Environmental Heroes

BEW

A Policeman Signs the Petition Supporting the Rerouting of the Siberia-Pacific Pipeline. The Russian government rerouted the pipeline away from Lake Baikal as a result of community organizing.

Magadan Center for the Environment (Magadan)

Over the past 10 years, Magadan Center for the Environment (MACE) has become one of the foremost leaders in the Russian Far East promoting responsible mining practices.  As a region, Magadan was blessed with rich natural resources, particularly with an abundance of precious minerals.  Unfortunately, with Moscow over 3500 miles away, largely unchecked mining development has resulted in serious environmental consequences.  MACE partners with local indigenous leaders as well as with international organizations such as Pacific Environment to create productive dialogue with company and government officials, both holding them accountable for destructive mines and convincing them to improve their practices for future activities.  MACE is also playing a lead role in protesting planned oil and gas development in the Sea of Okhotsk, which would devastate valuable fisheries and threaten Magadan with pollution from drilling waste and oil spills.

Phoenix Fund (Vladivostok)

Established in 1998, Phoenix Fund seeks to conserve the rich biodiversity of the Russian Far East, with a particular focus on Siberian tiger and Amur leopard conservation.  Phoenix works effectively through public education projects, community-based monitoring and anti-poaching, and public advocacy.  In 2006, Phoenix played an instrumental role in the decision to reroute the Siberia-Pacific Pipeline away from the last remaining habitat of the critically endangered Amur leopard.  Now Phoenix is working to ensure that this same pipeline will not impact the endangered Siberian tiger.

Sakhalin Environment Watch (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)

Since 1995, Sakhalin Environment Watch (SEW) has grown from an informal citizens’ initiative group to a world-class environmental watchdog organization.  SEW has successfully held international banks and companies accountable for the environmental and social destruction wrought by the Sakhalin-2 project, the world’s largest integrated oil and gas project.  Together with Pacific Environment, SEW forced the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the US Export-Import Bank to withdraw from the project, citing environmental concerns.  SEW also works vigorously to protect Sakhalin’s remaining wilderness and natural treasures; in 2007, after many years of court battles with a delinquent fishing company, SEW successfully recreated the Vostochny Wildlife Refuge, protecting pristine salmon runs and virgin dark coniferous taiga.