Over eighty people took part in planting Schrenk’s spruces in the Medeu Park on 5 October 2013
EDB has undertaken its third annual Environmental Patrol initiative.
Almaty, 7 October 2013. On Saturday, 5 October, the Bank’s employees, their families, representatives of diplomatic missions in Almaty and local authorities took part in Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) regular environmental initiative. This time the employees of the Bank’s headquarters and volunteers went to the Medeu state regional nature park to plant Schrenk’s spruces.
A violent storm burst in the Medeu Gorge in June 2011, leaving behind five thousand fallen centuries-old spruces and pines. It seemed that one of the most beautiful places in Zailiysky Alatau and one of Almaty’s landmarks could be lost forever. It was also obvious that this needed to be prevented and the beauty of this place was to be restored. A lot has been done to clear the slopes after the storm and plant new trees. The Bank decided to make its contribution to these efforts.
The EDB Environmental Patrol planted thirty two-metre tall Schrenk’s spruces. Another seventy trees will be planted before 30 November, when it becomes cold, in a hard-to-reach valley beyond the Shymbulak, which had suffered from the storm to the most extent. The Bank will also ensure that all trees will be cared in forthcoming years.
This year the EDB Environmental Patrol was a family event. The EDB employees and their families and close friends spent a whole day in the gorge to help revive this place. Representatives of the consular missions of Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Almaty, the Almaty Akimat and the management of the Medeu Park also took part in the initiative.
“I am happy that this year our Environmental Patrol received, once again, sincere and strong support from the Bank’s employees, their families and friends and all volunteers who joined us today, on a day off,” said Marat Dzhaukenov, Deputy Chairman of the EDB Management Board. “It is especially important that children also took part in this event. These initiatives help us raise our children in an environmentally friendly context, with love and respect to nature and their homeland.”
More than eighty people took part in the initiative.
Two years ago, when EDB launched its environmental patrols, its position was that environmental protection and environmental security are a priority not only for the state, but for the public in its entirety. Finding solutions to environmental problems depends not only on laws, production upgrades and technological advances, but on each of us.
The first EDB Environmental Patrol took place in 2011 in Almaty Region — in the Tamgaly Tas area near the Ili River. The EDB employees and local volunteers cleaned up the territory of this natural and archaeological site from garbage. Next year the patrol was arranged on the Terrenkur, one of the most popular walking places in Almaty running along the Malaya Almatinka River, where another huge pile of garbage was removed. In addition to Almaty, the initiative took place in other six cities of the EDB member states: Astana, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, Yerevan and Dushanbe.
Additional Information
Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital exceeds US $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.