Rashid Ismailov: ”The green diplomacy will help to solve the environmental problems"

Today, the all-Russian public organization ‘Russian Ecological Society’ was presented in Moscow. The organization’s goal is the implementation of tasks in the field of the state environmental policy. Vestnik Kavkaza spoke with the head of the working group on ecology of the Expert Council of the Government of the Russian Federation, the member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, Rashid Ismailov, about the plans for the work of this organization in Russia in general, as well as in the North Caucasus and the Caspian Sea in particular.

- Rashid Aydinovich, how did the idea of ​​creating the Russian Ecological Society come around?

- When we began to work out the instructions of the president, we faced the fact that many problems are not solved in a practical way, but remain on paper, in reports, plans and beautiful presentations. Only few of these plans are being implemented. This is not the fault of the state - this is the peculiarity of our policy and regulatory settlement, when many things are not realized, due to the lack of financing, understandable mechanisms and instruments of execution. Not all the environmental projects that have been planned are being implemented now.

In the President's order, there were several important points to which we drew attention: increasing the responsibility of business and environmental transparency of business. Investigating this problem, we came to the conclusion that, in principle, it is necessary to consolidate all environmentally active players, environmentally active business, in order to create such a platform.

- What regions of the North Caucasus have responded to your initiative at the moment?

- A desire to participate in the work of the Russian Ecological Society has been expressed by Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as the Stavropol Territory.

- Does the RES plan to deal with the problems of the ecology of the Caspian Sea?

- We were dealing with these problems of the Caspian ecology before. In particular,  I am promoting the topic related to the green diplomacy within the framework of the Public Council of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. The green diplomacy is precisely that soft power that allows us to solve the environmental issues in a constructive, friendly manner. We can escape many problems that exist at the level of the diplomatic relations. We are dealing with a topic related to the Tehran Convention on the Caspian Sea. We proposed an initiative to create a green standard for the Caspian Sea at the level of parliaments of all countries. I think that we will gradually return to this topic in a new format, on the new platform of the Russian Ecological Society.

- How will the coordination of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea help to address the issues of the Caspian ecology?

- Of course, this is the main, key issue. Once the Convention is being agreed, the remaining issues can be resolved already in the working order. Since the signing of the Convention has not yet taken place, we, as public figures, offer additional mechanisms for solving the environmental problems.