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| Lake Baikal |
UNESCO decided to withdraw its envoy, pSusanna Kari from the Russian region of Irkutsk, thus, aborting an environmental monitoring mission of the Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is a World Heritage Site, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on Monday.
“The joint monitoring mission of UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is cancelled.
The international expert, who arrived in Irkutsk Region, would leave the region in the coming days.
But before leaving, Susanna Kari would nevertheless visit the World Heritage site and discuss the key issues with the Russian delegation.
“However, these consultations would be held out of the mission,” the ministry said.
The mission on the assessment of negative environmental repercussions for Lake Baikal was scheduled to take place from Feb. 28 to March 5.
It was supposed to submit the inspection results to the 45th UNESCO meeting, scheduled for June 2022 in the Russian city of Kazan.
It came as Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.
