Protect Tunkinsky National Park- Russia

July 2002 Global Response Campaign

One-quarter of the world's frontier forests (large intact ecosystems) are in Russia, but they are now falling to the axe faster than in much of the tropics. To protect these boreal (taiga) forests, Russian environmentalists had created 99 nature reserves and 33 national parks by 2002, amounting to nearly 2% of national territory. Eighty percent of Russia's biological diversity is found in these protected areas. According to a report by the Taiga Rescue Network, Russian conservation laws are “rather good [but] there is a serious problem of their enforcement.”

A critical case in point: The Russian oil giant, Yukos, wanted to build a Russia-China oil pipeline right through Tunkinskii National Park, in clear violation of the Law on Protected Territories. Founded in 1991, Tunkinskii National Park covers nearly 3 million acres in the Tunka Valley near the southern end of Lake Baikal in the Republic of Buryatia. It is nestled between the Khamar-Daban Mountains to the southeast and the mighty Sayani mountains to the northwest. The park protects a pristine taiga forest ecosystem dominated by Siberian pine, and over 200 mineral springs. Endangered species include the snow leopard, Siberian mountain goat, black stork, mountain goose, golden eagle and white-tailed eagle.

For the indigenous Buryats, Soyots and Evenks, who herd sheep and farm in the Tunka Valley, the whole region is sacred, and many consider pipeline construction an affront to their culture, history and beliefs. Yukos plans to build the pipeline within 200 meters of specific sites that are sacred to the Buryats, who suffered persecution under Stalin for their traditional practices of Buddhism and shamanism.

Joining the campaign to stop the pipeline were Tunka Valley tourism operators who brought over 10,000 people a year to the hot springs, famed for their healing properties. Pipelines in the National Park would spoil its natural beauty, and a single oil spill affecting the springs could destroy the region's growing tourism industry.

The Yukos pipeline would have extended from Siberia's Irkutsk Region to the city of Daqing, China, a distance of 1,490 miles (2,400 km) –twice as long as the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. It would have crossed seismically active regions where fault lines run perpendicular to each other. Seismic activity, high mountain passes, extreme weather and geography pose serious challenges for pipeline construction, maintenance and security.

Other problems accompany the pipeline. A service road would have been built through vast roadless wilderness areas, opening access for illegal hunting, fishing, mining and logging. Oil spills in the Tunka Valley could have spread downstream toward Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake (nearly a mile deep). Protected as a World Heritage Site, Lake Baikal is known as the “Galapagos of Russia” for its outstanding variety of endemic plants and animals, including the world's only freshwater seal, the nerpa.

For Russian environmentalists, there is even more at stake than protecting the Tunka Valley. Construction of the Russia-China pipeline through Tunkinskii National Park would have violated at least three Russian laws: the Law on the Environment, the Law on Protected Territories and the Land Code. If Yukos could get away with flagrant illegalities in the Tunka Valley, the country's entire legal framework for conservation would be vulnerable.

Global Response reported on October 24^th, 2003 that the previous December it issued an action alert on behalf of Russian environmental organizations and Pacific Environment who were trying to stop construction of an oil pipeline through "Russia's Yellowstone" - Tunkinskii National Park. Global Response members wrote directly to the CEO of oil giant Yukos, and also to Russia's Minister of Natural Resources, urging them to respect Russia's environmental laws that specifically prohibit pipeline construction in national parks.

In late September of 2003, the Ministry of Natural Resources rejected the Yukos proposal, based on environmental concerns. The Russian government is undertaking further environmental studies and also considering a pipeline route to Japan, an alternative to Yukos' project which would carry oil to China.

According to Dave Martin, who coordinated the campaign for our partner Pacific Environment, "the Global Response letter campaign and national public pressure had a big hand in this victory." Russian environmental organizations are celebrating the decision as an important victory; at the same time, they were concerned that there would be a move underway to change the boundaries of Tunkinskii National Park to permit the pipeline construction.

On January 29^th, 2004 Global Response reported that at the request of environmentalists in Siberia, we urged the Russian government to reject a proposal to build an oil pipeline through Tunkinskii National Park to China. The project threatens taiga wilderness, snow leopard habitat, indigenous communities and eco-tourism, and violates Russian environmental laws. In September 2003, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources rejected the pipeline proposal submitted by oil giant Yukos, based on environmental concerns. The government is conducting further environmental studies and has decided on an alternative pipeline route to Japan. David Gordon, campaign director at our partner organization Pacific Environment, wrote:

“At Pacific Environment, we consider Global Response an essential resource. Thousand of letters pouring in from around the world can have an astounding effect.”

To read more:

CSQ Issue: 30.3 (Fall 2006) http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly...