Background on Co-Host Organizations

Two organizations are collaborating to co-host the Third Grid Workshop. Brief summaries of the goals and work of the WWF-Far East Branch and ERI are provided below.

World Wildlife Fund Russia, Far Eastern Branch

WWF is one of the world’s largest independent conservation organizations, working in more than 90 countries on five continents. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. WWF began its activities in the Russian Far East in 1994 with a project aimed at conservation of the Amur tiger and its habitats. Currently, the Russian Far East branch of WWF (WWF RFE) runs four large-scale programs and tens of various smaller projects, each of which address threats to biodiversity such as forest fires, illegal logging, poaching of rare and endangered species, reduction of high conservation value forests, overfishing, and other threats. Based in Vladivostok, near China and the DPRK, WWF RFE concentrates on resolving transboundary environmental issues such as conservation of the Far Eastern leopard – one of the most endangered species in the area. Additional information on WWF RFE can be found at http://www.wwf.ru.

Economic Research Institute of the Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences

The Economic Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1976 as an organization aimed at centralizing detached economic research efforts and turning them to complex studies of urgent problems of the Russian Far East’s economic development. Since that time, the Economic Research Institute has made a considerable contribution to the development of the economic science here: its scholars have worked out materials for key programs of the economic development of the region, and proposals for the improvement of the management system during the transition period. The main areas of research in ERI at present are as follows: 1) Economy of the transition period; 2) Regional problems of economic transformation, characteristics of reform in the regions; 3) Economy of the Russian Far East, international cooperation, integration into the APR economy; 4) Development of the fuel-energy complex and interconnection with the energy system of the North East Asia; and 5) Forestry complex and ecological problems. The staff of the Institute currently includes more than 90 persons, including 40 researchers and 50 auxiliary, administrative and technical staff.

Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development

The Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development is a policy-oriented research NGO based in Berkeley, California. The institute promotes international cooperation with the goal of realizing secure and ecologically sustainable societies. The staff engages in policy-related analysis of environmental, energy, security, economic issues, with an emphasis on the inter-disciplinary, inter-agency, inter-sector interface between these issues. Programs embrace both global and regional issues, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. The Institute produces reports, organizes workshops, briefs policymakers, constructs quantitative models, provides educational and training services, runs three electronic information services, and occasionally engage in hands-on projects. To learn more about us you can visit our web site at http://www.nautilus.org.