In April, in the capital of the Baikal region, teachers, staff, and students of the Law Institute of Irkutsk State University traditionally took an active part in the city-wide improvement efforts. Through their efforts, sanitary cleaning and landscaping were carried out in the University Grove, which is under the patronage of ISU Law Institute so-called “the green lungs” of the student district. More than two hundred students from ISU Law Institute participated in the environmental event, conscientiously and responsibly cleaning up last year’s dry grass, fallen branches, foliage, and shrubs, as well as collecting disposable tableware, plastic bags, and household waste. Plastic pollution is a curse of our “civilized world”, which irresponsibly destroys green islands of the growing metropolis. The student activists of the institute collected more than half a ton of garbage and household waste, which poisoned the natural territory of the district.

Unfortunately, just a week after the cleaning, the usual attributes of our indifferent and consumerist time began to reappear: plastic bags, bottles, and paper bags from a nearby fast food restaurant. Since 2018, the issue of building a student Church in the name of the Holy Martyr St. Tatiana of Rome (the heavenly patroness of Russian students) on the territory of the University Grove has been under consideration at the federal and municipal levels. In addition, an initiative group of teachers and students of the Law Institute has formed and sent a grant application to the committee “City with a Plus Sign” of the En+ Group to create a Park of Friendship between Russia and Mongolia in the eastern part of the University Grove. We believe that the arrangement of public space on the territory of the grove will allow to solve problems with mismanagement and clutter of the public space of the district in the future.

Oleg Lichichan, Director of the Law Institute:

The annual and conscious participation of students and the teaching staff in ensuring cleanliness and order on the territory of the “green lungs” of the district allows preserving the small forests in the urban space, creates conditions for the careful and responsible maintenance of the forest area, and shows a clear example of a responsible attitude to the environment for future generations. In addition, we express concern and remain hopeful that the city authorities, the public, and residents of the district would pay greater attention and care for the University Grove.

In addition, the student environmental activists together with the lecturers of the institute, took part in a city-wide “subbotnik” [day of volunteer cleanup work] within the framework of the All-Russian environmental campaign #GreenSpring2025 and the All-Russian week #WeAreForTidiness in the Sosnovy Bor [Pine Forest] on Kaiskaya Gora which is a natural landmark of regional significance. The organizers and curators of the environmental event in a specially protected urban area were the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Irkutsk Region and the Department of Environmental Protection of the Irkutsk Administration, with the support of the wide environmental community of Irkutsk. The most active participation in the environmental event was taken by schoolchildren and university students, teachers and lecturers of educational institutions, representatives of regional authorities and municipal government, academic institutions, and local business communities.

Dmitry Shornikov, Director of ISU Research Institute of Legal Protection of Baikal, Head of the Department of International and Comparative Law of the Law Institute:

Such events have become a good tradition of our region, where the unique World Heritage site, the sacred Lake Baikal, is located. The Irkutsk public, in close cooperation with public authorities, must continuously raise the level of ecological culture and responsible attitude towards the nature in our region, as well as form and implement a calendar of environmental protection measures at all levels of governance on a permanent basis. Irkutsk is a city with a special environmental mission and a flagship in the environmental sovereignty of our region.