THE HISTORY OF THE PROTECTED AREA

The first meeting of the Joint Commission was held on October 25-26, 1995 in Chita, Russia, with participation of heads of delegations deputy co-chairmen (Russia Ilyashenko V. Yu., head of the Board on biological resources protection of Ministry for natural resources; Mongolia D. Myagmasuren, chief of State reserves service and ecotourism of Ministry for nature and environment). The Chinese side was not present but it had sent a detailed . At the first meeting was adopted the following:

• official emblem of the international protected area;
• Regulations on Joint Russian-Mongolian-Chinese Commission and time-limit of its work;
• Provisional Regulations on international protected area;
• basic lines of cooperation: scientific activity (making up an inventory of wildlife on the territory of IPA and adjacent areas; organization and providing monitoring according to joint methods at mutually concerted stations; elaboration of scientific grounds for including new areas into the joint reserve; elaboration of aim-oriented scientific and nature-protecting projects), cooperation in environmental education, protection of reserved areas, in elaboration, approbation and popularization of inexhaustible nature use methods.

For realization of the meeting resolution a short program was prepared (draft suggestion) on development of the joint reserve with the proposal to open a DIPA office in Chita.

The second meeting of the Joint Commission took place in Choibalsan, Mongolia in October 8-13, 1996. The Mongolian delegation was headed by Dr. N. Sarantuya, Chief of Division of Legal Regulation and Coordination in the Ministry of Nature and Environment in Mongolia. The Chinese delegation was headed by Mr. Wu Go Chzhun, Director General, Inner Mongolia Autonomous region Environmental Protection Bureau. The head of the Russian delegation was Mr. Brinikh V. A., Director of the Daursky reserve.

At the meeting there was a discussion on the reports of the delegations< heads about the work done in DIPA, and also on the problems of including the IPA into the UNESCO biosphere reserves network and of expansion the IPA area with the aim of creating IPA with common boundaries (now common boundaries have only the Russian and the Mongolian reserves), problems of cooperation between three areas were considered, the plan of joint activities was adopted. The participants of the meeting visited the areas of Dornod aimak, which exist already and which are being projected (in order to protect Mongolian gazelle).

The third meeting of the Joint Commission was held in Manzhouly, People< s Republic of China from 5 to 7 July, 2000. The Chinese delegation was headed by Mr. Wu Go Chzhun, Head of the Committee of environmental protection of Inner Mongolia (People's Republic of China), the Mongolian delegation was led by Mr. D. Myagmasuren, Chief of the State Reserves Service of the Ministry for nature of Mongolia, the Russian delegation head was Mr. Ostrovsky A. P., �hairman of the �ommittee on environmental protection of Chita region.

In the meeting< s minutes priorities for further joint cooperation were stated:

• control and fighting transboundary steppe and forest fires;
• interaction in research and conservation of Mongolian gazelle;
• elaboration of joint program for development of IPA for 10 years and unified working plan for 5 years;
• adoption of common monitoring and research work methods within the protected area for receiving objective comparable data;
• preparation of joint scientific publications and wide presentation of the protected area in international scientific and public circles;
• joining the international network of biosphere reserves by all three reserves of DIPA;
• improvement of communication between the three reserves, solution of the problem of simplified border crossing for DIPA specialists during work within DIPA.

The fourth meeting of the Joint Commission is planned for October 2005 in Chita, Russia. The following questions are suggested for discussion:

• raising the status of IPA (including DIPA as a united area into the biosphere reserves network and the UNESCO List of World Nature Heritage, preparation and signing an inter-governmental agreement on DIPA activity);
• adoption of new variants of Regulations on Joint Commission and Regulations on IPA;
• discussion of international cooperation problems in Dauria eco-region and in the Amur basin on the basis of DIPA, and other questions.

Between the meetings of the Joint Commission there were a number of working meetings of the heads and representatives of the three reserves.
On May 26, 1994 a meeting of representatives from the Daursky reserve, the Mongol Daguur reserve and WWF International took place in Chuluunkhorot (Erentsav). At the meeting the question was discussed on assistance in a number of programs, which were going on or planned in the IPA. Specifically on development of material basis of the reserves, on joint expeditions in the adjacent areas for construction of a framework of count routes and sites including disturbed and undisturbed ecosystems, on preparation of a joint program for Mongolian gazelle research, on organization and development of a scientific educational centre of DIPA on the basis of the Daursky reserve.

On April 7-8, 1995 in Chuluunkhorot, Mongolia a working meeting of the three reserves< heads was held, at which the agenda for the coming 1st meeting of the Joint Commission was discussed. Besides the questions discussed by the Commission (see above) it was suggested to consider a draft international treaty on support and development of IPA, and also a draft appeal to nternational nature-protecting organizations about providing support to the IPA.

On March 28 April 2, 1996 there was a working meeting of the heads of the reserves of the three countries in Nizhny Tsasuchey (Russia), where the questions of joint scientific research within the Program of DIPA activity were discussed, as well as organizational aspects of cooperation. The reserves< representatives exchanged information about the activity of all the three protected areas and normative legal acts regulating their activity.
At the meeting some methods of joint researches were coordinated, lists of fauna were considered and made a note of, cartographic material was exchanged, dates of joint expeditions were verified, it was decided to prepare a booklet about DIPA, attention was drawn to imperfection of communication means (lack of e-mail and fax connection between all the reserves).

On March 4-6, 1998 in Zabaikalsk, Russia a working meeting was held between representatives of the three reserves with their heads, at which questions of preparation for the 3-d meeting of the Joint Commission were discussed. It was noted that for elaboration of a common program on DIPA development it is necessary to get more deeply acquainted with the situation in all three reserves. The plan of joint expert groups work in the area of the three reserves and scientific expeditions was adopted. The decision was taken on regular exchange and training of specialists on the basis of all three reserves, and on annual publication of scientific works of DIPA (in fact, the first collection of such works was the collection of the Daursky reserve works published in 2003).

On January 13-16, 1999 there was a working meting of the heads of the Dalainor reserve and the Mongol Daguur reserve with the administration of Eastern Steppe Biodiversity Project in Choibalsan. During the meeting the participants exchanged the information on current works and concluded a number of agreements on cooperation including about participation of Chinese specialists in trainings and workshops on investigation of near-water birds and Mongolian gazelles organized jointly by Russian and Mongolian specialists with the support of Eastern Steppe Biodiversity Project and a number of international organizations.

On March 28 April 1, 2000 in Ulaanbaatar a working meeting of the representatives of the reserves-members of the IPA took place. At the meeting there was a discussion of the questions on preparation for the 3-d meeting of the Joint Commission in Manchuria. Besides, the following decisions were taken:

• on organization of international training on snipes in May-June 2000 on the basis of Dalainor reserve;
• on conducting by Russian and Mongolian specialists in Choibalsan a workshop on involvement of local people to protection of rare species of birds for specialists of protected areas administration of Dornod aimak and Eastern Steppe Biodiversity Project;
• on participation of Mongolian specialists in the work of children< s environmental camp on the basis of the Daursky reserve (Russia);
• on participation of specialists of the Mongol Daguur and the Daursky reserves in Eastern Steppe Biodiversity Projects concerning Mongolian gazelle and cranes;
• on preparation of original model of the booklet about the IPA to the 3-d meeting of the Joint Commission.

On April 14, 2002 a working meeting of the heads of the three reserves was held in Chuluunkhorot (Mongolia) where reports of the reserves were presented about realization of the decisions of the previous meeting of the Joint Commission. The urgent tasks of cooperation were put:

• to approve and recommend for general use programs and methods of monitoring near-water birds elaborated in the Mongol Daguur reserve;
• on invitation of the Russian side to hold a meeting in the Daursky reserve with participation of the directors of the Dalainor and Mongol Daguur reserves in June 2002;
• to organize field trainings on vegetation research with participation of specialists of the three reserves in the Dornod aimak of Mongolia and in the Dalainor reserve;
• to publish a collection of scientific works and a booklet about the IPA;
• to appeal to the national MAB committees for supporting the admission of the Dalainor and Dornod Mongol reserves to the biosphere reserves network.

June 5-7 2004, Utochi cordon of the Daursky reserve, on exchange of specialists of the three reserves for studying experience and for overcoming the language barrier. At the meeting the five-year plan on cooperation within the IPA was adopted.

Besides all the mentioned three more treaties were signed on cooperation between the Daursky and the Mongol Daguur reserves, which determined the cooperation issues, first of all in the sphere of scientific research and environmental education:

• for the period to the end of 1993 and for 1994 (signed 24.09.93);
• for the years 1995-1996 (signed 21.01.1995);
• for 1999 (signed 15.03.1999).