When you throw a piece of trash from your car window, or get rid of your old computer in the woods anywhere in the United States, you’re violating littering or dumping laws, and chances are that you’d have to pay a fine if caught red-handed. But when it comes to the Arctic, our representatives think it’s okay to let ships dump their garbage into pristine Arctic waters.

Pacific Environment is in a pivotal position when it comes to shaping the Arctic’s future. We are one of a handful of groups which have a special consultative status at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations’ body that is now writing the rules for Arctic shipping (known as the Polar Code). This is a big deal because with rapidly melting sea ice, decisions need to be made immediately about how ships can operate in what are now pristine waters. These rules will have a big impact on indigenous communities and their ability to maintain their subsistence lifestyle.

Last week Pacific Environment took a leadership role at the IMO meeting in London to support a strong Polar Code. Unfortunately, our own United States delegation, led by the U.S. Coast Guard and several other agencies, opposed measures to strengthen the Polar Code.

Canada and Russia see the necessity of Arctic conservation, and currently ban ships from dumping their garbage in Arctic waters. But this ban applies only to their territorial waters – and with Arctic shipping expected to grow exponentially – they sought the international force of law to require a zero discharge from ships anywhere in the Arctic. Given that Canada and Russia have banned Arctic garbage dumping for years with no adverse consequences for shipping, we believed the ban should have been greeted with positive support from all nations.

Showing a complete lack of concern for the Arctic environment, the U.S. delegation opposed the garbage dumping ban, along with other proposals to ban the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic. Heavy fuel oil is a critically important issue because one major oil spill similar to the Exxon-Valdez spill could cause species extinction as well as the loss of food security for indigenous peoples. The Arctic Council, a group of eight Arctic nations working to promote sound Arctic public policy, found that heavy fuel oil is one of biggest dangers with Arctic shipping.

Pacific Environment is working hard to actively involve other conservation groups, indigenous groups, and the general public to pressure the U.S. delegation, as well as other nations, to support rules that minimize the risks of Arctic shipping while protecting indigenous interests. With solid grassroots organizing and public pressure, we are optimistic about our chances to establish the highest environmental standards for the Arctic.  We will continue to keep you posted on our progress.

More about Canada’s stance on dumping waste in Arctic waters

Poaching is the principal threat to the Siberian tigers’ survival. The animals are killed in retaliation for attacking cattle and as hunting trophies. There is also demand for their skin, bones, and body parts, which are used primarily in Chinese traditional medicine. “In the Russian Far East, it’s easier to meet a poacher than a tiger,” quips Sergei Bereznuk, our long-time partner and director of the Valdivostok-based Phoenix Fund.

The majestic, endangered Siberian tiger.

Twelve years ago, Sergei realized that Siberian tigers would be pushed to the brink of extinction if he were to rely on the Russian government to protect them from poaching and habitat destruction. Today, Sergei and his team of six are working tirelessly to ensure the survival of this endangered species over a territory of about 64,000 square miles—much of it pristine taiga forest wilderness.

In November 2012, Sergei received a Rolex Award for Enterprise for his innovative tiger conservation work. Described as “a modest and pragmatic man who has overcome major odds in a highly challenging environment,” the Rolex Award committee recognized that Sergei “has, with great tenacity, begun to change attitudes and empower a young team of collaborators to sustain the Siberian tiger population.”

Sergei and his Phoenix Fund use a three-pronged strategy to inspire a new generation of environmental activists to protect the last Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East.

They train local anti-poaching brigades and provide them with fuel and spare parts for their patrolling vehicles, among other equipment. This year, Sergei’s anti-poaching work took a major leap forward when the Phoenix Fund started outfitting anti-poaching units with newly-developed GPS software that allows the rangers to better track and hunt down poachers to bring them to justice.

Sergei (center) trains rangers to use handheld GPS devices to track poachers.
Photo credit: National Geographic

But Sergei’s efforts to protect the approximately 350–500 wild tigers still roaming the region bordering China and the Sea of Japan go far beyond his efforts to curb poaching. He views the Siberian tiger as a powerful driver for the general conservation of its ecosystem—the taiga forest.

As part of their anti-poaching duties, the rangers record information on the state of the forest and the reach of illegal loggers—a huge threat to Russia’s forests. Moreover, Phoenix Fund is one of five participants in Pacific Environment’s groundbreaking black carbon pilot project in Russia.

This project seeks to reduce forest fires caused by humans. In addition to destroying thousands of hectares of forest each year, wildfires are a serious threat to the Siberian tiger because they destroy its habitat by turning forest into open meadows and brushwood. Furthermore, they are a significant source of black carbon, which accelerates Arctic ice melt and thus climate change.

Fire brigades fight wild fires, which eliminate Siberian tiger habitat and contribute to large amounts of black carbon in the Arctic.

Phoenix Fund trains and coordinates volunteer fire brigades that prevent and fight forest fires together with park staff in two regional wildlife preserves.

Finally, Sergei is a big believer in the power of education. Phoenix Fund works directly with educators and children, and it creates its own educational materials, films, and art competitions.

Sergei speaks to a room full of young people about Phoenix Fund’s Tiger Day.
Photo credit: National Geographic

Once a year, Phoenix Fund puts on its biggest event, Tiger Day. A powerful motivational tool, it features thousands of tiger-costumed schoolchildren and students and some of Russia’s most prominent environmental activists who parade through Vladivostok’s streets to raise awareness for tiger and forest conservation.

As a result of their innovative work, Sergei and the Phoenix Fund have helped stabilize the Siberian tiger population, moving it from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

I’m so very proud that Sergei’s achievements have been recognized with a Rolex Award. Congratulations!

Aleksey Gribkov did not back down when Russia’s state security agencies harassed him and his organization to drop a lawsuit that ended up becoming a landmark legal victory for Russia’s environmental movement.

“Our main priority is to protect the wilderness. I believe that this is the most important aspect of environmental protection because preserving pristine natural territories will protect plants and animals and secure a hospitable natural environment for humankind.” – Aleksey Gribkov

But before I tell you Aleksey’s remarkable story, I’ll introduce you to one of the people who has helped build the foundation for his success.

Let me take you back in time to a late summer night in Russia. The year is 2012, and my Pacific Environment colleagues and I are sitting in a local bar in Vladivostock with dozens of NGO partners and allies from throughout the Russian Far East and Siberia. We are all gathered around a projector, looking at pictures of a white-bearded man with sparkling eyes, recalling his deeds. That man is my late colleague, Misha Jones.

September 2012 marked the fourth anniversary of our colleague Misha Jones’s passing. His loss is still deeply felt—at Pacific Environment and among friends and NGO allies in the U.S. and the Russian Far East.

Everyone is laughing when an activist from near Lake Baikal shares one of his favorite memories of Misha. He had noticed that whenever Misha translated his jokes into English, all of the non-Russian speakers would laugh. When he asked how he was able to translate even the most complicated Russian jokes, Misha replied that instead of translating, he simply told a different joke in English.

Others are sharing their own stories about Misha’s ability to find a “common language” with almost everyone, and especially his ability to communicate with people who didn’t agree with his environmental ideals.

As I sit and listen and laugh and toast to Misha’s indomitable spirit, I realize just what a great connector and coalition-builder he was. And that it is due in part to his dedication and the enthusiasm he inspired in others that all of us are gathered here, in a local bar in Vladivostock, during our annual Sosnovka meeting, which brings together 50 leading environmental and indigenous activists from all corners of Russia to strategize campaigns and exchange resources.

This year’s Sosnovka meeting included Tiger Day to rally support for tiger conservation. It was organized by Sergey Berezniuk (center), director of our long-time partner, Phoenix Fund.

At the end of the night, we toast to another environmental hero, Aleksey Gribkov, you’ve met him above, as he accepts the Misha Jones Award, which honors a Russian activist who best embodies Pacific Environment’s grassroots approach to creating social and environmental change. Aleksey receives the award for his tireless work to preserve the Altai Republic’s forests from logging, including the lawsuit I mentioned in the beginning of this post that ended up becoming a landmark legal victory.

So here is Aleksey’s story, as promised.

Aleksey developed his deep love for Altai’s wilderness during summers spent at his grandmother’s rural village.

Originally, Aleksey wanted to become a biologist, not an environmental activist. But when he returned from the army and started roaming his beloved Altai forests again, he noticed that poachers were ensnaring endangered argali sheep, snow leopards, and Siberian tigers. He gathered several friends and they started patrolling for poachers, eventually organizing volunteer brigades of over 100 villagers and school children and founding the Gebler Ecological Society.

Poaching threatens the survival of the critically endangered Siberian tiger. Only 400-500 are still roaming the wilds in the Russian Far East.

But soon Aleksey and his friends encountered a much larger threat. Logging companies were clear-cutting a rare and ancient taiga forest in the Zalesovsky State Nature Preserve, despite its legal status as a “protected area” exempt from industrial activity. His appeals to regional government agencies all received the same disappointing response: no laws were being violated.

So Aleksey decided to pursue an unorthodox and audacious strategy. He brought a civil suit defending the environmental rights of all citizens before the Zalesovsky Regional Court, demanding that the leases the logging companies had received from local government agencies be invalidated and the cutting cease.

Intimidation followed. While Gebler Ecological Society vs. Altai Region Forest Management Service was pending in regional court, intense government pressure subjected him and his group to endless audits and investigations, culminating in accusations of racketeering. But Aleksey’s tenacity paid off. In August 2010, a regional court ordered the logging to cease.

Before Aleksey’s lawsuit ended illegal logging in the Zalesovsky State Nature Preserve, clear-cutting destroyed critical habitat for endangered animals like Siberian tigers, snow leopards, and bears.

Today, the director of the government agency named in the lawsuit is under criminal investigation and held personally responsible for the damage he wreaked on the Zalesovsky preserve by selling the logging rights that authorized clear-cutting in a protected area and resulted in 6.5 million rubles’ (or over $200,000) worth of damage.

Pacific Environment supported Gebler Ecological Society’s landmark lawsuit with a $10,000 grant. “We were able to establish a legal precedent that is without parallel in Russia,” says Aleksey. Indeed, this victory has far-reaching consequences throughout Russia because now civil society everywhere can challenge the common practice of state agencies permitting industrial activity on land where it is legally prohibited.

And I know that this win, and subsequent legal action holding a government employee accountable for the environmental damage he caused, would not have been possible without the invaluable legal advice that Aleksey and his organization received from a growing network of allied environmental groups in Russia, which Pacific Environment’s staff, past and present, has helped build and nurture over the last 25 years.

Eight Siberian tiger skins, including those of little tiger cubs, were recently seized from a resident of Arseniev town in Primorye in the Russian Far East.

Siberian Tigers are poached for their fur and for their body parts, such as bones, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The culprit is well-known to the local police. He has been buying illegal wildlife products since the 1990s and had already been arrested several times. He allegedly bought the tiger skins from regional poachers to sell them in China.

Poaching is a very significant threat to the long-term survival of the critically endangered Siberian (or Amur) tiger populations. Humans are responsible for about 75 percent of all Siberian tiger deaths annually. And only 400 to 500 individuals are estimated to still be roaming the wilds in the Russian Far East.

Public anti-poaching brigades help protect the Siberian Tiger and other endangered animals from poachers.

Tigers are a protected species in Russia, but enforcement agencies rarely catch and convict poachers, and punishment or fines are relatively minor. In addition, in many poor rural areas of the Russian Far East the price paid for a tiger skin and bones represents substantial income.

In the late 19th century Russian settlers poured into the Russian Far East to build the eastern Chinese railway. Trying to eradicate tigers and leopards from the land, they pushed these big cats to the brink of extinction.

“Poaching continues to be a major obstacle,” says Sergey Berezniuk, director of the Phoenix Fund and a long-time partner of Pacific Environment. “Unfortunately, the government is suffering defeat in its fight with poachers. We have not yet recovered from the last seizure of skins and body parts of wild animals back in April. During a search, the police discovered 148 bear paws, 2 Himalayan bear skins, 3 brown bear skins, 2 skins and 5 tails of Siberian tigers, and 5 sea eagle carcasses.”

With only 30-35 individuals left, the Amur leopard is one of the most endangered large cats on Earth.

Every year, we invest in the protection of the endangered Siberian tiger, Amur leopard, and Himalayan black bear. Our grantee, the Phoenix Fund, is a champion for protected area and habitat conservation. The group also supports local brigades that conduct anti-poaching raids—an effective and necessary strategy that helps reduce poaching activities in remote areas not regularly patrolled by the police.

Habitat-destroying forest fires are another serious threat to the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard—and a significant source of Arctic ice-melting black carbon. That’s why we also support the Phoenix Fund’s volunteer fire brigade, which prevents and fights fires together with park staff in two regional wildlife preserves.

Farmers in rural Russia often intentionally set fires to clear cultivated lands of crop residue or brush from pastures. Poorly controlled, they frequently lead to uncontrollable forest fires. These fires contribute over a third of black carbon emissions in the Arctic, with Russia responsible for about 43% of them.

The fate of endangered wildlife rests in the hands of the people of the Russian Far East. But we are with them as they fight to preserve wild lands, protect endangered species, and strengthen environmental laws—through direct financial support and capacity-building projects.

Please donate $20 today to help us safe endangered tiger and leopard cubs from poachers and forest fires.

The Hawaiian culture places great emphasis on the word “Aloha,” which means love, peace, compassion, and charity. Hawaiians greet and bid farewell to their guests with Aloha. Unfortunately, there was no Aloha at this year’s APEC Summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Sadly, a local Hawaiian youth was killed on the first day of the summit after scuffling with a U.S. federal agent who was hired as a security guard for the multi-day event. This caused bewilderment and a wave of protests from locals.

Honolulu, normally a peaceful vacation town, was not very friendly during the week of the summit and seemed to escalate into chaos. Roads were closed for world leaders and their entourages, causing massive traffic jams. According to witnesses, just the Chinese delegation alone, arrived with 1,000 members and that was only one of the 21 delegations in attendance. Thousands of armed soldiers and federal agents patrolled the perimeter of the tourist part of Honolulu-Waikiki, where the summit took place. Displaying weapons to cause fear in peaceful people is, unfortunately, a common practice in many countries. The meeting was held on Hawaii, far from the US mainland, where large-scale protests were unlikely. Yet, authorities and the APEC planning committee apparently decided to take special measures in light of recent Occupy Movement Protests in most large US cities.  To give you a sense of how much security was there, the US government spent $44 million to prepare for the summit, including $18 million for police and $10 million for “contingency expenses” such as 700 thousand units of non-lethal weapons, including 25 thousand pepper sprays, and even 3 thousand tasers, all purchased by American taxpayers.

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I think I am one of the luckiest people out there to be doing the work I am very passionate about, being able to travel, meeting some of the most wonderful people around the globe and being able to connect those people in order to make positive change.

I recently traveled to Nome, Alaska for the Beringia Days Conference organized by the Shared Beringian Heritage Program of National Park Service (NPS). The conference was first held in 1997 and since then it alternated between both sides of the Bering Strait. This year it was Alaska’s turn to host the conference. Nome welcomed more than 130 people.  Among them were native people of Alaska and Chukotka, Russian and American scholars, researchers, environmentalists, and representatives of government and non-governmental organizations.

The goal of the conference was to bring together various stakeholders for discussions around issues affecting communities both in Chukotka and Alaska. Some of the major topics covered during the conference were international cooperation, creation of the Shared Beringia Heritage Trans-boundary Protected Area, preservation of culture and language, youth programs, environmental issues including resource extraction, increased shipping, and pollution. Special attention was paid to marine mammal research and impacts of climate change on subsistence resources of indigenous peoples.

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Nearly 300 years ago, one of the first researchers of the Kamchatka Peninsula, George Stelleronce wrote:

“Kamchatka lives almost solely on fish. If you hit the water with a spear you rarely miss a fish.  Fishing nets or seines are useless in Kamchatka for that reason.  It’s impossible to drag them ashore, they tear because ofthe abundance of fish.”

Many years ago, it seemed that the salmon would last forever.  However, today we know that all natural resources are limited, and Kamchatka’s salmon need protection.  So what is the current state of Kamchatka salmon?  The Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography has published extensively on the topic. (more…)

A western gray whale named Flex has been receiving media attention worldwide for being the first of his kind to be tagged and tracked.  He is a 13 year old western gray whale that was tagged on October 4^th, 2010 by Russian and American scientists off of Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia.

His precedence is not the only thing gaining him fame though; his unpredictable path in the last four months has also been gaining him attention.  Scientists and researchers are baffled by his movements, but then again, they humbly admit they did not really know where western gray whales should be going in the first place. (more…)

While Sunday 10/10/10 was celebrated all over the world by activists as “Global Warming Work Party” and now known as the “Biggest Day of Climate Action”, I was fortunate enough to participate in Pacific Environment’s Vessel Watch trip to the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to collect and record data on whales (humpbacks, blue whales, etc) and help raise awareness about the impacts of shipping traffic on our magnificent marine life that frequent this sanctuary.

 

Vessel Watch Trip Leaving San Francisco Bay

On board the 65’ Catamaran “KittyKat” were experienced naturalists plus my colleague Jackie Dragon, the director of our Marine Sanctuaries Program; fellow colleagues and researchers; and several members of the public who for the first time were going to see and hear these amazing creatures in the wild.  The trip took us 27 miles beyond the Golden Gate to the Farallon Islands, a group of six small islands and giant rocks near the edge of the continental shelf. The sanctuary supports an abundance of life, including many threatened or endangered species – including the humpback whale, blue whale, great white shark and even killer whales.  The naturalist informed us that just two weeks ago they saw pods of the endangered northern right whale dolphins, an extremely rare sighting.  There are three typical seasons where researchers come out to collect data and they are – birds, whales and sharks.  Right now is great white shark season and the Farallons are heavily frequented by shark cage divers.

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I shot the following videos at Lake Azabache and in Bistrinsky Nature Park in central Kamchatka during a mid-July trip with my colleague Igor Goldfarb.

Here you can see a spawning stream filled with sockeye salmon as they complete the final leg of their journey to the spawning grounds. When I took this video, these fish had already traveled from the ocean, up two rivers, across a lake, and up several miles of this stream. The white fish have already spawned, and are beginning to die. The media portrays post-spawn salmon mortality as a romantic sacrifice, but the truth is far more gruesome: after completing their “duty,” the salmon literally begin to fall apart. The upshot is that the nutrients the salmon bring to Kamchatka’s rivers feed entire villages, an enormous population of bears, and even fertilizes the surrounding forest. (more…)