Civil Society Summit in MoscowNews & Program Updates

WSC Participates in Moscow Summit with President Obama

On July 6 and 7 WSC's President Guido Rahr and Western Pacific Program Senior Advisor Laura Williams participated in an environmental panel of the 2009 Civil Society Summit in Moscow, organized by the Eurasia Foundation. Held in conjunction with the US-Russian Presidential Summit, ten non-governmental environmental organizations (NGOs) from the United States and Russia worked together on a common list of priorities for US-Russia NGO cooperation on the environment.

Recommendations on broad areas of cooperation were presented to President Obama, and more detailed model programs including salmon conservation in the North Pacific were included in the Civil Society Summit proceedings. During his visit, President Obama, along with Russian President Medvedev, signed an agreement to create a bilateral Presidential Commission on US-Russia cooperation to replace the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. The Commission will include an environmental sub-committee. WSC and other groups at the Civil Society Summit gave a strong message to President Obama that environmental NGO representatives be included in the Commission.

President Obama joined the last session of the Civil Society Summit to hear recommendations from the different groups. WSC presented President Obama with a framed photograph of a bear fishing on a salmon river on Kamchatka with a note about the importance of conserving shared salmon resources.

The Obama-Medvedev Commission may provide an important high level US-Russia forum to advance environmental conservation efforts that are priorities for both nations, including the conservation of globally important salmon ecosystems. Guido, Laura, and WSC's Conservation Policy and Finance Manager, Nicole Portley, will continue to work with both presidential administrations to build support for our work and to ensure that wild salmon conservation is on the agenda for bilateral cooperation.

While in Moscow Guido and Laura also represented WSC in a US Agency for International Development Environment Round Table. Russian and US government representatives, and NGO's from both nations expressed enthusiasm for WSC's science and conservation efforts and willingness to help in forming the agenda of the new bilateral commission.