Prevent desecration of pristine Altai habitats

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.

Links:

• International Petition to Protect Ukok Plateau
• Al Jazeera Article on Ukok Pipeline
• Altai Mir University website

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.

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.