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The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development
Josh Newell
McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel, Inc., 2004
486 pp., $59.95, paperback
ISBN: 1-880284-75-8

The Russian Far East sprawls across the northeast corner of Asia, covering an area two-thirds the size of the United States. The region is home to dozens of indigenous communities (who survived the often-vicious Czarist and Soviet regimes), a diverse and unique variety of animal and plant populations, and a landscape that is the target of aggressive natural resource exploitation efforts. Though this corner of the Earth is filled with peoples and places few are familiar with, the natural treasures it holds are worth the effort to find out about. The Russian Far East faces environment threats and cultural survival challenges that argue for its recognition as a region on the frontlines of the global struggle to balance conservation and development.

Josh Newell's newly revised book, The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development provides an excellent foundation for anyone seeking to learn about the natural and human make-up of the region in a beautifully compiled volume. The author and his colleagues provide a thorough overview of the districts in the regions and many, many insights into the enormous complexity of the Russian Far East. The 2004 edition provides a set of 58 maps, 16 pages of color photos, and significantly more detail on area conditions and development issues than the earlier effort.

By partnering with knowledgeable Russian, indigenous, and expert contributors, Newell provides a rich view of the state of affairs in the Russian Far East that demonstrates an admirable commitment to insuring that local voices tell the story of a region, not just outside observers and consultants. This commitment insures that people affected by resource management and development issues can be heard directly, not only as perceived by scientists and journalists, no matter how perceptive and sensitive they might be.

Because of his concern for the conservation of natural resource and indigenous people, Newell has organized this book to provide a detailed sketch of the current conditions in each of the administrative regions of the Russian Far East, followed by a summary of existing and emerging resource development ventures that are being pursued in the regions. Readers will learn about the extent of timber, mineral, plant, animal, fish, Indigenous populations, conservation lands, and energy resources identified in the regions and the current developments, proposals and plans that impinge on them. The attention to detail is commendable and covers a huge amount of territory, intellectually as well as geographically.

As wide-ranging as the book's scope may be, there are four key issues and projects that cut across the vast terrain of the Russian Far East. They are:

• Protect wild places - This book describes fifty-eight biodiversity hotspots identified by Russian specialists that should be either protected or developed with ecosystem sustainability as a top concern. Increasing demand for resources and looming land privatization will make land protection more difficult. Russian and international groups need to continue their support of Russia's protected area system and bolster those government agencies responsible for environmental protection.
• Increase regulatory control over resources - The failure of impoverished and often corrupt government agencies to regulate resource use has led to widespread poaching, destruction of stocks, and disruption of the ecological balance in many areas of the RFE. Illegal trade in endangered species reached peak levels in the 1990s and continues largely unabated.
• Increase manufacturing capacity - Exporting raw materials (timber, fish, metals, oil, and gas) to Japan, China and South Korea, at the expense of developing a manufacturing base, is neither economically nor environmentally sustainable. Increasing the amount of value-added processing would increase revenue both to the regional and federal government and to Russian manufacturers. It would also create more jobs and could reduce pressure to open new areas for resource extraction.
• Ensure resource development protects the environment, benefits society and diversifies the economy - The massive oil-and-gas projects planned (offshore Sakhalin, Siberia-China Yukos pipeline, and Siberia-RFE-China Transneft pipeline) will lead to large-scale investment, but benefits to local communities are in no way ensured and, some argue, unlikely. By prioritizing export markets and neglecting domestic markets, while also ignoring the need to convert polluting coal-thermal stations to cleaner natural gas ones, these projects may only exacerbate the RFE's energy crisis. Gold-mining projects in Magadan create revenue for government coffers. But they also have a short life span, damage sensitive areas, and may not reduce poverty.

The issues this book addresses face many regions around the world. And the forces driving those issues - international investment institutions, corporate expansion opportunities, stress on food and game species, watershed damaging resource extraction and land disturbances - in the Russian Far East mirror those in "wild lands" elsewhere. People reading this book will find many familiar echoes in the exploration of the isolated and largely unknown Russian Far East this book provides. Readers will also find valuable policy action and community education tools provided by Newell and his colleagues. The thoughtful presentation of complex issues, the effort to use plain language to communicate the depth and breadth of the problems confronting the RFE, and the very detailed yet clearly crafted maps, demonstrate how effective well prepared documents can be at illustrating a distant and exotic place.

The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development is well worth getting and reading. It will be useful to civil society activists, students of the region, professionals, and government staff seeking to develop a thorough insight into the Russian Far East.

— Paul Robinson

Order from:
Daniel & Daniel, Inc.
PO Box 2790
McKinleyville, CA 95519
(800) 662-8351 (US only)
www.rfebook.com