Russia/China: Pipeline Threatens Sacred Highlands
Construction threatens World Heritage Site, national parks, and sacred lands of the Telengit people.
Threats have been renewed against the Ukok Plateau and the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage site, where the Indigenous Telengit people of Russia have long lived with respect for the land and its natural riches. Valdimir Putin announced in early September that Russia and China would revive a project in which a gas pip
By Gleb Raygorodetsky
New York-based New Tang Dynasty Chinese television channel produced a video covering the continued fight to protect the Ukok Plateau in Russia's Altai region from a gas pipeline that would bring natural gas to China. They highlight the environmental, cultural, and archeological concerns about the project that would bisect the UNESCO heritage site that is sacred to the Indigenous Telengit People.
In a surprising move, officials from Russia’s Altai Republic have approved construction of a pipeline that would bisect the sacred Ukok Plateau, carrying natural gas from Siberia to China. The August 2nd decree gave Gazprom and its contractors permission to conduct work on the Ukok Plateau despite what Greenpeace Russia claims would be a violation of several local and federal laws.
On June 20th, the regional government of the Altai Republic in Russia reviewed and passed a decree on the “Preservation and Development of Sacred Sites of the Altai Republic.” The decree imposes restrictions on various kinds of activities at sacred sites, including any activity resulting in resulting in damage to the top soil leading to geological exposure causing irreversible changes to the hydrological regime and any activities resulting in the destruction of the natural habitats of plant and animal species, among other activities.
A Moscow News article describes the battle lines between environmentalists and Indigenous Peoples on one side and Russia’s Gazprom company on the other, leaving the future of the sacred Ukok Plateau uncertain. Environmentalists and Indigenous organizations are urging Gazprom to choose an alternate route that would spare the Ukok Plateau from desecration.
Building the pipeline across the Ukok would be “moral violence against people,” said Urmat Knyazev, a deputy in the Altai republic’s legislative assembly.
Please take another step today in the campaign to protect the sacred Ukok Plateau from the construction of a damaging gas pipeline.
Gazprom, the major financer for Russia’s natural gas pipeline that would bisect the Ukok Plateau en route to China, appears to have dropped the project for 2012.
An opinion piece published by Al Jazeera yesterday gives an in-depth review on the threat by Russian company Gazprom to build a gas pipeline between Russia and China through the sacred Ukok Plateau.
Read the article here.
In this new video, the Telengit people share their ancient culture and its relevance in their lives today. See our action alert about the pipeline that threatens the Ukok Plateau here.
November 8, 2011- According to WWF-Russia, Gazprom’s European projects meet higher standards for environmental protection and transparency than its projects inside Russia. The Nord Stream offshore pipeline, to be inaugurated tomorrow, will carry natural gas from Russia to Europe.
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