posted by Galina Angarova

My colleague Evan Sparling and I recently traveled to Altai to touch base with our partners in the field, meet with regional stakeholders, and participate in a conference on sacred sites organized by one of our partners – the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Altai. As I have now fully transitioned into my new position as Program Associate for Community-Based Initiatives for Pacific Environment, the trip provided me with an opportunity to fully immerse myself into program work and issues faced by indigenous communities in Russia, especially in the current economic and political climate. This was my second trip to Altai since I started working for Pacific Environment, and I was very excited to visit the sacred land and meet with our partners once again.

Sacred mountain in Chui Oozy Nature Park, Altai Republic, Russia

For centuries sacred sites served people as places where they could come to pray, cleanse themselves, and recover from the hardships of life. For some nations, sacred places are Catholic monasteries, Orthodox cathedrals, Muslim mosques, and Buddhist temples. For indigenous cultures, and specifically shamanists, these are places or objects created by nature: mountains, healing springs, mountain passes, plants and animals.

Altai has also always been the heart of Shamanism in Siberia. During  Soviet times the communists extinguished shamanism and many of the shamans who lived during those days were either killed or sent to gulags. For many years shaman clans had to hide their identity and it was only after perestroika and democracy that shamanism experienced its revival. Nowadays it is not as rare to find a shaman in the remote villages of Altai. Luckily, the traditional knowledge was kept and passed onto new generations.

One of the trip’s most memorable moments was meeting a local shaman by the name of Slava Cheltuev in Kosh-Agach, a region bordering Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan.

Kurai Village, 60 km from the Russian-Mongolia border

Upon our arrival, Slava greeted us at his home with traditional tea with milk, salt, butter, and cracked wheat. It has been only three  years since Slava was chosen by his community to be a shaman and a keeper of traditional knowledge.  As a relatively young shaman at the age of 41, he feels responsible to learn from elders about his land, sacred places, and traditions so that he can pass this knowledge on to younger generations. As Russian is not his first language, most of his words were translated from indigenous Altayan into Russian by our partner Chagat.  (Today, there are only 70,000 speakers of Altayan in the world).

Cows in Kosh-Agach region, Altai Republic, Russia

Although some of what Slava said was revealed in a very simple language, his words carried a very deep knowledge and understanding of his roots and his role within his community. He talked about being close to the land and local sacred places, talking to spirits – guardians of their lands – and the meaning of dreams.

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Posted by Evan Sparling

My recent trip to Altai is proof that life imitates art. Just a few days before leaving the US I watched the film “Everything is Illuminated.” Even if you’ve never seen it, you know the plot: a mismatched cast of characters (an octogenarian Ukrainian anti-Semite, his hip-hop obsessed playboy grandson, a shy young American Jew, a deranged dog) embark on a road trip to an unlikely place (the Ukrainian countryside) and adventure (and illumination) ensues. In my case, the characters include an American GIS expert visiting Russia for the first time, two native-rights activists from Kamchatka, and a flamboyant military veteran turned professional driver. We have spent our days crammed into a van with all of our luggage and supplies, traveling across windswept tundra and over frozen mountain passes, spending our evenings in a three-room cabin with no running water and no heat beyond a wood stove. In between work-related discussions and meetings with local conservationists, we have had adventures ranging from a visit to an Altai shaman who interpreted our dreams to a swimming excursion in weather more fit for skiing.

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Posted by Evan Sparling

Last Sunday, the penultimate of our ten days in Kamchatka, was ostensibly a rest day. Everyone was eager to relax and enjoy the glorious surroundings that we had spent the last week helping to preserve in countless meetings, seminars, and strategy sessions. We initially planned to spend the entire day traversing a local park on Nordic skis, but two of our local colleagues suggested over dinner on Saturday that we instead try our hands at dog sledding at the home of two members of a local native community organization. (more…)

Posted by David Gordon

I worry that while governments are trying to move forward new language for a treaty – a text from the Danish government was just released that has been roundly criticized by delegates from developing countries – we are losing time to move forward real initiatives that will actually reduce warming.

For example, governments can agree now to take serious action to reduce “short-lived climate forcers.”  These pollutants include black carbon (soot), methane, and tropospheric ozone.  These pollutants are having a large impact on the warming of the Arctic and could be causing the Arctic to warm faster than originally predicted.

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Posted by Leah Zimmerman

Last year I wrote of Sosnovka as “being in the epicenter of something great, of witnessing a movement coming into its own.” I wrote those words just one day before Misha Jones’ passing. Losing Misha, who held us together and pushed us forward in so many quiet ways, could so easily have brought discouragement, could have easily caused Sosnovka to stumble or fade with time. Instead, a stronger, more mature and more enduring Sosnovka has emerged.

The maturity we glimpsed this year at Sosnovka comes with the passing of seasons, both bright and dark. How easy it is to grow weary in this work, to lose oneself. But Sosnovka defies, linking us together and driving us forward with a million threads of friendship and partnership.

The defining moment of this year’s Sosnovka was the awarding of the first annual Misha Jones Award to Sergei Shapkhaev from the Buryat Regional Organization for Baikal for his community-based work to empower people in remote communities. Like Misha, Sergei never passes up a chance to help out a leader from a distant village, offering an encouraging word or piece of technical advice. The applause that erupted when Sergei’s name was announced for the award was intense and sustained, offering sweet release for hidden thoughts and emotions.

Sustained by memories of Misha’s wit, intellect, and life fully sacrificed for Russia’s people and wilderness, Sosnovka carries on. This year we welcomed participants from previously forgotten regions—Chukotka, Tuva, and the Jewish Autonomous Region. We rallied behind Aleksei and Sasha from Krasnoyarsk, brave defenders of the Angara River who were falsely accused of extremist activities this spring, but were ultimately vindicated in court. We feverishly planned campaigns for the coming year and forged brave new partnerships between indigenous and environmental organizations. And yes, oh how we soaked up the beauty of fall in Primorye and cherished every moment in such rich company!

Shannon Kellman, Development and Communications Associate at Pacific Environment, sat down with Galina Angarova, the Grants Administrator for the Russia Program at Pacific Environment to talk about Galina’s recent trip to the Altai Region and Altai Republic in Russia.  They talked about the work the Galina and Pacific Environment’s partners are doing in Altai to protect Sacred Sites and biodiversity.

SK: Why are the Altai Region and Republic so important?

GA: They are very critical because of the biodiversity there.  They are critical places with beautiful animals and plants, and very important culturally. There’s a place called the Ukok plateau. It’s a place with thousands of petroglyphs, dating back thousands of years ago.  There are traces Pazyryk culture found and this is the place with the famous Ukok princess was found, completely preserved with all of her ammunition, clothes, and utensils.

SK: What were the highlights of your trip?

GA: The highlights were the meetings with our main partners in the field, the Fund 21 Century Altai, the Foundation for Sustainable Development Altai and the School of Sustainable Energy Tengrit.  The highlights were meeting with those people, and my trip to Ukok.  Also, my trip to the Chemal region, where the Katun damn was going to be built.  It’s a place where people come for tours and conferences on alternative energy.

SK: How have recent events (the dam explosion) affected work in the Altai region?

GA: That’s a difficult question.  The supply of electricity comes from that region which means that this will generate an electricity shortage.  With the energy situation, it aggravates the whole issue.  The energy sources, particularly for the Altai region, are very scarce, and some percent comes from the exploded damn.  Other sources are coal plants and the gas pipeline from Gorno-Altaisk, and they are building a gas fire plant, which would significantly impact the electricity supply.  In terms of how it affects the environment, there’s a pipeline in the Altai Region that goes through the Altai Republic.  With the explosion, people can come back to construct to plans to make a dam in the Republic of Altai, which is really bad news.

SK: In your assessment, what have the Altai people done well in protecting their environment?

GA: Well, in terms of recent successes, we’ve been doing this project together on sacred sites registration and land registration into communal use registration.  We are also working to promote this law on broader level for sacred sites preservation and that will give another level of protection.

SK: What were your goals in meeting with our partners there?

GA: Just to getting to know, learning what happening on the ground, participating in the conference, and updating our partners on our grant from the National Science Foundation and working with them on reporting.  I went there as a grants manager and someone who is working on the reporting of Altai.

SK: What else do they need to be doing to accomplish their goals?  What’s the next step?

GA: I think we’re already working on the next direction.  Just doing what we’re doing.  The next step is our conference at the end of this year.  It will bring together 50 people from the Altai Region and Republic.  It will be to talk about sacred sites preservation, to replicate this experience in other regions, particularly Kamchatka and the Russian Arctic.  We will be working on methodology for sacred sites preservation. A book will be released sometime later this year which details the process.

By Galina Angarova

On Monday July 20, the Governor of the Altai Republic, Alexander Berdnikov, approved the development plan of the Chemal region in the Altai Republic. This seemingly unimportant event is of considerable significance for the environmental health and safety of Chemal. The exclusion of the Katun Dam project from the Chemal development plan is going to save 770 hectares of vital land.  This land contains critical habitats for rare and endangered plant and animal species, local fisheries, as well as hundreds of residential areas along Katun River that provide employment to local communities.

On March 18^th, Berdnikov made an official statement that the region needed alternatives to the proposed Katun Dam to combat the lack of energy generating capacity in the Altai Republic .  The Altai gasification project was completed in 2008, bringing a major pipeline from Barnaul to Gorno-Altaisk and now project developers are working on designs for a 96 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Maima. Berdnikov said that a plant in Maima could be a potential alternative to the dam. “It is a possibility that the hydro-electric dam construction does not make economic sense. We do not have a goal to build the dam at all costs; our main goal is to resolve the problem of the energy deficiency in the region. If it turns out that the power plant in Maima and a cascade of small hydro dams on Chuya River are sufficient to supply energy needs in the republic, it is most likely that we [will] reject the plans for the dam construction in Chemal region,” noted Berdnikov.

The idea to build a hydro electric station on the Katun River first emerged in the 1980s, but the project declined thanks to strong local opposition. In the late 1990s the project was again under consideration, but the plans did not bloom until early 2005 when the local administration, backed by Moscow-based financial interests, tried to re-launch the project. Like 20 years ago, the dam construction plans met a great deal of opposition – a coalition of local and international environmental activists initiated a large campaign against the dam by sending petitions to the local and federal governments and providing information to prospective investors about the project’s environmental and economic risks. Although the news about the adoption of the new Chemal development plan and Berdnikov’s recent statements were a great relief for a lot of people, there is always a chance that these plans make way their way back on the decision-makers’ table.

Castelanelli Brothers Dairy cows stand patiently while their barn is cleaned - their manure heads to a sealed lagoon, where it turns into methane gas and high quality fertilizer.

By Galina Angarova

What a great experience I had in the past few days. Unforgettable! I have probably learned more information in the past ten days than I normally do in two months. On November 8th Pacific Environment brought a group of Siberians from Lake Baikal area to the Bay area to learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency. Tatiana Molchanova, the Deputy Head and Tatiana Tivikova, the Chief Ranger of the Pribaikalsky region of Buryatia, and a well known journalist in Ulan-Ude, Sergey Basaev, participated in the exchange.

The purpose of the exchange stems from the current rate and type of development plaguing the Baikal region: privatizing public property in the area has resulted in the saturation of both legal and illegal dwellings in the area, which have escalated the cost of electricity for the local people. Now the Russian government plans to invest more in infrastructure in the region in order to increase the quantity of hotels, restaurants and other recreational establishments on the lake’s shores. This – if not monitored correctly and not using environmentally-efficient methods – could cause tremendous cultural, social and environmental tension in the area, including between tourists and the local residents. California and, particularly, the San Francisco region, which is considered to be the second greenest city in the U.S, have a lot to offer in terms of learning about green technologies. We hoped to give our Baikal participants the opportunity to learn from government offices, businesses and other organizations about renewable energy and planning.

We visited a ‘green’ hotel, a renewable energy and sustainable living demonstration site, a geothermal power plant, a wind farm and a dairy that uses methane digesters to generate electricity. The group also met with local legislators to learn about California’s renewable energy policies, renewable portfolio standard, and energy efficiency standards.

Overall, I think the exchange was a real success and that our participants got a ton of useful information that can potentially lead to real projects in Pribaikalsky region. They are now back in Buryatia, full of ideas and eager to jump into projects in their own communities. That success had a lot to do with the valuable information and tips they got from meetings or tours.  I think it was especially valuable to show them the entire spectrum of various technologies – wind, solar, geothermal, methane, and complement this knowledge with what they learned about energy efficiency. Results will be long-term, and I am looking forward to organizing a follow-up exchange and working with communities back in Siberia.

Sosnovka 2008

Posted by the Russia Team

For the first half dozen years of Sosnovka’s existence, we endured annual discussions about whether or not to formalize the coalition’s structure and makeup. Ten years after the coalition’s humble beginnings, this question is moot. The effectiveness of Sosnovka lies not just in the trust and friendship forged between coalition members over the span of ten years, but also in the fiercely informal nature of the group. With Pacific Environment acting as gatekeeper and facilitator, Sosnovka is able to quickly and effectively address all of the major environmental threats facing communities in Siberia and the Russian Far East. From major infrastructure projects like dams and oil pipelines to illegal logging and salmon poaching, Sosnovka has its hands in every major issue.

Pacific Environment staff members who are experienced in the ways of Sosnovka know to store up on sleep before the Russia Team’s mass exodus to Sosnovka; we know that the best conversations and moments of genius are not restricted to the 9am-9pm official meeting times. This year, the meeting took place on the shores of Lake Baikal, majestic and stunning in her fall splendor. By all accounts, Sosnovka 2008 was more effective—and more fun—than any ever before. Here are a few accounts from our staff:

“It’s overwhelming really, the feeling of being in the epicenter of something great, of witnessing a movement coming into its own. After four days of intense work and fun with many of my professional heroes, the connection and loyalty I feel for these people and our joint work is weighty.” – Leah Zimmerman, Russia Program Director

“Everyone at Sosnovka is different, coming from unique cultural and professional backgrounds, and with the widest range of ideas and perspectives one can possibly imagine. No matter how heated the discussions were, how tired everyone felt, and how many thousands of miles separated their homes, they all shared two things—their deep, unconditional love for their vast and beautiful country, Russia, and their unspoken understanding that this love drives them all, together, as children of one family.” – Meerim Kylychbekova, Russia Program Associate

“Scientists, ecologists, activists, and a blend of every other -ist gathering
Once a year, in one location
Stretching 24-hour days, with 10-minute discussion warnings and the red-marker skull & bones to end verbosity,
Never losing the urgency of community dedication to
Overcoming the weight of an overburdened planet, with an occasional late-night pause for
Vodka-sipping, guitar-strumming, and hearts-a-brimming toasts to the
Kaleidoscope of save-the-world resolutions and personal life infusions—
An experience whose heart we tenderly ration for 364 days before the next.”
– Kore  Gleason, Russia Program Associate

Sakhalin-II caused severe environmental and social damage

Posted by Rachel James and Leah Zimmerman.

On the morning of September 7, 2008, Exxon and Sakhalin Energy prepared to face off in a much-anticipated soccer match to celebrate Oil Workers’ Day. Meanwhile, we (Rachel and Leah, two Pacific Environment staffers) packed a vehicle and headed north on the island with two staffers from Sakhalin Environment Watch, including Dmitry Lisitsyn, a superstar of the Russian Far East environmental movement. We traveled with Dmitry and Katya for three days along the Sakhalin-II pipeline route, a several hundred mile gash running the length of the otherwise wild island.

Dmitry’s questions are relentless. Whether addressing us, shopkeepers on the side of the road, or construction workers on the pipeline route, Dmitry is able to disarm and charm, while extracting critical information with measured precision. For us, time with Dmitry is a lesson in the art of community organizing as well as a lesson about Sakhalin-II itself.

We are struck time and time again by similarities between Shell’s activities on Sakhalin Island and the company’s current strategies in the Alaskan Arctic. Shell could easily write a textbook on how to break promises, give and take bribes, buy off scientists, employ divide and conquer tactics with local opposition, and emasculate environmental assessment processes.

Sakhalin Island was once a prison destination. Today, oil and gas pipeline infrastructure crisscross the island and inflation from the flux of oil executives and construction works has seriously changed the capital city, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. A two-room apartment goes for an exorbitant $1600/month, food prices are among the highest in Russia, and luxury SUVs can be counted by the dozens. While oil executives enjoy a luxurious lifestyle on Sakhalin, Sakhaliners bear the brunt of the grossly inflated costs for food and housing in addition to the devastating environmental, social and economic damage Sakhalin-II brought.

Now that construction of Sakhalin-II is nearing completion, Sakhalin Environment Watch predicts its next great battle will be poaching. We saw first-hand this week how Sakhalin’s rivers, like many on Kamchatka, are being raped by poachers who operate without fear of punishment from disempowered or corrupt government agencies. Imagine thousands of salmon returning to spawn in the river where they were born after years at sea. Now imagine a net stretched across the entire mouth of the river, preventing only a handful of fierce jumpers from among the thousands to return upstream to spawn. After a few years of this, we don’t understand why people are surprised that there are no fish left in the rivers. And so, Dmitry and SEW plot their next move …