The Kola Peninsula

Lapland is a land of blue mountains and perpetually snow drifted mountain passes, white water streams, and the most ancient forests in Europe. It is the land of Selma Lagerloef's children's fairy tales, ruled by the Snow Queen, and the place from which Santa Claus sets off each Christmas on his reindeer driven sleigh to deliver his presents. Few know, however, that a part of this enchanted land is situated in the northwest of Russia, on the Kola Peninsula.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the Lapland mountain and taiga reserve was founded here, to the west of the central peninsula area in the regions of Chunozera and Monche-tundra. At roughly the same time the feverish development of industry began in the area. Today, this part of the world has 17 hydroelectric power stations, several large-scale mining and enrichment plants and chemical combines, and is home to the leading players in the area of non-ferrous metallurgy. A workshop belonging to one of these, the Severonikel Combine, which is now part of the Kola Mining and Metallurgical company, was built as long ago as the 1930s, and is situated seven kilometres from the border of the National Park. The only other place in the world where such proximity can be found is Canada. On the Kola Peninsula, where the lives and livelihoods of the population are entirely dependent on the development of heavy industry, the Lapland National Park and MMC Kola have also found a way of coexisting.

In 1985 the Lapland National Park biosphere territory was founded on the Kola Peninsula. This reserve is one of a global network of biosphere territories created by UNESCO. The centre of the territory is the reserve itself, and the Severonikel Combine and the town of Monchegorsk are located within the "zone of cooperation". MMC Kola, the Monchegorsk local authorities and the Lapland National Park are partners in carrying out the recommendations of the Seville Strategy for biosphere territories, which was accepted by UNESCO. This cooperation has received the support of the Russian representatives of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Only ten years ago, the proximity of industry and nature that is found here resulted in the drive to exploit the biological diversity of the area riding rough shod over any notions of its preservation, but now, a way towards resolving this conflict of interests has been arrived at. Considerable reductions in the levels of industrial emissions have led to the beginning of the regeneration of the natural habitats in the area around the Combine. For the first time in 25 years, shrews have appeared within three kilometres of the Combine's industrial facilities, which is an indication of the quality of the local habitat. Other forms of wildlife, unseen for the last two decades, have begun to appear again in the town of Monchegorsk.

One more aspect of the cooperation of MMC Kola and the Lapland reserve is in the field of ecological education. The company plays its part in the publication of the annual "Lapland National Park", whose intent is to educate and encourage a sense of responsibility toward nature, the development of environmental consciousness and the development of the culture of ecology, and the desire to work together to resolve regional ecological problems and to encourage mass participation in the business of supporting the National Park.