was necessary to change public attitudes," she observes. "It was also necessary to convince administrators of the zapovedniks that the reserves could not survive without public support."
   
   Chebakova was well-equipped for the task at hand. A specialist in national park management, she had worked at the Russian Institute of Forest Planning. At the end of 1994 she joined the Biodiversity Conservation Centre, a charitable fund in Moscow, and became the Protected Areas Management Programme expert.
   ...
   In January 1995 Chebakova met Margaret Williams, a Russian-speaking American who came to BCC as Coordinator of the U.S.-based Center for Russian Nature Conservation.
   ...
   "Irina was the only person at the BCC who supported it at the time."
   ...
   Since 1995 Chebakova has gone from strength to strength.
   ...
   Since 1996 Chebakova has been spearheading this movement single-handedly. Chebakova has run March for Parks in Russia on her own, a major feat of organisation and coordination of activities across that huge country.
   ...
   Irina Chebakova Biodiversity Conservation Center P.O. Box 4 127276 Moscow Russia