MOSCOW , October 13 (Itar-Tass) — Sholban Kara-ool, the regional head of Tuva - a territory in the geographical centre of Asia, in Southern Siberia, has been awarded a "Crystal Noosphere" prize as a result of a nationwide competition titled the "National Ecological Prize". The victory ceremony at which the crystal statuette was awarded to the winner was held in Moscow on Thursday, the press service of the Tuva regional government told Itar-Tass.
The other territories acknowledged as having good ecology are Tatarstan, Adygeya, Kostroma, Oryol and Tambov regions. The organizers of the competition instituted special prizes awarded for environmentally stable development, the quality of the environmental standards of living of the population, support to ecological systems and preservation of nature, positive dynamics of the environmental and economic development.
The jury’s decision on the winner had been announced at the State Duma beforehand. The competition was organized by the Duma committee for ecology jointly with the Vernadsky non- governmental ecological foundation.
" The name of the national environmental prize -"Crystal Noosphere" precisely reflects a very fragile ecological balance of the modern world," Sholban Kara-ool said. There are very few corners left on the Earth where a natural harmony remained almost intact. Tuva is one of such corners in Russia," the Tuva regional head said.
Tuva proved to be one of the leaders in Russia and the Siberian Federal District as a result of the assessment of environmentally stable development of Russian regions. In 2011, Tuva lost to the Vologda region only in such parameters as stability and integrity of the ecological system.
"I regard the award as a prize given in advance which entails heavy responsibility. Our region was endowed with a generous gift by nature itself. Our main task is to preserve this generous gift and hand it down to generations to come," Sholban Kara-ool said.