World Bank Loans Raise Ire of Russian EnvironmentalistsPRESS RELEASE: World Bank Loans Raise Ire of Russian Environmentalists
For more information, contact: Doug Norlen, Policy Adviser: 202/785-8700 x31 or dnorlen@igc.org David Gordon, Director of Programs: 510/251-8800 x304 or dkgordon@igc.org
Washington, DC
In a strongly worded letter, 67 Russian and international environmental organizations criticized the World Bank's loans to Russia, which have continued even after President Putin dissolved Russia's State Committee on Ecology and the Russian Forest Service.
The letter emphasizes the short-sightedness of the Bank's lending policy and points out that the Bank approved a $60 million forestry loan to be administered by the Forest Service five days after that agency was dissolved on May 17, 2000. According to the letter, this loan to a non-existent agency is legally questionable.
The letter, to World Bank President James Wolfensohn, was released just after the World Bank announced that it is ready to release another $1 billion to Russia later this year. Many of Russia's leading environmentalists, including Alexei Yablokov, an environmental advisor to former President Boris Yeltsin, and Aleksandr Nikitin, a former Navy officer who was imprisoned after speaking out about the dangers of Russia's nuclear fleet, endorsed the letter.
The Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service were axed by decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 17. In a plan that is still unclear, their responsibilities are to be taken over by the Ministry of Natural Resources. This body oversees the extraction of underground resources such as oil and gold. Environmentalists are concerned that the Russian government is, as one analyst said, putting an alcoholic in charge of a vodka shop.
"In the absence of the State Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service," the letter reads, "we do not believe World Bank Group projects that impact the environment in Russia can proceed in an environmentally, financially or legally sound way. We believe the most prudent action the World Bank Group can take is the cessation of these projects until these agencies and their original functions return intact."
Aleksandr Arbachakov, director of Siberia's Taiga Research and Protection Agency, said "President Putin is leading us down a path towards environmental harm that can impact countries beyond Russia and even the ecological balance of the planet. With the liquidation of these agencies, we have reasons to worry about our future and the future of our children."
David Gordon, Director of Programs at the Pacific Environment and Resources Center, said, "A few months ago, President Wolfensohn assured us that the Bank would conduct its operations in a democratic and environmentally sustainable manner. To continue with these loans would be to show blatant disregard for the environment and public health in Russia. It almost looks like a case of collusion between the Bank, the Putin regime, and the extractive industries."
Currently, the World Bank has over US$1 billion worth of projects in Russia that impact the environment. The projects are contingent upon a regulatory body for monitoring, enforcement, and protection from the projects' environmental impacts. In many cases the World Bank works in direct partnership arrangements with some of the abolished agencies.
TEXT OF LETTER AND ITS SIGNATORIES FOLLOWS:
July 11, 2000
RE: World Bank Group Response to Abolishment of Russia's State Committee on Ecology and Forest Service
James Wolfensohn President World Bank Group
President Wolfensohn,
On May 17, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree liquidating the Russian State Committee on Ecology and the Federal Forest Service, transferring their remains to the Ministry of Natural Resources. With this action, the system of government independent environmental control in the area of natural resource use, which had been put together over decades, was destroyed.
The creation of State Committee on Ecology was one of the largest achievements of democratic formations in Russia, starting in 1985. Its establishment complemented the ongoing activities of the Russian Forest Service, which had a proud history of over 200 years. However, with his liquidation of these agencies, President Putin gives practically full freedom to the unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources, which can potentially lead to ecological harm that can impact countries beyond Russia and even the ecological balance of the planet. With the liquidation of these agencies, we have justified reasons to worry about our future and the future of our children.
In recent times, the World Bank Group has focused more of its activity on environmental problems in Russia. And this approach was beginning to bear fruit. Real opportunities for constructive cooperation between large business, government, and the public have appeared. For example, the World Bank has for years been developing a forest pilot project loan to improve the Russian Forest Service's ability to achieve environmentally sound and sustainable forestry. Ironically, the World Bank approved this forest pilot project loan five days after President Putin abolished the Forest Service! Now, the legality of a loan intended for an abolished agency must be questioned.
Indeed, since the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the World Bank has committed over a billion US dollars' worth of projects in Russia that impact the environment. And, more projects are in the pipeline. The design of these projects relies on the existence of the State Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service for the specialized ecological monitoring, enforcement and protection functions that they provided. In many cases, World Bank Group projects were in direct partnership arrangements within the abolished agencies. And, these agencies provided the regulatory framework and permitting functions upon which the legal operations of the World Bank Group and other investors' projects are based. These functions are now gone, and the future of Russia's environment and its potential for sustainable development is in serious question.
In abolishing the State Committee on Ecology and Forest Service, President Putin proposes to subsume what remains of them under the Ministry of Natural Resources. It is widely known that this Ministry's primary goal is the expansion of commercial activity and not the protection of the environment. Therefore, this rival agency has a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict of interest that prevents it from effectively fulfilling the responsibility of the abolished agencies. Moreover, the Ministry's budget will not be expanded to a size needed to accomplish the abolished agencies' work. The institutional result will be the loss of some of the Russian government's finest environmental and forest management professionals and the subservience of their functions to a Ministry with a contrary mission.
The abolishment of these agencies puts the prospect of responsible foreign investment at significant risk. With these regulatory, permitting and enforcement functions gone, the legal basis of projects that relies on these functions is undermined, while illegal and unsustainable exploitation of nature is allowed to flourish. This is of growing concern to responsible international foreign investors, as reflected in the June 7, 2000 edition of The Economist, "No place to be an ecologist." As the President of the World's largest public development finance institution, the capricious abolishment of these vital agencies must be of especially high concern for you.
In the absence of the State Committee on Ecology Forest Service, we do not believe World Bank Group projects that impact the environment in Russia can proceed in an environmentally, financially or legally sound way. We believe the most prudent action the World Bank Group can take is the cessation of these projects until these agencies and their original functions return intact. We therefore urge you to issue an immediate moratorium on all new World Bank Group approvals for projects in Russia, and to suspend disbursements for all current Russia projects that impact the environment until the ramifications of these agencies' abolishment is fully known and until these agencies and their original functions are fully restored.
Representatives of our organizations would like to request a meeting with you at earliest possible convenience to discuss this issue further.
Respectfully,
Alexei Yablokov, President, Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow, Russia
Aleksandr Arbachakov, Chair, Taiga Research and Protection Association, Kemerovo Region, Russia
Dmitry Vasilievich Lisitsyn, Sakhalin Environment Watch, Sakhalin, Russia
Aleksander Nikitin, Board of Directors, Interregional Coalition for Ecology and Human Rights, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Igor Chestin, Director, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Moscow, Russia
Mikhail Shishin, Chair, Fund for 21st Century Altai, Barnaul, Russia
Irina Fotieva, Chair, TV "Katun'", Barnaul, Russia
Vladimir Lagutov, Chair, Green Don, Novocherkassk, Russia
Sergey Golubchikov, Chair of "Vishnevyi Sad," Moscow Russia
Yury Golubchikov, Candidate of Geographic Sciences, Geography Department of Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Elvira Andronova, editor of the journal "Forest Management," Moscow, Russia
A. Zolotuyev, Koryak Ecological Center, Koryak Autonomous Region, Russia
Elvira A. Grischenko, Magadan Center for the Environment, Magadan, Russia
Nikolay Zubov, Krasnoyarsk Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union and Krasnoyarsk Regional Ecological Institute, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Sergey Shapkhaev, Director, Buryat Regional Department on Baikal, Buryatia, Russia
Artem Artemjev, Volgograd, Russia
Galina Horeva, Chair, Kola Peninsula Environmental Center "Gaia," Kola, Russia
Askhat Kayumov, Nizhegorodskoye Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union, Nizhnyi Novgorod, Russia
Angela Bakka, Ecological Center "Dront," Nizhnyi Novogorod, Russia
Nikolai A. Maleshin, Chair, Central Russia Assosiation of Nature Protected Areas, Kursk, Russia
Dmitry Andreevich Artamonov, Chair, and Igor Valentinovich Babanin, Vice-Chair, St. Petersburg Society of Friends of Greenpeace, St. Petersburg, Russia
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Guskov, Druzhina Commander, Druzhina (Inspection Team) for Protection of Nature, International Independent Ecological-Political University
Liudmila Sergeevna Romanova, Director, Harmony, Kamchatka Region, Russia
Svetlana Viktorovna Babkina, Interregional organization "Taiga Rangers," Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Olga Andreevna Chernyagina, Chair, Kamchatka League of Independent Experts, Kamchatka, Russia
Irina Reznikova, Chair, Interregional Public Movement "For a Nuclear-Free Don," Volgograd, Russia
Vladimir Shalimov, Volgodonskoye Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union, Volgograd, Russia
Tatiana Artyomova, "Posev" Journal
Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair, ECODEFENSE! International, Moscow, Russia
Alexandra Koroleva, chair, Kaliningrad Duma Public Council on Environmental Education, Kaliningrad, Russia
Galina Ragouzina, co-editor, World Information Service on Energy (WISE), Russian bureau in Kaliningrad, Russia
Alisa Nikoulina, campaigner, Antinuclear campaign of the Socio-Ecological Union, Moscow, Russia
Boris Nekrasov, Chair, Association of Young Journalists of Tomsk Region, Russia
V. F. Chekhov, Director, Irkutsk Regional Forest Service
Dr. Alexandr Fedorov, Chief of Permafrost Landscapes Laboratory of Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia
Konstantin Evgenievich Lebedev, Leader, Tomsk Regional Public Organization "Ecological-Legal Center," Tomsk, Russia
Dmitry Maslov, Penza Ecological Club, Penza, Russia
Tatyana Artamonova, Altai Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union
L. G. Bogdan, Director, Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR), Moscow, Russia
Tatiana Kondrashova, Gorno-Altai Branch of the Fund for 21st Century Altai, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
Olga Engoyan, Ecological Library in Gorno-Altaisk, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
Babef Kayumovich Miftakhov, Ust-Katav Ecological Committee, Chelyabinsk, Russia
Roman Oparin, Nadezhda Kulikova, Eco-initiative Group "Boreas, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
Alexander V. Dubynin, Director, NGO Siberian Environmental Center, Novosibirsk, Russia
Natalya Novikova, Legal Center "Spring" (Rodnik), Moscow, Russia
Vladimir Solovyev, Head of Geoinformatics Laboratory, Institute of Cosmophysical Reserch and Aeronomy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
Andrei Rudomakha, Independent Ecological Service for the Northwestern Caucusus, Maikop, Russia
Valentin Zabortsev, Chair, Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Organization "Angara-Yenisei Rescue Association," Lesosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk Region, Russia
Andrei Zakharenkov, Director, Russian Far East Association for Non-Timber Forest Products, Khabarovsk, Russia
Viktor Teplyakov, Forest Program Coordinator, International Union for the Conservation of Nature CIS office, Moscow, Russia
Gazhit Tsybekmitova, Director, Agency for Public Environmental Impact Reviews, Chita, Russia
Alexander Karpov, Board Member, St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, St. Petersburg, Russia
Cherosov, Student Public Ecological Team of the Oktyomsky Filial of Yakutsk State University, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
Inga Zinovieva, Director, Dauria Public Ecological Center, Chita, Russia
Liudmila G. Ignatenko, President of the Public Network of Communities of Native Small Peoples of the North of Southern Kamchatka, Kamchatka, Russia
Anisimov, Chair of T Kh S O "Kam-Yak" native community, Kamchatka, Russia
G. P. Vostrykh, O.N. Galenchik, E.A. Denisova, members of the native community "Koyana," Kamchatka, Russia
Chueva, Chair of the Native Community "Tronya," Kamchatka, Russia
Valentina Dmitrieva, Center for Environmental Education "Eyge," Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
Vyacheslav Trigubovich, Director, Siberian Interregional Center "Zapovedniki," Novosibirsk, Russia
David Gordon and Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment and Resources Center, Oakland, California, USA
Bruce Rich, Director, International Program, Environmental Defense, Washington DC, USA
Andrea Durbin, Director of International Programs, Friends of the Earth U.S., Washington DC, USA
Ikuko Matsumoto, ECA campaigner, Friends of the Earth-Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Michele Perrault, Vice President for International Programs, Sierra Club, San Francisco, California, USA
Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, Bank Information Center, Washington DC, USA
Eliza Klose, Executive Director, Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR), Washington DC, USA
Bill Pfeiffer, Executive Director, Sacred Earth Network, Petersham, Massachusetts USA
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**************************************************
Rory Cox, Communications Director Pacific Environment and Resources Center 1440 Broadway, Suite 306 Oakland, CA 94612 Ph: 510/251-8800 x302
www.pacificenvironment.org
July 11, 2000
PRESS RELEASE:
World Bank Loans Raise Ire of Russian Environmentalists
For more information, contact:
Doug Norlen, Policy Adviser: 202/785-8700 x31 or dnorlen@igc.org
David Gordon, Director of Programs: 510/251-8800 x304 or dkgordon@igc.org
Washington, DC - In a strongly worded letter, 67 Russian and international environmental organizations criticized the World Bank's loans to Russia, which have continued even after President Putin dissolved Russia's State Committee on Ecology and the Russian Forest Service.
The letter emphasizes the short-sightedness of the Bank's lending policy and points out that the Bank approved a $60 million forestry loan to be administered by the Forest Service five days after that agency was dissolved on May 17, 2000. According to the letter, this loan to a non-existent agency is legally questionable.
The letter, to World Bank President James Wolfensohn, was released just after the World Bank announced that it is ready to release another $1 billion to Russia later this year. Many of Russia's leading environmentalists, including Alexei Yablokov, an environmental advisor to former President Boris Yeltsin, and Aleksandr Nikitin, a former Navy officer who was imprisoned after speaking out about the dangers of Russia's nuclear fleet, endorsed the letter.
The Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service were axed by decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 17. In a plan that is still unclear, their responsibilities are to be taken over by the Ministry of Natural Resources. This body oversees the extraction of underground resources such as oil and gold. Environmentalists are concerned that the Russian government is, as one analyst said, putting an alcoholic in charge of a vodka shop.
"In the absence of the State Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service, " the letter reads, "we do not believe World Bank Group projects that impact the environment in Russia can proceed in an environmentally, financially or legally sound way. We believe the most prudent action the World Bank Group can take is the cessation of these projects until these agencies and their original functions return intact."
Aleksandr Arbachakov, director of Siberia's Taiga Research and Protection Agency, said "President Putin is leading us down a path towards environmental harm that can impact countries beyond Russia and even the ecological balance of the planet. With the liquidation of these agencies, we have reasons to worry about our future and the future of our children."
David Gordon, Director of Programs at the Pacific Environment and Resources Center, said, "A few months ago, President Wolfensohn assured us that the Bank would conduct its operations in a democratic and environmentally sustainable manner. To continue with these loans would be to show blatant disregard for the environment and public health in Russia. It almost looks like a case of collusion between the Bank, the Putin regime, and the extractive industries."
Currently, the World Bank has over US$1 billion worth of projects in Russia that impact the environment. The projects are contingent upon a regulatory body for monitoring, enforcement, and protection from the projects' environmental impacts. In many cases the World Bank works in direct partnership arrangements with some of the abolished agencies.
TEXT OF LETTER AND ITS SIGNATORIES FOLLOWS:
July 11, 2000
RE: World Bank Group Response to Abolishment of Russia's State Committee on Ecology and Forest Service
James Wolfensohn
President
World Bank Group
President Wolfensohn,
On May 17, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree liquidating the Russian State Committee on Ecology and the Federal Forest Service, transferring their remains to the Ministry of Natural Resources. With this action, the system of government independent environmental control in the area of natural resource use, which had been put together over decades, was destroyed.
The creation of State Committee on Ecology was one of the largest achievements of democratic formations in Russia, starting in 1985. Its establishment complemented the ongoing activities of the Russian Forest Service, which had a proud history of over 200 years. However, with his liquidation of these agencies, President Putin gives practically full freedom to the unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources, which can potentially lead to ecological harm that can impact countries beyond Russia and even the ecological balance of the planet. With the liquidation of these agencies, we have justified reasons to worry about our future and the future of our children.
In recent times, the World Bank Group has focused more of its activity on environmental problems in Russia. And this approach was beginning to bear fruit. Real opportunities for constructive cooperation between large business, government, and the public have appeared. For example, the World Bank has for years been developing a forest pilot project loan to improve the Russian Forest Service's ability to achieve environmentally sound and sustainable forestry. Ironically, the World Bank approved this forest pilot project loan five days after President Putin abolished the Forest Service! Now, the legality of a loan intended for an abolished agency must be questioned.
Indeed, since the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the World Bank has committed over a billion US dollars' worth of projects in Russia that impact the environment. And, more projects are in the pipeline. The design of these projects relies on the existence of the State Committee on Ecology and the Forest Service for the specialized ecological monitoring, enforcement and protection functions that they provided. In many cases, World Bank Group projects were in direct partnership arrangements within the abolished agencies. And, these agencies provided the regulatory framework and permitting functions upon which the legal operations of the World Bank Group and other investors' projects are based. These functions are now gone, and the future of Russia's environment and its potential for sustainable development is in serious question.
In abolishing the State Committee on Ecology and Forest Service, President Putin proposes to subsume what remains of them under the Ministry of Natural Resources. It is widely known that this Ministry's primary goal is the expansion of commercial activity and not the protection of the environment. Therefore, this rival agency has a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict of interest that prevents it from effectively fulfilling the responsibility of the abolished agencies. Moreover, the Ministry's budget will not be expanded to a size needed to accomplish the abolished agencies' work. The institutional result will be the loss of some of the Russian government's finest environmental and forest management professionals and the subservience of their functions to a Ministry with a contrary mission.
The abolishment of these agencies puts the prospect of responsible foreign investment at significant risk. With these regulatory, permitting and enforcement functions gone, the legal basis of projects that relies on these functions is undermined, while illegal and unsustainable exploitation of nature is allowed to flourish. This is of growing concern to responsible international foreign investors, as reflected in the June 7, 2000 edition of The Economist, "No place to be an ecologist." As the President of the World's largest public development finance institution, the capricious abolishment of these vital agencies must be of especially high concern for you.
In the absence of the State Committee on Ecology Forest Service, we do not believe World Bank Group projects that impact the environment in Russia can proceed in an environmentally, financially or legally sound way. We believe the most prudent action the World Bank Group can take is the cessation of these projects until these agencies and their original functions return
intact. We therefore urge you to issue an immediate moratorium on all new World Bank Group approvals for projects in Russia, and to suspend disbursements for all current Russia projects that impact the environment until the ramifications of these agencies' abolishment is fully known and
until these agencies and their original functions are fully restored.
Representatives of our organizations would like to request a meeting with you at earliest possible convenience to discuss this issue further.
Respectfully,
1. Alexei Yablokov, President, Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow, Russia
2. Aleksandr Arbachakov, Chair, Taiga Research and Protection Association, Kemerovo Region, Russia
3. Dmitry Vasilievich Lisitsyn, Sakhalin Environment Watch, Sakhalin, Russia
4. Aleksander Nikitin, Board of Directors, Interregional Coalition for Ecology and Human Rights, Saint Petersburg, Russia
5. Igor Chestin, Director, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Moscow, Russia
6. Mikhail Shishin, Chair, Fund for 21st Century Altai, Barnaul, Russia
7. Irina Fotieva, Chair, TV "Katun'", Barnaul, Russia
8. Vladimir Lagutov, Chair, Green Don, Novocherkassk, Russia
9. Sergey Golubchikov, Chair of "Vishnevyi Sad," Moscow Russia
10. Yury Golubchikov, Candidate of Geographic Sciences, Geography Department of Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
11. Elvira Andronova, editor of the journal "Forest Management," Moscow, Russia
12. A. Zolotuyev, Koryak Ecological Center, Koryak Autonomous Region, Russia
13. Elvira A. Grischenko, Magadan Center for the Environment, Magadan, Russia
14. Nikolay Zubov, Krasnoyarsk Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union and Krasnoyarsk Regional Ecological Institute, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
15. Sergey Shapkhaev, Director, Buryat Regional Department on Baikal, Buryatia, Russia
16. Artem Artemjev, Volgograd, Russia
17. Galina Horeva, Chair, Kola Peninsula Environmental Center "Gaia," Kola, Russia
18. Askhat Kayumov, Nizhegorodskoye Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union, Nizhnyi Novgorod, Russia
19. Angela Bakka, Ecological Center "Dront," Nizhnyi Novogorod, Russia
20. Nikolai A. Maleshin, Chair, Central Russia Assosiation of Nature Protected Areas, Kursk, Russia
21. Dmitry Andreevich Artamonov, Chair, and Igor Valentinovich Babanin, Vice-Chair, St. Petersburg Society of Friends of Greenpeace, St. Petersburg, Russia
22. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Guskov, Druzhina Commander, Druzhina (Inspection Team) for Protection of Nature, International Independent Ecological-Political University
23. Liudmila Sergeevna Romanova, Director, Harmony, Kamchatka Region, Russia
24. Svetlana Viktorovna Babkina, Interregional organization "Taiga Rangers," Komsomolsk-on-Amur
25. Olga Andreevna Chernyagina, Chair, Kamchatka League of Independent Experts, Kamchatka, Russia
26. Irina Reznikova, Chair, Interregional Public Movement "For a Nuclear-Free Don," Volgograd, Russia
27. Vladimir Shalimov, Volgodonskoye Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union, Volgograd, Russia
28. Tatiana Artyomova, "Posev" Journal
29. Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair, ECODEFENSE! International, Moscow, Russia
30. Alexandra Koroleva, chair, Kaliningrad Duma Public Council on Environmental Education, Kaliningrad, Russia
31. Galina Ragouzina, co-editor, World Information Service on Energy (WISE), Russian bureau in Kaliningrad, Russia
32. Alisa Nikoulina, campaigner, Antinuclear campaign of the Socio-Ecological Union, Moscow, Russia
33. Boris Nekrasov, Chair, Association of Young Journalists of Tomsk Region, Russia
34. V. F. Chekhov, Director, Irkutsk Regional Forest Service
35. Dr. Alexandr Fedorov, Chief of Permafrost Landscapes Laboratory of Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia
36. Konstantin Evgenievich Lebedev, Leader, Tomsk Regional Public Organization "Ecological-Legal Center," Tomsk, Russia
37. Dmitry Maslov, Penza Ecological Club, Penza, Russia
38. Tatyana Artamonova, Altai Branch of the Socio-Ecological Union
39. L. G. Bogdan, Director, Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR), Moscow, Russia
40. Tatiana Kondrashova, Gorno-Altai Branch of the Fund for 21st Century Altai, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
41. Olga Engoyan, Ecological Library in Gorno-Altaisk, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
42. Babef Kayumovich Miftakhov, Ust-Katav Ecological Committee, Chelyabinsk, Russia
43. Roman Oparin, Nadezhda Kulikova, Eco-initiative Group "Boreas, Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, Russia
44. Alexander V. Dubynin, Director, NGO Siberian Environmental Center, Novosibirsk, Russia
45. Natalya Novikova, Legal Center "Spring" (Rodnik), Moscow, Russia
46. Vladimir Solovyev, Head of Geoinformatics Laboratory, Institute of Cosmophysical Reserch and Aeronomy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
47. Andrei Rudomakha, Independent Ecological Service for the Northwestern Caucusus, Maikop, Russia
48. Valentin Zabortsev, Chair, Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Organization "Angara-Yenisei Rescue Association," Lesosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk Region, Russia
49. Andrei Zakharenkov, Director, Russian Far East Association for Non-Timber Forest Products, Khabarovsk, Russia
50. Viktor Teplyakov, Forest Program Coordinator, International Union for the Conservation of Nature CIS office, Moscow, Russia
51. Gazhit Tsybekmitova, Director, Agency for Public Environmental Impact Reviews, Chita, Russia
52. Alexander Karpov, Board Member, St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, St. Petersburg, Russia
53. Cherosov, Student Public Ecological Team of the Oktyomsky Filial of Yakutsk State University, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
54. Inga Zinovieva, Director, Dauria Public Ecological Center, Chita, Russia
55. Liudmila G. Ignatenko, President of the Public Network of Communities of Native Small Peoples of the North of Southern Kamchatka, Kamchatka, Russia
56. Anisimov, Chair of T Kh S O "Kam-Yak" native community, Kamchatka, Russia
57. G. P. Vostrykh, O.N. Galenchik, E.A. Denisova, members of the native community "Koyana," Kamchatka, Russia
58. Chueva, Chair of the Native Community "Tronya," Kamchatka, Russia
58. Valentina Dmitrieva, Center for Environmental Education "Eyge," Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia
59. Vyacheslav Trigubovich, Director, Siberian Interregional Center "Zapovedniki," Novosibirsk, Russia
60. David Gordon and Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment and Resources Center, Oakland, California, USA
61. Bruce Rich, Director, International Program, Environmental Defense, Washington DC, USA
62. Andrea Durbin, Director of International Programs, Friends of the Earth U.S., Washington DC, USA
63. Ikuko Matsumoto, ECA campaigner, Friends of the Earth-Japan, Tokyo, Japan
64. Michele Perrault, Vice President for International Programs, Sierra Club, San Francisco, California, USA
65. Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, Bank Information Center, Washington DC, USA
66. Eliza Klose, Executive Director, Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR), Washington DC, USA
67. Bill Pfeiffer, Executive Director, Sacred Earth Network, Petersham, Massachusetts USA
-30-
**************************************************
Rory Cox, Communications Director
Pacific Environment and Resources Center
1440 Broadway, Suite 306
Oakland, CA 94612
Ph: 510/251-8800 x302
www.pacificenvironment.org