OREANDA-NEWS. October 13, 2011. The Charitable ITERA Day was carried out in the Oksky State Biosphere Reserve where a unique nursery of white cranes, sterkhs, is located. Representatives of ITERA Oil and Gas Company, the general sponsor of the Flight of Hope, an International Ecological Project on Salvation of Sterkhs, George Archibald, Head of the International Fund for Protection of Cranes, and Alexander Sorokin, Acting Director of the All-Russia Scientific and Research Institute of Nature of the Ministry for Protection of Environment and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the National Coordinator of the Hope of Flight Project, took part in the event.

Children from the boarding school of Fish settlement in the Ryazan Region were the main visitors of the event. Ornithologists gave them an ecological lesson and organized an excursion in the Reserve. Children learnt about cultivation of sterkhs in the Reserve and methods of their introduction into wild nature, a unique method to train baby birds technics and tactics of flight, the basement of the Flight of Hope Project, with the use of an extra light motor-hang-glider. After surveying the Reserve, children received various gifts and souvenirs from ITERA.  Employees of the Reserve were not deprived of attention. Representatives of the Company welcomed participants in the charitable event on behalf of Igor Makarov, Head of ITERA and President of the Federation of Cycling of Russia, and handed bicycles, one of the most nature-friendly means of transport, over to ornithologists to help improve their mobility across the Reserve.

ITERA, for which Yamal is the principal region where it produces hydrocarbons, could not remain indifferent to a problem of disappearance of a rare species of sterkhs and did all it was able to do to helps scientists  restore the West Siberian population of white cranes.

George Archibald, in his turn, expressed gratitude to ITERA for its active participation in sterkhs’ destiny and urged all participants in the event to get actively involved in nature protection. He expressed hope that someone of the children, when they become adults, would join the business of salvation of rare species of birds.

Sterkh is one of the rare species of cranes that nest in Yamal. Indigenous and small peoples of the Far North consider cranes sacred birds. In recent years, those beautiful birds approached the danger of total disappearance. ITERA, being a socially oriented company, for which Yamal is one of its business regions, made a decision to provide possible assistance to salvation of sterkhs.

Flight of Hope is a Program developed by the Russian scientists-ornithologists from All-Russia Scientific and Research Institute of Nature aimed at salvation of white cranes.  Release to nature of baby birds grown up in a natural preserve is of principal importance for the Program. Training to technics and tactics of long-distance flights and development of migration ways is very important for baby cranes. ITERA Oil and Gas Company has been the Project’s general sponsor since 2005.

To train specific parameters of migration to baby cranes, especial extra light motor-hang-gliders had been constructed. As a result of special training the young birds perceive a motor-hang-glider as a leader of a flock and follow it to a wintering place.  They make stop-overs for rest in suitable places chosen by scientist in advance.

Oksky State Natural Biosphere Reserve is located in the Eastern part of Meshchersky lowland. It was established in 1935. One of main objectives of the Reserve is preserving natural complexes typical of this region including an entire set of components, studying of current natural processes and phenomena, development of a scientific basis to help manage wildlife.  Experimental cultivation of sterkhs and their subsequent release in nature is conducted in the Reserve. The Flight of Hope is being accomplished based on the local nursery of white cranes.

ITERA Oil and Gas Company is one of the large independent producers and sellers of natural gas in the Russian Federation. ITERA has been developing its natural gas production in the Yamalo-Nenetz Autonomous District since 1998. The Company has invested over USD  2 billion in development of the gas industry. ITERA was the first private company to commission gas fields in the North of Russia. ITERA has produced over 245 billion cu m of natural gas at the gas fields it had developed.