Ecology

ECOLOGICAL ETHICS TO BE DEVELOPED

A meeting on "Ecological ethics in the 21st century" was held at the ISAR-Azerbaijan office Tuesday, as president of the Azerbaijan Society for Protection of Animals Azer Garayev highlighted the importance of raising the level of ecological ethics in the republic.

"There are actually no ethical guidelines for protecting the nature. The population is largely unaware of the ecological problems and the nature is actually destroyed under the cover of environmental activities. Such negligence and ignorance can bring about major ecological catastrophes much sooner than we can expect", he said.

Russian scientist V. Boreiko thinks natural peculiarities contribute a great deal to the formation of a national character and identity. "Nations with proper approach to their ecological problems can withstand serious ordeals and survive", he said.

It was indicated at the meeting that valuable trees left in the Armenian-occupied Azeri territories are being felled and taken to France and other European countries.

As where 10 years ago there were 0.22 sq. km. of green plantations in Baku per capita, now the index is down to 0.2. The speakers highlighted the importance of teaching ecological ethics at schools.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the government, NGOs, mass media.

CADAVERS OF SEALS DISCOVERED

An independent monitoring of the Azeri part of the Caspian coastline has discovered fresh cadavers of seals.

It is remembered that large-scale extinction of Caspian seals was in evidence in the spring of last year, when the perished species numbered thousands. Foreign experts ascertained then that the cause was a viral infection, while a local specialist suggested that the disease could not have appeared out of nowhere and had to do with the oil production impact.