|
 Environmental Action in Lake Baikal and Greater Siberia
Baikal Watch was formed in 1990 after a series of exchange expeditions taken by North American environmentalists to the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. The goal in forming this non-profit project was to develop a network of international activists who could:
- Act responsively to the needs of the emerging Russian environmental movement.
- Act to enhance the performance of local environmentalists by offering them access to information, expertise, and financial support.
|
Mission
Baikal Watch is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation of Lake Baikal and the Siberian frontier.
Background
Since its inception, Baikal Watch has helped draw the attention of the world to the problems of Lake Baikal and Siberia. With the publishing support of Sierra Club Books, and with the artistic contributions of Peter Matthiessen and Boyd Norton, it has produced its own acclaimed book on Baikal, a photo-album-journal which has sold over 60,000 copies in 15 different languages. At the same time, Baikal Watch has assisted with the production of numerous films for television on Baikal (which have appeared on American, English, Korean, and Russian TV), as well as dozens of newspaper and magazine articles on the lake and its environment.
Using this added publicity, Baikal Watch has developed a system for promoting Siberian ecotourism, where benefits accrue to local communities, both ecologically and economically. Within this program -- and in close collaboration with local Russian representatives -- Baikal Watch has set up international programs for supporting the national parks and nature reserves in Russia. To date, Baikal Watch has organized over 70 tours, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits in the hands of the financially-strapped national parks and nature reserves in Siberia. Plans are under way to fund local activists as they form a Baikal Ecotourism Board, a board which will work to attract and cater to ever greater numbers of ecotourists.
The success of these ecotours has convinced some local officials that a pristine and protected Baikal may bring greater economic benefits to all. As an example of this, when local governments around Baikal began strongly suggesting that the parks open their territories to international trophy hunting, believing that this may provide a useful source of immediate income for the protected areas in the region, Baikal Watch gathered together all its ecotourism colleagues to lobby against this suggestion. It convinced local officials that a natural Baikal, full of wildlife, will attract large numbers of tourists in the long run, and translate into increased incomes for both parks and local communities. In the end, the threat to cancel all our annual ecotours was sufficient -- the Baikal Association of Protected Areas has continued to extend bans on hunting on their lands with each successive year.
With the help of Baikal Watch, the lake and its greater Siberian surroundings have attracted the attention of many leading global institutions. Baikal Watch has been responsible for leading and advising groups ranging from the World Bank, Parks Canada, the US State Department, and other governmental and NGO groups. Each of these groups has invested their expertise and financial assistance in the region, granting over 10 million dollars to programs that protect nature at Baikal. With Baikal Watch's assistance, they intend to distribute even greater sums in the future.
In the interest of supporting the local environmental movement in Russia, Baikal Watch has provided extensive technical and financial assistance and training to a network of over 500 environmentalists from throughout the former Soviet Union. One result of this is that the local network of leading environmental groups (such as the Baikal Center for Ecological and Citizen Initiatives, the Baikal Wave, and the Baikal Fund) are now providing valuable support to smaller grass roots groups as they develop and strengthen their very important programs of environmental education and advocacy. These groups are now tackling some of the most difficult problems facing Siberia, including the resolution of pollution issues at the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Plant, as well as the acute public health problems surrounding the gold and uranium mining regions located to the east of Baikal.
Where is Lake Baikal?
"This huge, old, beautiful lake, surrounded by wildness, is a world treasure, a world heritage. But right now the world needs to come to Lake Baikal's rescue."
-- David Brower
Other programs find us partnered with the Baikal Environmental Wave in an effort to educate and lobby for improved protection of the Baikal seal, the only freshwater species of marine mammals in the world. Baikal Watch has also been the principal sponsor and advisor to the Russian NGO known as EcoJuris.
This non-profit firm of eco-lawyers has used this support to accomplish much that is important in the new Russian environmental world. They have collected, published (in six volumes) and offered interpretations to the wide array of laws and legislative acts and regulations affecting the environment in Russia and its constituent states. It has represented plaintiffs in leading cases of litigation against environmental malefactors, including: 1)--the Russian Ministry of Defense and its programs of radioactive testing on individuals; 2)--the oil and gas consortium that has begun to open up the Sakhalin/Pacific Rim region to vast exploitation and environmental disruption; and 3)--the consortium of developers that are seeking to build a high-speed railway right through several national parks and nature reserves.
EcoJuris has also provided support and training to other lawyers in Russia as they prepare environmental impact assessments and other legal documents. In addition, Baikal Watch is presently the chief advisor to the Russian Ministry of Environment in their program for developing a national system of environmental audits to curb or prevent pollution in existing heavy industries around the country.
Baikal Watch has done all this with the hope of assuring more permanent protection for Baikal and for the environment of Russia, while simultaneously allowing for sustainable economic activity in the region. It will continue to promote the environmental cause at Baikal and beyond, with the hope of nurturing local activists and officials so that they may be in a better position to accomplish their own objectives in the near future.
Accomplishments
Baikal Watch has accomplished a great deal toward the protection of Lake Baikal and the greater Siberian region. A few of its most important accomplishments include:
- Helped in the creation and/or support of over 25 different NGOs working to protect the environment of Russia.
- With an original focus on protecting Lake Baikal's two large national parks, Baikal Watch has trained over 500 park and other government officials from Russia, as well as many of their NGO counterparts, thus building up the organizational capacity and professional skills of the local and national agencies that are responsible for managing and protecting the environment of Russia.
- Developed a far-reaching eco-tourism program in Siberia, bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits to national parks and reserves.
- Used legal tools, such as public interest environmental impact assessments and judicial suits, to stop major developments before they do major damage.
- Helped establish the largest environmental law network in Russia, offering training and legal/financial assistance to many lawyer around the country as they confront local violations of law.
|
| Project Staff |
Gary Cook
US Project Director
|
Dmitry Lisitsyn
Director of Sakhalin Ecological Watch
|
Vera Mischenko
Director of EcoJuris Institute, Moscow
|
Ariadna Reida
Russian Director
|
Paul Robinson
Consultant on toxics and mining
|
Erika Rosenthal
Chief Legal Consultant
|
Tanya Strizhova
Director of Baikal Fund, Chita
|
Jennie Sutton
Co-Director of Baikal Wave, Irkutsk
|
Home | News Room | Join | Programs | Contact Us | Links | About |
|
|
|
|
|
|
