OREANDA-NEWS. January 3, 2011. A ceremony of prize distribution in the field of public relations PROBA-IPRA Golden World Awards – 2010 had taken place in the Hermitage Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 3. The second place in the Best Social PR Project was taken by the Flight of Hope, a Project of ITERA international Group of Companies. This unique ecological program was intended to West Siberian White Crane (Sterkh) entered in the Red Book. Ornithologists and specialists of VNIIprirody (All Russia Scientific Research Institute for nature), Okskiy State Biosphere Reserve, as well as scientists from over a dozen countries of the world participate in this project. ITERA provides financial and information support to the project.

Sterkh is one of the most rear breeds of cranes. It nests in the Yamal peninsula and native and small peoples of the Far North consider it a sacred bird. The population of those beautiful birds approached a red line of total disappearance: there are no more than 20 species of it in wild nature and ITERA, being a socially oriented company, for which Yamal is one of the major regions where it does its business, decided to provide feasible assistance to help save sterkhs.

The Project started in 2004. Five specialized motor hang-gliders had been constructed with the assistance of ITERA within this project’s framework. They are used to teach sterkhs. Over a hundred species of sterkh have been let out to natural environment. ITERA pays special attention to distribution of information about distressful situation with sterks, fight against poaching and raising the problem to a high state and international scientific levels. An aggressive information program helps solve tasks of priority importance: to reduce extinction of sterkhs by poachers, to attract important attention of scientific community to the problem of full disappearance of white cranes. Starting from 2005, participants in the Flight of Hope project participated in over 20 Russian and international conferences where they talked about efforts to save the birds. Geographical locations and dates of those conferences often coincide with the white cranes’ flyway and its time. Over 30 scientific works had been published in Russian and foreign scientific magazines since 2005, while the number of scientific thesis on sterkhs increased from zero to ten by 2010.

I.V. Makarov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITERA International Group of Companies believes that "…the Project and our Company’s participation in it shall continue, because, among other things, nature hates a time to time care about it".

ITERA views the awarding a prestigious prize to the Flight of Hope as a public recognition of the contribution by the Company in the most important business of preserving the environment.