Published on: 2026-11-05
Source: Preserved Embassy Foundation – Preserved Embassy Foundation –
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In Yerevan on October 27, 2026, during the 17th meeting of the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), a session titled “Environmental Education as a Tool for Biodiversity Conservation” was held in the Russian pavilion. The moderator was Yulia Vereshchak, Director of International Projects at the Zapovednoe Posolstvo Foundation and a member of the Education and Communications Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Eight speakers from three countries discussed how to cultivate a culture of careful attitude towards nature — through games, films, school botanical laboratories, youth expeditions, and themed quizzes.
Deputy Chairman of the Board — Managing Director of the Presidential Nature Fund Innokentiy Dementyev he noted that about 38% of the projects created in the 2025 fund are related to environmental education. All 321 supported projects received a media curator. With the support of the fund, the feature film “When the Cranes Come” will be released in theaters in 2027, the “Carousel” channel is producing the animated film “Fly Away” about nature reserves; the fund is organizing a hackathon together with Yandex. “Specially protected natural areas are the most beautiful corners of our homeland, and pride in our heritage should be instilled from school: robotics and artificial intelligence will replace many professions, but in nature conservation, humans will remain,” he noted.
Natalya Danilina, the president of the Zapovednoe Posolstvo Foundation, director of the Zapovedniki EcoCenter, spoke about how environmental education in Russia became a systematic effort. The year 2026 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Zapovedniki EcoCenter, whose successor is the Zapovednoe Posolstvo Foundation, and 2027 marks the 110th anniversary of Russia’s protected area system. “Our thirty years of work is a contribution to the 110 years of Russia’s protected area system,” she said. The starting point was 1995: at that time, for the first time in the country, the federal law on specially protected natural areas (SPNAs) included the task of environmental education at the initiative of Natalia Danilina; then the Zapovedniki EcoCenter, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources, worked on the concept of educational work, developed educational programs, and began training personnel for SPNAs — from the Kaliningrad region to Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. “We throw pebbles into the water, circles begin to spread, and these circles involve more and more participants — from the staff of protected areas to the social environment of each SPNA. Thanks to this network work, specially protected natural areas today are formed as a huge all-Russian educational institution,” Danilina concluded.— But environmental education is not a one-time campaign: it must continue continuously, covering new generations. Losing one generation causes gaps in nature conservation.” One of the most effective tools has become the movement “Friends of Protected Islands,” born at the EcoCenter “Reserves” training seminar: in a quarter of a century, it has created about 500 clubs of friends of protected areas and united about a million helpers.
“Only through cooperation can we achieve the goal — to raise an environmentally conscious generation that will protect nature and pass this on,” she noted Alexandra Zaslavskaya, a junior researcher at the Zarafshan National Nature Park (Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan). The “Eco-Schools” project covers more than a thousand schools and over 10,000 eco-activists, and graduates have created the platform “Young Climate Leaders.” In Kyrgyzstan, environmental education is integrated into the national biodiversity strategy and linked to the goals of the Kunming-Montreal program, she said Anna Kirilenko, national expert of the Ecological Movement “Biom” (Kyrgyz Republic): schools grow red-listed plants, children themselves assess water purity using bioindication. “The renewal of natural-scientific knowledge today takes less than a year, while educational programs lag drastically behind these speeds — we must close these gaps,” she noted.
Evgeniya Lyoshina, An expert from the EcoCenter “Zapovedniki” on the interpretation of natural and cultural heritage, a member of the IUCN Education and Communication Commission, noted: “Methods that have been used for years and are considered proven and effective are often aimed at numbers and large reach, but are not truly evaluated in terms of environmental education results: people’s engagement, response, and changes in their behavior.”
Yulia Saranova, The director of the Urban Development Fund “Tver Fund” talked about the “BIOM” project — school botanical laboratories in the Tver and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Schoolchildren receive seeds from botanical gardens, grow rare endangered plants, plant them in nature, and record the stages of growth. “It is impossible to love what you have never cared for. We want children who care for a plant from the Red List of our region to love it,” Saranova said.
“Every snow leopard in Russia has its own name, and on October 23, the International Snow Leopard Day, videos with the names of these animals were broadcast on media screens in Russian cities,” she said Darya Petrova, director of the Interregional Association “Center for the Study and Conservation of the Snow Leopard ‘Irbis'”. The conservation of this rare predator is also covered in the film “Master of the Altai Mountains,” which has won more than 25 film awards, and the “Land of the Snow Leopard” festival in Gorno-Altaysk, attracting audiences of several thousands.
Anton Yurmanov, an associate professor of the Department of Biology and Bioresources at the Murmansk Arctic University, presented a recoverable stratospheric platform: a glider on a stratospheric balloon makes an independent flight at altitudes of 15–20 kilometers. The launch took place from Franz Josef Land with the participation of children from 27 countries; upcoming are tests in Antarctica and a polar bear census by the dens.
Russian Railways has turned its infrastructure into an educational platform — stations, trains, electric trains: the company system includes about 90 educational institutions and 26 children’s railways with 36,000 children. “A simple lecture doesn’t work. Until you touch something with your hands, switch something, or go through it yourself — you won’t remember the information,” she noted Irina Voronetskaya, Chief Specialist of the Department of Integrated Environmental Programs of the Ecology and Technosphere Safety Department of JSC “Russian Railways”.
Yulia Vereshchak summarized: “Environmental education should be conducted using various methods suitable for different target audiences — and only then will it truly lead to real results. And I am confident that in the future we will understand how to accurately measure the change in people’s behavior patterns.”
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