With logging operations making ever deeper and wider inroads into wilderness areas, the forests of Siberia and their indigenous inhabitants face an uphill battle for survival. Recently, construction began on a 1,000 km road connecting the Pacific coast and the interior of eastern Siberia, in order to increase the pace and scale of logging operations. One group of people, the Udege, is taking a stand against these logging companies and their government sponsors, to halt the destruction of their forest homes.
The Udege were unequivocal in their response to the new, and technically illegal, road: they threatened to shoot road workers if they crossed the line demarcating the protected forest land on which the Udege depend for their livelihood. The Udege are well aware that the building of the road could reduce the thriving populations of wild game that roam the territory, including the Siberian tiger – animals that are the underpinnings of their way of life - thus threatening the survival of the Udege culture and their hunting traditions.
The Udege live in the Khabarovsk Krai and the Primorsky Krai in the eastern part of Siberia. Their traditional subsistence economy is based on fishing, hunting and gathering. But the advent of various ‘development’ projects in the region has led to restrictions on their freedom to hunt and fish. The Udege’s methods of hunting and gathering food were sustainable long before the word was even required, reflecting their understanding of the need for stewardship of the species they depend on for their food. But clear-cuts in their forests have resulted in the extinction or disappearance of many species. As the numbers of elk and boar decline, so do the Siberian tigers. With no game left in the forest, the Udege are experiencing enormous pressure on their traditional ways of life.
The dispute between the Udege and the logging companies will now be heard by a district court. With so much riding on the case, the Udege have strong hopes. A key component of their case is the fact that developers have not conducted an environmental impact assessment of the road project as required under Russian law.
The suit targets two logging companies in particular: the Porzcharski, which started the road in the north of the Udege territory, and the Terneyles, which runs a sawmill in the south and has felled approximately ten percent of the protected forest in the area, previously set aside for game and hunting. Under the law, logging is illegal in the area, but the companies have obtained – through corruption, critics contend - special licenses allowing them to continue their activities. Logging has become a huge industry in Russia, particularly in the vast boreal forests of the north. Foreign investors pay huge sums to gain to Russia’s once endless and pristine stretches of spruce and fir. In the case of the Udege, the land they live on has many highly prized and ancient cedar trees, each worth at least 480 dollars on the market, after being felled and shipped out of what’s left of the forest. To the Udege, the trees are worth far more, and their survival will in large part determine the fate of a once vibrant, and now endangered, culture.
