GlobalGiving.org: Prevent desecration of pristine Altai habitats

Progress Being Made on Saving Ukok Plateau

Carol Hiltner — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:45:24 GMT

Our International Group on the Ukok Plateau, 2011

Up until today, the Russian energy giant Gazprom has decreed that a gas pipeline must be routed directly through one of the world’s most precious valleys—Altai’s Ukok Plateau—in the process not only desecrating the UNESCO World Heritage Site there, but jeopardizing the entire Altai culture as well.

But today, a glimmer of hope appeared, when the Altai Pipeline did not appear on Gazprom’s announcements of current projects. However, international pressure must continue, because the stakes are so high, and because it is still uncertain if the project has been abandoned.

The unified protests of the Altai people have been treated with contempt. Even the projected unprofitability had been insufficient to counter the lucrative construction contracts. Preparation for construction already began last summer, despite the absence of legally required permits.

Please sign the international petition that was initiated by a local indigenous resident at http://www.culturalsurvival.org/category/campaigns/russiachina-pipeline-threatens-sacred-highlands, and to contribute what you can to the legal defense of the plateau.

The high Ukok Plateau in the center of the Altai Mountains, called by Herodotes “the pastures of heaven,” is a place worthy of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a permafrost plateau at the very southern edge of Siberia, surrounded by Russian peaks on the north, but by Mongolian, Chinese, and Kazakh peaks in the east, south, and west. It can only be reached via 10,000-foot-high passes.

The plateau is breathtakingly beautiful and pristine. Nobody but the spirits of Altai and a large number of endangered species live on the plateau. It is a place of palpable power. The Altai people who are attuned with the place know that the so-called “burial mounds” are part of an ancient and sophisticated energy system that keeps the crust of the Earth stable.

Ukok Panorama

Links:

Protect sacred Ukok Plateau from gas pipeline and commercial highway

Carol Hiltner — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:29:37 GMT

Ukok Plateau, looking south to mountains in China

The Ukok Plateau is a glorious high-altitude perma-frost steppe that has been a place of pilgrimage since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. The most sacred part happens to have a 20 kilometer border with China.

It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been insufficient to protect it from plans for a financially indefensible gas pipeline, but also, now, a very lucrative proposed commercial highway, both of which would utterly destroy the pristine natural environment.

If you believe that such irreplaceably precious places should be protected from international economic machinations, please contribute in time and/or funding to the international campaign that was initiated this summer by the Altai people who are the ancient stewards of this land. To participate, contact Jennifer Castner at jennifer@jennifercastner.org.

AMU president at anti-corruption conference

Carol Hiltner — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:35:21 GMT

Prevent the Ukok Plateau gas pipeline

As part of the great transformation of Russia from Communism into Capitalism, carefully stewarded indigenous lands have been targeted for exploitation by corrupt individuals and officials.

I have been invited to present at a national Russian conference on anti-corruption in Novosibirsk in June. I will speak on the effectiveness of traditional Altai communal/community values for preventing corruption and the necessity to empower community awareness for create innovative solutions.

Then Carol will continue on to Altai to meet with community leaders to discover how international support can most effectively leverage the strategies they continue to develop.

The current, most urgent issue is to prevent the construction of an economically and environmentally disastrous gas pipeline directly through the extraordinarily fragile Ukok Plateau UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Your donation is directly applied to the ongoing efforts, large and small, of Altai indigenous leaders to protect their traditional and sacred lands from desecration.

When Is Development Not Progress?

Carol Hiltner — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:57:25 GMT

Kucherla forest at risk for logging

Last summer, as I was riding along the Kucherla River through the protected lands of Mt. Belukha National Park, I looked across the valley and noticed a bright new wooden bridge across one of the tributary rivers. Because the steep, heavily forested land is essentially uninhabitable for humans, I was astonished. I asked the Altai horseman who was with me if the bridge was for homes? or a tourist base?

"Logging," he said.

"But isn't this park land?" I asked.

"Only on this side of the river," he answered.

The photo shows the at-risk birch/pine/larch forest on the far side of the river. Based on what I know of Altai culture, I can be pretty certain that the Altai people who are the stewards of this land will not be the beneficiaries of the logging. Although they do build wooden houses, the presence of that bridge indicates a capital investment well beyond what locals could afford -- which means that the lumber will be extracted and so will the profits, leaving behind clear-cut in a region with such extreme weather that regrowing the trees will take centuries.Heart-breaking!

Your donations enable the local people to continue their efforts to retain the rights to their traditional lands. "Foreign aid" (read "your donation") provided directly to the village elders is leveraged, not only to pay for the villages' sustainable land management efforts, but also to demonstrate for the people of this remote village that the world cares about primeval forests.

Thank you!

Global politics vs indigenous stewardship

Carol Hiltner — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:47:50 GMT

threatened Ukok Plateau -- "pastures of heaven"

Thank you for your continuing support for indigenous land rights in Altai. We continue to make progress on registering traditional inherited lands as necessitated by Russia’s overall land privatization laws, with on-going court cases to retrieve land that was fraudulently taken.

The need to support local (Altai) action continues:
1) Villagers are now working with archeologists to try to salvage the sacred sites that were bulldozed by the crew building a road through legally protected forest to the secret construction complex that locals understand to be a new summer home for Vladimir Putin. The legal requirement for prior archeological excavation of such sites was ignored, as was any consultation with the local people.

2) The latest word about the gas pipeline planned to go through the center of the extremely ecologically fragile and culturally sacred UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Ukok Plateau is that construction will begin next summer. Trusting in the power of group intention, we ask that you continue to imagine the plateau in its pristine condition.

100% of donations received from you are passed through directly to our indigenous Altai partners.

Most lands registered, some still in court

Carol Hiltner — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:31:05 GMT

The Indigenous people of the remote Altai Republic in southern Siberia are the traditional stewards of a Shangi-la land with a rare and precious ecosystem. Two years ago, it looked like the natives would lose their ancestral lands to outside developers out to exploit the pristine mountain wilderness and green river valleys. Not only was there no mechanism for natives to claim their lands, but also they were not organized to press for ownership because "ownership" of land is simply undefined in the Altai culture -- they couldn't imagine it! I attach a link to a slideshow of the land and culture of Altai.

Thanks to your donation as part of a very successful fund-raising effort through GlobalGiving.com, the villagers in two especially at-risk districts were jolted awake at the last moment by the international concern expressed by all the donations! In both districts, the most critical lands were gathered into collectives and surveyed as required. Then lawsuits were filed, successfully, to force the government to register the surveyed lands.

However, some of the most valuable lands are still tied up in court because of the way the registration system was originally set up 20 years ago when Russia began the process of privatize the land (and everything else). Lands were not allocated individually but by clan group. Within each clan group, it was pretty well understood informally who used what land, but this was not part of the privatization system. According to the system, whoever registered first got to choose the land they wanted.

Unscrupulous realtors preyed on the weak members of each clan -- the sick, the elderly, the alcoholics -- and got them to sign over their share of 12 hectares (30 acres) for a few dollars per acre (land that is now, a year later, being sold for $10,000 per acre). The realtors then claimed the best lands, and the lands with water access from each clan.

Because the local people pulled together to survey and register their lands, a significant portion of your donations remained and is funding the legal process of retrieving these "lost" lands. Efforts have thus far been successful. I'll keep you posted as the process continues.

Links:

A slideshow of the land and culture of Altai

Field Update: Altai Habitats

Carol Hiltner — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:39:19 GMT

At last word, the governmental administration had still not completed the land registrations that were applied for in 2008 and 2009. In your donations from both those years, legal funds for this contingency were set aside. The law regarding land registration by indigenous people changed as of 1/1/2010. They are still allowed to register their lands, but until they are registered, these lands can now also be sold out from under the people by whichever level of government has jurisdiction. Land values have sky-rocketed in Altai this past year, with the law permitting public sale of agricultural and grazing lands, so it is indeed fortunate that the locals can legally continue to registrer the lands (rather than having to buy what has been in their families for millennia). Even though the deeds have not been forthcoming from the registrar's office, the application for registration still gives the locals legal standing and prevents the immediate loss of the land. Your current donations continue to assist the poorest of the poor -- the invalids and widows -- to pay the expensive surveying and registration fees.

Thank you for your wonderful support thus far!! Donations made on-line on June 16th will be matched at 50% by Global Giving, and also matched at 50% by a donor to Altai Mir University, so please help us out with this project by making a generous donation on June 16th!!

Links:

Project on GlobalGiving

March 16th: Protect indigenous cultures = protect YOURSELF!

Carol Hiltner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:12:59 GMT

Planting seeds for the future

Dear fellow Earth-ship cosmonaut! For the past decade, since I understood the crucial global importance of the glorious Altai Mountains and their beleaguered indigenous stewards, I have devoted all my time and all my resources (my income, my savings, my inheritance) to finding ways that a Westerner could help and not do further damage. Now YOUR continuing help is needed. The Altai people are now finding ways to positively respond, and have asked for YOUR help. Several projects, mentioned below, directly support Altai villages to re-build their sacred culture and thus sustain Mother Earth. The cosmic energy that flows into the Earth in Altai feeds all of us! Some Western scientists recognize this, however the ancient mechanisms must still be actively protected. For various reports/updates, see our newly revamped website: www.AltaiMir.org. Your contribution will be DOUBLED until April 15th. An ADDITIONAL 30% will be added if you can donate ON-LINE on TUESDAY, MARCH 16 (at www.AltaiMir.org) • $10 = transports 1 regional Altai elder to lead a remote village's self-organizing meeting • $32 = enables 1 person to map a sacred site to protect it from being sold/developed • $64 = pays land registration fees for 1 Altai family • $100 = provides start-up supplies for 1 communal village industry in the traditional way • $500 = supports 1 Altai educator to develop culturally appropriate curricula for indigenous children for a month • $1000 = buys 1 portable yurt for use as a village youth meeting place and cultural center PROTECT MOTHER EARTH NOW!! We ALL must lay the groundwork! 100% of what we receive goes directly into projects in Altai (unless specified by donor).

Links:

See our newly revamped website!

funds delivered

Carol Hiltner — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:12:39 GMT

Huge thanks to you for supporting our campaign to protect pristine Altai lands by supporting ownership registration for indigenous stewards.

Several international NGOs have worked together and the requested funding has been achieved.

We invite you to support the next phase (GlobalGiving Project #3893), which is to "Revive Altai's cultural/environmental technologies" for global environmental and human healing.

Attachments:

Happy Earth Day!

Carol Hiltner — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:44:10 GMT

Happy Earth Day! Great progress to report in our fundraising to prevent desecration of pristine Altai habitats for the well being of the whole planet— and to do justice for the indigenous Altai stewards at the same time.

Thank you for your continuing support in our events and GlobalGiving.com matching campaigns, with your generous donations, networking, and wonderful encouragement. Our supporters have raised about $25,000 toward our urgent $75,000 goal, mostly through very effective fundraising/ consciousness-raising events.

I will deliver your donations to Altai when I go in June. They will be immediately used to survey and communally register the land for villagers who have done everything they can on their end to prepare.

Funding Boost: GlobalGiving and Altai Mir University have brokered a deal of $1 match for every $2 donation, which will only be active from April 4 to April 28, 2009.

Plus, a $5000 award will be given to whoever has the MOST $10 DONORS. Help us win this$5,000! 1. Click to DONATE: http://www.globalgiving.com/2002 2. FORWARD to your network 3. Send along heart-felt best wishes to Mother Earth!

Check how well we are doing by clicking here and look for "Prevent desecration of pristine Altai habitats."

http://www.globalgiving.com/2002

Your small donations, good wishes and networking tip the scale. I will be particularly glad for word to go out to environmental groups.

This will probably be our last chance to save the Altai lands from commercial development under existing laws. Unprotected lands go up for sale in January 2010.

How it all works: GlobalGiving's new fundraising campaign, "Give a Little Green"! starts Saturday, April 4. All donations up to $5,000 per individual will receive an additional 50% match! The match will be available from April 4-April 28 or until $25,000 in matching funds have been depleted.

In addition to matching funds, the three projects receiving the greatest number of individual donations will receive extra prizes of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000, respectively. Even if matching funds are depleted, the challenge portion of the campaign will continue until April 28th.

This is a huge opportunity for us to generate a significant amount of extra funds for the Altai project. From April 4 to April 28, the impact of all your donations will really count. Please tell your friends. Remember, the more donors we get, the better our chances of earning an additional $5,000. A year ago, we won an extra $1000, so I know we can do it. Thank you for your continuing support and participation!

Altai is more than a place – it Is a sacred way of being.

Altai Mir University serves as an global bridge for ancient wisdom and power of Altai.

For further information, see www.AltaiMir.org and www.AltaiBooks.com