AREAS OF ACTIVITY OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY GREEN SALVATION

National environmental legislation is one of the main means of protecting the human right to a life in harmony with nature and the rights of nature.* For this reason, our organization aspires to promote the formation of an effective system of environmental legislation and legal mechanisms for the protection of the human right to a favorable environment. Green Salvation bases its activities on the following criteria:

• National environmental policy should be set according to principles of conventions human rights and modern international rules of law;

• National environmental legislation should correspond to the principles of international conventions and agreements on environmental protection signed and ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan;

• The effective participation of the citizens in acceptance environmentally important decisions should be supplied on the basis of the information, given by him (it) necessary for acceptance of the decisions;

• Citizens should have a real opportunity for access to natural resources;

• The principle of both prevention and compensation of damage to the health and property of citizens and the environment should be strictly observed;

• Lines of authority should be clearly drawn, and the division of state ownership between government bodies at various levels should be specified;

• Economic incentives should be provided for environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources;

• The principle of inalienable responsibility for all forms of environmental offences and crimes should be strictly observed;

• Citizens should be guaranteed effective access to justice.

Green Salvation took part in official discussion of the law “On Environmental Protection in the Kazakh SSR” (1991) and the laws of Republic of Kazakhstan “On Environmental Protection,” (1997), “On Environmental Expertise” (1997), “On Specially Protected Natural Territories” (1997), “On the Radiation Safety of the Population” (1998), “On Land” (2001), On Tourist Activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan” (2001), and a number of others. Remarks and suggestions on the bills mentioned and on current legislation have been prepared and officially sent to the Parliament of Republic of Kazakhstan by the organization. Representatives of Green Salvation have taken part in parliamentary working groups, discussed bills with members of Parliament and the bill’s authors, and taken part in conferences and meetings with representatives of business circles.

Our organization’s activity is not limited only to the work listed. We devote no less attention to monitoring the legislation’s enforcement. With this aim in mind, for example, we conduct selective monitoring of the enforcement of legal requirements, particularly the performance of environmental expertise; the observance of legality in a number of gorges in Ile-Alatau National Park is also monitored.

Another object of our attention is the Republic of Kazakhstan’s fulfillment of international environmental conventions. Primary importance is given to the Convention Concerning Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which Kazakhstan joined in 1994, and the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice on Questions Concerning the Environment, which was ratified by Kazakhstan in 2001.

Since 2002, Green Salvation has defended human rights and the rights of nature in the legal arena. As a result of legal cases pursued in 2003 and 2004, two appeals were prepared and submitted to the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. Both appeals were accepted by the Committee for consideration.

The activities of our organization and our colleagues in the given sphere have found reflection in the pages of the Bulletin of Green Salvation—“Problems of Environmental Legislation in the Republic of Kazakhstan and World Experience” (No. 5, 1996), “Human Rights and the Rights of Nature” (No. 10, 1999), “World Heritage” (No. 14, 2001)—as well as the works “Legal Problems of Reforming Environmental Legislation in the Republic of Kazakhstan” (D.L. Baideldinov and S.G. Kuratov, 1998) and “Reform of Environmental Legislation in Kazakhstan” (S.G. Kuratov, 1999). Materials prepared by the members and volunteers of the organization have been published in various magazines and newspapers in Kazakhstan and abroad.

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* The human right to a favorable environment is most fully reflected in the draft of the Declaration of Principles of the Rights of Man and the Environment (the Ksentini Principles).

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For those interested in questions of environmental policy and legislation, we recommend the following Web sites:

Center for International Environmental Law: www.ciel.org

Environmental Law Institute: www.elaw.org

Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy: www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/main/html/home.htm

Institute for Environmental Legal Problems “Ekojuris”: www.glasnet.ru/~ecojuris

Legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the legal reference system “Advokat” (“Lawyer”): www.zakon.kz

Ile-Alatau State National Nature Park.

The natural heritage of the Republic of Kazakhstan has lasting value and is a part of the planet’s natural heritage. Since the first days of its activity, Green Salvation has striven for the preservation of th unique nature of the Zailiisky Alatau, whose natural complexes ensure the environmental and economic well-being of the city of Almaty and the Almaty metropolitan area. The organization supported the idea of creating Ile-Alatau National Park, formed in 1996, and assists in its becoming a nature protection establishment. Currently, Green Salvation cooperates with the park administration with the aim of including the pak on the World Heritage List of the Convention Concerning Protection Of The World Cultural And Natural Heritage.

The questions of the development and functioning of specially protected natural territories in the Republic of Kazakhstan and other countries, including Ile-Alatau National Park, and Kazakhstan’s performance in fulfilling the World Heritage Convention are covered in the pages of the Bulletin of Green Salvation—“National Park” (No. 7, 1997) and “World Heritage” (No. 14, 2001)—and in other materials published by the organization.

For those interested in the issues mentioned above, we recommend the following Web sites:

UNESCO’s World Heritage Center: www.unesco.org/whc

Scientific sector of UNESCO: www.unesco.org/mab

Headquarters of the World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org

The World Conservation Union’s office for the countries of the CIS: www.iucn.ru

Greenpeace Russia: www.greenpeace.ru

The Russian office of the World Wildlife Fund: www.wwf.ru

The activity of transnational corporations (TNCs) in Kazakhstan and the countries of the Caspian region, with a high level of corruption, an undeveloped system of the nature protection legislation, and a weak civil society, have become an important factor in shaping the environmental and socioeconomic situation in these countries. Therefore, one of the main tasks in for local inhabitants and the public in the area of environmental protection is the organization and implementation of monitoring and the receipt of authentic information about the activity of TNCs in the region. A second task, no less important, is building a mutual relation between the public and the TNCs. Green Salvation devotes significant attention to resolving these problems both in theory and in practice, although we understand that these are only the first steps to solving this complex problem.

The following issues of the Bulletin of Green Salvation are devoted to questions of regulating the activity of TNCs, the public’s access to information, participation in decision-making, and questions of mutual relations between public organizations and TNCs: the supplements “Oil. Business. Politics” (1999), the Green Salvation Herald 2000, and “Planet, People … and Corporation” (No. 13, 2000).

Green Salvation, together with ISAR, prepared and hosted a seminar on the relationship between non-governmental organizations and TNCs (“Proceedings: Developing Principles for Interaction Between Nongovernmental Organizations and Transnational Corporation in the Caspian Region,” Almaty, Kazakhstan, September 10-12, 2000). The employees of the organization have participated in a number of other measures.

Our organization is currently participating in the international campaign to support the International Right to Know (IRTK) bill in the United States. If the bill becomes law, the international community and the public of the region will gain an effective tool for the control of TNCs’ activities. We are convinced that it is necessary for public organizations of the Caspian region to support this campaign. For more details about the campaign, see “International Right to Know.”

For those interested in the issues mentioned above, we recommend the following Web sites:

Corporate Watch: www.corpwatch.org

Multinational Monitor/Multinationals Resource Center: www.essential.org/monitor

Earthrights International (ERI): www.earthrights.org

Project Underground: www.moles.org

Antinuclear campaign

Since the middle of 2001, Kazakhstan’s state-owned nuclear power company, Kazatomprom, acting a group of deputies in the Mazhilis (the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament), has been attempting to introduce a bill permitting the import, storage and burial of low- and mid-level radioactive waste from foreign countries on the territory of Kazakhstan. The necessity of amending current legislation is explained by the opportunity to receive financial revenues, which, according to Kazatomprom, will be used to resolve problems of radiation safety and monitoring, and to improve socioeconomic conditions in the country.

Such plans contradict international agreements signed and ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the country’s constitution, and national legislation. They run counter to the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the recommendations of Agenda 21, and the statutes of the OSCE’s European Security Charter (Istanbul, 1999). They create a threat to the national and environmental safety of the country!

The public organizations of Republic of Kazakhstan are convinced that implementing plans for the import, storage and burial of radioactive waste from other states on the territory of Kazakhstan will result in the blatant violation of human rights. Green Salvation has supported the activities of the Karaganda Eco-Center and a number of other NGOs of Kazakhstan and Russia aimed at protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens of Kazakhstan, as well as actions against the plans to import, store and bury radioactive waste on the territory of republic: petitions, polls, publications in the mass media, rallies, etc.

For more details, see Green Salvation’s article “Human Rights and Radioactive Waste” and materials by other public organizations within Kazakhstan.

For those interested in the issues mentioned above, we recommend the following Web sites:

Greenpeace Russia: www.greenpeace.ru

Group “Ekozashchita!” (“Ecodefense!”): www.ecodefense.ru

Ecology, in translation from the Greek, means “the science of the home.” The home of humanity is our planet, the Earth. Therefore, it is no accident that millions of people have risen up for the protection of her nature—the protection of our Home. We know of many remarkable people who have devoted their lives to the protection of nature, and of all life: Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Jacque-Yves Cousteau, N.F. Reimers. In other words, people protect those lasting treasures that are dear to them.

To defend these treasures, however, it is necessary to skillfully use legal, economic, technical and other means for protecting nature and the human right to a healthy environment. The success of this work, in many respects, depends on the level of culture and education of the people.

Distribution of environmental knowledge and the formation of environmental thinking and culture are especially urgent when there is a real danger of the replacement of universal moral values by values thrust upon a society by market elements.

In the sphere of environmental education and awareness, the ES is guided by the following principles:

- to bring up a growing generation in a spirit of respect for lasting universal values;

- to promote the propagation of environmental knowledge, including the concept of sustainable development;

- to promote the “ecologization” of educational disciplines;

- to promote the development of a system of continuous environmental education;

- to promote the study of legal methods for protecting environmental human rights and the rights of nature.

Since 1992, Green Salvation has held seminars and consultations, and given information to experts, activists in the “green” movement, schoolchildren, university students, and high school and university instructors.

Our organization cooperates closely with libraries in Kazakhstan, Russia, and other states of the CIS. The methods of our educational work are diverse: exhibits of new literature and posters, children's drawing competitions, lectures with showings of video films, and distribution of magazines and newspapers from environmental organizations of the CIS and beyond.

Since 1996, the 15-day summer environmental school “Muraveinik” (The Anthill) has been held annually on the territory of Ile-Alatau National Park. Twenty-five children and five adults study, work and rest at the camp. The employees of Green Salvation and volunteers carefully prepare the program, which consists of several parts: environmental, sports and tourism, and cultural.

A variety of children have visited Muraveinik in the course of these six years, including teenagers from the environmental club Eremurus (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and children from the Tau Eco-Center (Almaty, Kazakhstan). The activists of the environmental club Berendei (Kapchagai, Kazakhstan) have been reliable allies and true comrades in bringing the summer school to life.

In September 2000, the employees of organization opened the children's environmental club Muraveinik at the State Republican Children's Library (Almaty). The club’s activities include the study of ecology and biology, as well as the history of interaction of nature; some of the lectures are accompanied by the display of slides and video films. Field trips to the mountains and excursions to the Botanical Gardens, Almaty Zoo, and the biological museum of Kazakh State University are also included in the educational program of the club. The children’s hands have tended a site in front of the forward wing of the library (including planting a flower bed), and painted drawings on a concrete fence nearby: the sun, a mountain, flowers, ants …

An activity throughout the year at Muraveinik is the preparation of the club’s activists for the summer environmental school. (Take a look at the photo report on the activity of the club and summer school elsewhere on this site.)

A special course, “Sustainable Development,” has been developed for university students, and a manual by the same name (written by Ludmila Semyonova) has been published. The concept of sustainable development and the problems encountered by the world community in fulfilling the UN’s Agenda 21 have found reflection in the releases of the Bulletin of Green Salvation: “Sustainable Development: Toward a History of the Concept " (No. 3, 1995) and “Sustainable Development After Rio (No. 9, 1998). The organization’s experience in the sphere of environmental education and awareness are also reflected in the Bulletin: “The Ecologization of Consciousness” (No. 2, 1995), “Environmental Education” (No. 4, 1995), “Ecology of Culture” (No. 6, 1996), “Summer Environmental School (No. 8, 1998), and “A Planet of Children” (No. 12, 2000). Materials on this topic have been published in the mass media in Kazakhstan and abroad.

For those interested in questions of environmental education and awareness, we recommend the following Web sites:

International Social-Ecological Union: www.seu.ru

Association for Environmental Education (AsEkO): www.aseko.org

Public Organization “EkoObraz”: www.ecoobraz.org

Our organization’s electronic database, library and video collection contain a variety of documentary, assistance and educational materials. They are used not only by GS’ employees, but by activists from other non-governmental organizations, experts, teachers, university students, and schoolchildren.

Information on the environmental situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan can be found on the Internet at the following Web pages:

Ecological Press Center: www.ecopress.kz

National Environmental Center for Sustainable Development: www.neapsd.kz

Ecostan News (Russian version of the electronic bulletin): www.ecostan.org

Environmental problems of the Semipalatinsk test nuclear range: www.semipalatinsk.org

A review of the condition of the environment in Central Asia prepared with support of the United National Environmental Program: www.grida.no

If you have any questions, please address them to us by e-mail at grsalmati@mail.ru  or by telephone at (327)-2-341760.

We will try to help find the materials that interest you!

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