Communities

Siberia and the Russian Far East are home to many strong and vibrant communities, hundreds of which are mainly indigenous people who have preserved traditional subsistence lifestyles. One of Pacific Environment’s priorities has always been to work directly with communities, providing them with the tools to defend their traditional lifestyles and subsistence practices. Pacific Environment’s core belief is that communities know their own needs best, and we work to honor and support that vision.

Our staff works with communities in the following regions:

Krasnoyarsk: We work with local partners to fight massive hydroelectric dams that threaten to displace entire communities and 2.5 million hectares of taiga forest and pastureland.

Altai: Local communities are mapping sites sacred to the Altaian people to secure future protection from development projects, including the pristine Ukok Plateau, part of the “Golden Mountains of Altai” UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Lake Baikal: Local activists are fighting for the closure of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill and promote community-based sustainable tourism along the lake’s shoreline as well as alternative income development for the region’s residents.

Primorye: We are protecting endangered Amur (Siberian) Tigers in Primorye by supporting local anti-poaching brigades and public education efforts, as well as working with local partners to protect tiger habitat.

Chukotka: We work with indigenous partners in the Arctic to monitor climate change impacts on Pacific Walrus.

Sakhalin: We work with local communities to push Exxon and Shell to halt offshore seismic testing and extraction activities in critically endangered Western Pacific Gray Whale habitat. 

Kamchatka: We support community-based efforts to protect the world’s few remaining spawning grounds for wild Pacific Salmon – the Kamchatka Peninsula, as well as sustaining and encouraging alternative economic activities, particularly subsistence and community-based fisheries.