In a letter addressed to the Fund for 21st Century Altai, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources, R. R. Gizatulin, said that building a pipeline across the Ukok Plateau would violate Russia’s obligations to protect the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site, of which Ukok is a part. The letter, dated July 21, 2011, was published by altapress.ru on August 3.
The Minister wrote (unofficial translation provided by The Altai Project): “The Altai Pipeline Project is characterized by complex natural, climate-related, engineering, and geological conditions for construction, its great length, and the passage of the pipeline across protected areas, as well as high ecological risks. .... According to the opinion of Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources, completion of the pipeline's construction across the Ukok Plateau is in direct contradiction with Russia's international obligations related to the Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. With this in mind, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources considers it advisable to study alternative routes for the pipeline's construction.”
Altapress.ru further reported that the Altai Gas Pipeline project has not undergone an Environmental Impact Report at the Russian Agency for Environmental Oversight. Documentation justifying the gas pipeline's construction across the Ukok Plateau has not yet been submitted for federal environmental impact review.
In spite of this, altapress.ru reported that survey markers are currently being erected on Ukok along the pipeline's future route. "The surveyors themselves are reporting that the markers show a route that is completely unprofessionally planned, done almost by guesswork, in some places, straight up a cliff!," according to Irina Fotieva, executive director of the Altai Krai regional community Fund for 21st Century Altai, as reported in altapress.ru.
Cultural Survival's Global Response launched a campaign last month to protect the sacred highlands of the Ukok plateau. Read the Action Alert here.
