GREENPEACE PROTESTS TOXIC DISCHARGE AT THE BAIKAL PULP AND PAPER MILL

Amsterdam / Irkutsk (Siberia). Wednesday August 28th, 1996

Greenpeace activists from Russia, Germany, Denmark, Holland and Great Britain started a protest action today at the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill on the shores of Lake Baikal. The mill has caused enormous damage to Baikal during the thirty years of its existence, discharging vast amounts of toxic effluent into the worlds biggest freshwater reservoir.

The activists climbed two 80 metres chimneys and displayed a banner saying " SAVE BAIKAL". According to Greenpeace research considerable changes in the ecosystem of the Southern basin of Baikal can already be found.

Day by day more than 210,000 cubic metres of sewage, the equivalent of more than 1.3 million barrels, are directed into the lake. " The discharge has to be stopped immediately before the biggest freshwater reservoir is converted into the largest sewer" said Ivan Blokov, spokesperson for Greenpeace Russia. A lake area of roughly 250 square kilometres has already been contaminated and dioxin and organochlorines have been found among the pollutants.

Lake Baikal situated in the south of Siberia close to the Russian-Mongolian border is not only the biggest but the deepest freshwater lake of the world. It stretches for 636 kilometres with its width varying from 19 to 80 kilometres and is more than a mile deep (1620 metres).

It contains 20 per cent of the worlds freshwater and is habitat to more than 2,000 plant and animal species, 1500 of which are endemic to the area. Greenpeace, together with UNESCO, is therefore pushing for Baikal to be listed as a World Heritage Site. "But if we do not stop the ongoing pollution before the turn of the century, the uniqueness of this fragile ecosystem may well be destroyed", said Blokov.

Greenpeace video footage is available through Reuters TV, WTN and AP TV. Further enquiries please contact Anke Scheib at Greenpeace International 0031 20 5249 543

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Greenpeace Moscow office: phone 007 095 251-90-73, 007 095 978-39-50, Alexander Knorre, Alexander Shuvalov.

Greenpeace International press desk, Holger Roenitz, phone 0031 20 5249 545