23 US Zoos Send Message to Putin, Koizumi: Proposed Oil Pipeline too close to Endangered Leopards

• Survival of last remaining 35 Wild Amur Leopards in jeopardy should pipeline cut through their habitat.

• Pipeline would snake through UNESCO Biosphere reserve, create “certain environmental disaster.”

• Pipeline terminal at Sea of Japan threatens sensitive marine area.

San Francisco – Representatives from 24 US zoos, together with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, sent letters today to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi requesting that the proposed Siberia-Pacific Pipeline be re-routed to avoid Amur leopard habitat. There are only about 35 remaining Amur leopards in the wild, and their only habitat is in the wilderness of the largely undeveloped Russian Far East region of Primorye. The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is one of the rarest and most beautiful cats in the world, with more living in zoos than in the wild. While the pipeline will run through Russian territory, it is largely being built to supply Siberian oil to Japan.

According to the letter, moving the route of the pipeline to the north will avoid leopard habitat, as well as the habitat of over 30 percent of Russia’s endangered species living in the region, which includes Russia’s oldest nature preserve. The letter points out that should current plans proceed, “…it will mean certain environmental disaster and the possible extinction of the Amur leopard.” Environmental organizations from Russia, the US, and Europe have united behind the letter.  Over 40 environmental groups sent a similar letter to President Putin in March, 2005, also asking him to change the pipeline route.

With increasing support from Russian and Chinese authorities, scientists and conservationists have made great efforts to save the remaining Amur leopard population. The strategy to stabilize and expand the leopard population includes fighting poaching, increasing education, and protecting habitat. These efforts are jeopardized by the planned Siberia-Pacific pipeline route.

In addition, the letter asks that the pipeline terminate in the industrial port of Nahodka instead of the currently undeveloped shores of Pervoznaya Bay, on the Sea of Japan. As the letter points out, an oil spill in this region would damage fish spawning grounds that are crucial to Japan’s fisheries. Nahodka is a port city that is already heavily industrialized.

The Siberia-Pacific Pipeline (SPP), when completed, will be the longest and most expensive oil pipeline in the world. It will be more than three times as long as the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, and will cost at least $15 billion USD. Transneft, Russia’s state oil pipeline monopoly, is building the pipeline and claims it will have the capacity to pump up to 80 million tons of oil a year. The oil from this pipeline is intended for markets in Asia – mostly for Japan.

In addition to leopard habitat, the pipeline will also come very close to Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Current plans route the pipeline through a highly active seismic area within two kilometers of Baikal’s shore.

Direct Quotes:

 “The Amur leopards are already on the precipice of extinction,” said Leah Zimmerman, Russia Program Associate at Pacific Environment, an environmental non-profit. “Cutting a pipeline through their habitat, along with all of the construction that entails, will push them closer to that edge.”

“At this point, every bit of habitat matters for the survival of the Amur leopard.  Any encroachment on their land by disruptive pipeline construction would be devastating,” said Chris Pfefferkorn, North American Studbook Keeper for the Amur leopard.

John Linehan, President and CEO of Zoo New England, said, “Participating in the protection of natural habitat for endangered species such as the Amur leopard is what modern zoos should be all about.”

“The proposed pipeline route and terminal threaten several important protected areas in Russia’s oldest nature preserve, which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and home to the only remaining population of Amur leopards,” stated Kristin L. Vehrs, Interim Executive Director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).  “Thirty-one AZA-accredited zoos house Amur leopards.  AZA certainly wants these beautiful animals to continue to exist in the wild.”

More information about the project is available at:
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/russia/spp

Joining the call to change the pipeline route are:
Abilene Zoological Gardens (Texas)
Binghamton Zoo (NY)
Buffalo Zoo
Central Florida Zoological Park
Dallas Zoo
Denver Zoo
El Paso Zoo
Erie Zoo (Pennsylvania)
Glen Oak Zoo (Illinois)
Henry Doorly Zoo (Omaha)
Minnesota Zoo
Oregon Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (Tacoma)
Potawatomi Zoo (South Bend)
Salisbury Zoological Park (Maryland)
San Antonio Zoological Society
Santa Barbara Zoo
Sedgwick County Zoo (Wichita)
St. Louis Zoo
Topeka Zoological Park
Tulsa Zoo
Zoo New England (W.D. Stone Zoo and Franklin Park Zoo)