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
Cultural Survival is happy and relieved to announce that the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples, RAIPON, has been reinstated.
By Febna Caven
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.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
