On October 7-10, the X Baikal International People and Nature Cinema Festival of science-fiction films and documentaries was held in Irkutsk. Leading experts of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Irkutsk State Technical University and Russian Greenpeace discussed issues regarding publicity of ecological problems and, especially, of protection of Lake Baikal during the topical workshops conducted as part of the cinema festival.

The representative of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal Dmitry Semenov spoke about the current issues of biodiversity preservation and their coverage by mass media at the seminar on Biodiversity of the planet: issues and prognosis. The Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal demonstrated the film To the Depth of Baikal showing the most important findings and discoveries of the Mirs at Baikal International Expedition to the participants of the seminar. Before this, the film has been viewed by audiences of Monaco and Mongolia. D.Semenov pointed out the importance of expanding awareness of Lake Baikal issues abroad to colleagues from other organisations. According to statistics, less than 1% people of the planet know about the Lake Baikal. Wider awareness of Lake Baikal would be an advantage both for tourism businesses and for non-profit organisations for control and preservation of the biodiversity of the lake.

In this seminar, experts came to a conclusion that filmmakers, scientists, environmental organisations and general public should establish stronger interaction in order to ensure wider recognition of issues regarding preservation of biodiversity in mass media. The organisers said that the purpose of the People and Nature Festival is to draw public attention to environment preservation issues and to encourage creation of new educational media products on preservation of the biodiversity of the planet.