It’s a Risky Business, But Russians Are Fighting For Their Environment · Global Voices
Canadian Greenpeace members rally to free 30 colleagues and crew members held in Russia for ‘piracy’ after they allegedly attempted to board a Russian oil rig as part their Save the Arctic campaign in 2013. Photo by <PERSON>, 27 September 2013. Copyright: Demotix.
[8 minute read]
In this article, environmental analyst and journalist <PERSON> reports on the rise of home-grown environmental activism in Russia. The original version of this article was written for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and is published here with the consent of the author through 350.org, an organization building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
<PERSON>, one of the few professional environmental lawyers in Russia, is in court defending a group of a dozen activists in the small town of Kozmodemiansk, in the Mari El Republic on the Volga River. The activists have been fighting for years against plans to build a domestic waste landfill, which they say is too close to a residential block.
Straight after the court hearings <PERSON> jumps on a train to Ufa, a city of more than a million inhabitants in the south Urals, where several hundred people are trying to organise an independent public hearing about the construction of a wood-processing factory.
And back at home near St. Petersburg, where <PERSON> lives and works for the environmental non-governmental organisation Bellona, another fight is under way. A group of activists has begun mobilising since the felling of almost 200 large pine trees to make way for a new luxury residential development. 202
As part of a drive to stop further logging in a larger forested area, the activists are filing a lawsuit against the development company, which they believe acquired the plot of land illegally.
“I really notice the growing involvement of many ordinary people in the environmental movement,” <PERSON> says.
City-dwellers across Russia are getting organised and fighting for their environmental rights at a more professional level than before, the lawyer says. In addition to building protest camps and obstructing construction sites, they are learning to file lawsuits, organise public hearings, and work with journalists and social networks.
Many such local initiatives get support from larger, established environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF Russia, but many also are fighting on their own—with varying degrees of success.
What works
There is no clear recipe for victory, says <PERSON>, an expert with the ECOM centre who has spent over a decade supporting local environmental and urban initiatives throughout Russia.
<PERSON> recently began working as a consultant with the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, drafting laws and doing other legal work, and offering much-needed insight and expertise to the regional parliamentarians.
<PERSON> argues that the success of any environmental cause depends on the amount of time and energy activists are prepared to spend on protecting their rights. He also maintains that expertise is crucial, and that the more “professionally” activists interact with local administrators, draft legal documents and engage in high-quality lobbying for their causes, the better their chances of success.
Public interest in environmental issues has been rising in Russia over the last few years. Some experts link this with the growing financial well-being of Russian citizens, which affords more people the opportunity to travel abroad, and to plan their future and that of their children.
Corruption and Governance Link
Other experts say it is a reaction to mounting corruption and “bad” governance, often at a local level, involving local authorities who make dubious alliances with local or national companies at the expense of local residents.
The push toward greater environmental activism has been met with a mixed response by Russia’s leaders.
<PERSON>, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said his ministry is “actively working with citizens, environmental initiatives and activists—both through our community liaison office and through further online resources,” such as the website Nasha Priroda (“Our Nature”). The website was launched in late 2013 and allows people from all regions of Russia to report environmental violations in their neighbourhoods, using geo-location technology.
<PERSON> said ministry representatives have also organised meetings with environmental activists working on notorious local conflicts, such as the fight over the wood-processing facility in Ufa, and a case in central Russia where residents are fighting plans to introduce nickel and copper mining.
But the State Duma, Russia's parliament, has recently initiated a number of bills that threaten to hinder the rights of local activists and limit opportunities for wider public participation in city planning and regional development.
In late December, members of parliament tried to pass a draft law cancelling public hearing procedures for a number of infrastructure construction projects. After civil campaign initiated by activists and environmental lawyers, however, the draft “got hung up,” according to <PERSON>. 704