More than 200 volunteers to take part in planting forest for leopards

VLADIVOSTOK, April 12 (Itar-Tass) - More than 200 volunteers have
decided to throw their shoulder into the planting of a cedar forest in the
south of Primorsky /Maritime/ territory that will become home to the
almost extinct Far-Eastern leopards.
In two weeks' time, the volunteers will go to a field camp in the
territory's Khasan district.
The camp will work through to the end of May, Yelena Starostina, the
press secretary of the Amur affiliation of the World Wildlife Fund told
Itar-Tass.
The team of volunteers includes the people of most diverse age groups
and trades. All of them are united by the willingness to contribute to the
planting of the forest.
Whole organizations have decided to make their contributions. The
Admiral Nevelskoi State Maritime University and the Far Eastern Federal
State University are delegating students.
They will be joined by employees of the Department of the Interior,
Vladivostok's united library network, the Primorsky territory
administration, as well as members of the Far-Eastern Club of Spelunkers
and others.
The action under the motto of 'Plant a Forest for a
Leopard'


envisions the planting of a million seedlings of cedar on an area of more
than 500 hectares. The planting campaign is expected to last from the end
of April through to the beginning of July.
Theoretically, each volunteer can plant up to 500 seedlings over a day
of work.
The future of the forests in the southeast of the Primorsky territory,
which form the habitat for the last remaining 35 Far Eastern leopards, is
endangered.
The forests are degrading because of the felling of trees and
wildfires and are gradually turning into common oak groves and then into a
woodless steppe.
The disappearance of coniferous trees from the forest is the primary
signal of its degradation.
In the past fifty years alone, the felling and wildfires have cut down
the area of mixed coniferous/broadleaved forests has shrunk by more than
50%.