MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - The XXIX International Union of Game Biologists (IUGB) Congress will take place in Moscow’s World Trade Center on August 17 - 22, the congress’s press service reported on Friday.

About 500 leading specialists and scientists from 40 countries, including Hungary, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Finland, Mongolia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Serbia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan are expected to take part in the event. 

A wide range of topics are to be discussed during the conference sessions, including the use of renewable resources, expanding game husbandry to develop rural areas, the protection of mammals, the sustainable use of wildlife and fauna.

Participants will also discuss national strategies for conservation and biodiversity, preserving the history and culture of hunting, and legislation related to these issues.

An online youth forum, dedicated to environmental management issues, will be held on August 21 as part of the event’s youth program. The best young scientists will be awarded with the Youth Choice Prize.

“Participants in the congress will pay special attention to international cooperation on saving the Saiga antelope,” a press release said.

In 2009 Russia signed a memorandum with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia as part of an international cooperation project to save the Saiga, which is a native of the Urals, west Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as parts of Mongolia and has been brutally hunted for their horns, believed to be an aphrodisiac.