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.
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.
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.
