EarthAction

EarthAction Congrats Evgenia Chirikova on Winning Goldman Prize for Khimki Work

 On April 16, it was announced from San Francisco that Evgenia Chirikova, one of the founders and organizers of the Defend Khimki Forest movement, based in Moscow, Russia, is the 2012 European winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. "EarthAction salutes Chirikova for her focused, persistent and effective work to protect this important forest on the outskirts of Moscow," says Lois Barber, EarthAction's Co-founder and Executive Director. Starting in July 2010 and throughout 2011, EarthAction rallied its global network in support of Chirikova's work to protect the Khimki Forest from being the site of a planned highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. For its part, EarthAction issued a series of global Action Alerts mobilizing people and organizations worldwide to take action in support of the Khimki forest and the local organizers in Moscow. 

At the request of Chirikova and her colleagues, EarthAction asked its worldwide network to send messages to the heads of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank, major financial backers of the highway, asking them to withdraw their funding for the highway construction, citing environmental, social and financial concerns about the project. The Goldman Award noted that it was "the most significant victory" when the Banks withdraw their financial support. “EarthAction” is delighted to have played a role in helping Chirikova and the Defend Khimki movement win this victory,” states Barber. 

The Goldman Foundation, in acknowledging Chirikova's work stated, "In this atmosphere of violent political and civil repression, Chirikova and her colleagues continue to fight for an alternative route and an absolute halt to the forest destruction. Energized by the erosion of support for Putin’s ruling party, Chirikova is breathing new life into Russian civil society’s appetite for political reform, and with it, the fight to protect Khimki Forest." 

Click here to read about Evgenia Chrikova's award winning environmental work. 

The Prize cash award has increased over the years and today each winner receives an award of $150,000. Winners also participate in a 10-day tour of San Francisco and Washington, D.C. that includes award ceremonies, news conferences, media briefings and meetings with political, public policy, financial and environmental leaders. 

 

UPDATE ON KHIMKI: Protestors filing lawsuit against builders of highway that would destroy Khimki Forest

Here's an update from our friends at Movement to Defend Khimki Forest. Lawmakers have proposed narrowing the planned highway through the Khimki Forest from four lanes to two lanes, but that simply wouldn't be enough to save the rich wildlife, endangered species, and beloved birch trees from deforestation. The Movement to Defend Khimki Forest is now filling a lawsuit against the highway builders, PO 'DorInzhStroyProyect' LLC in an effort to save the threatened ecosystem. Please read more below.

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Lawsuit against PO 'DorInzhStroyProyect' LLC

November 3, 2011 
Press release 

Due to Khimki Forest defenders’ struggle, the width of the road on the main sections of Moscow – St. Petersburg toll motorway has been cut from 8 to 4 traffic lanes and now is 26 meters (http://princip1.livejour nal.com/17998.html). However, it can’t help solve the problem of destruction of Khimki Forest as an ecosystem.

The main task of forest defenders remains the revision of construction project and the change of the motorway’s route to spare Khimki Forest. The independent expertise has shown the existence of over 10 alternative variants for the route of Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway, which can solve the existing transport crisis on the territory of Khimki town district.

Our suit must show the total uselessness of road construction across Khimki Forest.

The builders have themselves accepted the absurd nature of the road, when they have got permission for construction of the motorway with 4 traffic lanes. It proves once more that the road isn’t destined for solution of transport problem, but rather for theft of budget funds.

PO ‘DorInzhStroyProyect’ LLC during preparation works for road construction has used budget funds, while the income from the toll motorway will go to private NWCC LLC, partly belonging to oligarch Arkady Rotenberg (http://www.ecmo.ru/data/Jul2011/Vinci_a_cover_for_oligarchs_ru.pdf).

The contractor in violation of permission fo r construction has felled the opening more than 100 meters wide, that is 4 times more than written in the project.

This violation became possible due to belated receipt of permission for construction and the lack of state construction supervision. The developer in violation of acting town planning legislation didn’t inform authorized organs on the beginning of construction works and was fined for that on 100000 ruble (http://princip1.livejournal.com/18829.html).

At the moment of the cutting the developer lacked (besides permission for construction) an order for fulfillment of ground works and a cutting ticket.

Most transport problems arise due to the lack of unified town planning policy. For example, there is no acting general plan today in Khimki (http://princip1.livejournal.com/22224.html).

The old general plan, which acted in town Khimki until 2009, didn’t include the toll motorway Moscow – St. Petersburg on the route, where the opening was later cut. We believe that the lack of the general plan in Khimki is among the causes, why the developers cut 4 times more forest area, than they should have done according to the project.

We intend to suit PO ‘DorInzhStroyProyect’ LLC in the court. 

For more information, visit:

Movement to Defend Khimki Forest
www.khimkiforest.org
www.ecmo.ru

Map Photo by OpenStreetMap Contributors
Protester Photo by Daniel Beilinson/Coalition "For the Forests of Moscow Region!"

Moscow Forest Needs Your Help—Again!

Photo by Mikhail Metzel. Yevgenia Chirikova, an environmental activist, in the Khimki Forest.

In 2010, EarthAction campaigned to preserve the Khimki Forest and was successful in getting Russian President Medvedev to temporarily stop the logging. Now, the environmentalists in Moscow and the forest need your help again!

Russian human rights and environmental activists are fighting to save the Khimki Forest from the construction of a new motorway that will divide the forest in half. The planned $8 billion federal highway will connect Moscow and St. Petersburg, but at enormous environmental cost. It will destroy Khimki Forest, one of Moscow's last old-growth forests, which is a key part of the city's dwindling green belt, designed in the 1930s to minimize pollution and preserve wildlife. Ecologists believe that constructing the highway through the forest will lead to the destruction of an eco-system that is unique for Moscow (centuries-old oak trees, elk, boar, and many species of birds). It will destroy a site of special scientific interest, the mesotrophic cranberry swamp in the Khimki Forest and the floodplain of the Klyazma River, which is in its original state only in this area.

Over the years the fight to save Khimki Forest has become more then a fight over a forest, it has become a symbol for fighting against corruption and bribery among government officials, law enforcement, and an industry that ignores the environmental effects of its actions. The campaign to save Khimki Forest is now focused on Vinci, a French multinational construction company contracted to build the highway. The objective is to end Vinci’s involvement in this project until an alternative route that spares Khimki Forest is selected.

Take Action!

Take part in the International Week of Action for the Khimki Forest April 24th to April 30th and sign the petition to save Khimki Forest! Every voice counts.

Click here to sign the petition. THANK YOU.

 

Khimki Forest - Take More Action!

In the months since we last updated you on the proposed Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway project through Khimki Forest, an important 2,200-acre urban forest rich with wildlife that is beloved by the community, much has happened. An activist and a journalist have been brutally attacked by thugs and the pictured Save Khimki Forest’s website editor was falsely accused of phoning in a bomb threat and then interrogated for 6-hours by police. The Save Khimki Forest website (www.ecmo.ru) was attacked by hackers and rendered useless for hours.

In addition, the panel appointed by President Medvedev after the project was halted this Fall to study the proposed road and outline alternative routes decided that building the road through the forest was the best alternative. An independent study commissioned by the grassroots group Save Khimki Forest found just the opposite. Its experts suggested that the road is not needed, but that if it is to be built, it can be routed through an un-forested adjacent area instead.

A Russian company hired by the French construction firm Vinci has just announced that the cutting of trees in the Khimki Forest is to be resumed mid-March. At the direction of Vinci, this company cut many trees in 2010 before public outcry and international pressure halted the project. Seventy percent of the trees in the forest still remain, including many old oaks.

The leaders of Save Khimki Forest again appeal to you, members of EarthAction and the international environmental community, to support their cause.

Three simple yet powerful actions you can take right now:

1. Ask President Medvedev to halt the cutting of Khimki Forest, to route the motorway project away from the trees, and to end the fabrication of criminal charges against grassroots activists by following this link: http://eng.letters.kremlin.ru/.

2. Ask Vinci to stop cutting trees in the Khimki Forest and to pursue an alternative route for the road: http://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/contact.htm.

3. Use their online form to question Vinci about why they have chosen to continue construction through the Khimki forest given an alternative option.

After you take action, please share this with your friends, family and colleagues!

Media Release: Khimki Forest Campaign Success - Will it Last?

 

EarthAction distributed a media release on 8 October announcing the successful international campaign to stop highway construction through the Khimki Forest in Moscow. While President Medvedev temporarily halted construction, he has yet to make a final decision about the route of the highway.

An excerpt from the media release:

On 26 August Russian President Medvedev ordered a halt to construction of a highway through a critical Moscow forest in response to international environmental concerns and fired the mayor of Moscow, in part, for his role in pushing the project.

Evgenia Chirikova and Mikhail Matveev, leaders of the Save Khimki Forest movement wrote to the EarthAction Network, “Thank you very much for your support of our efforts in defending Khimki Forest . . . it was great to see we are not alone. We are sure that your numerous emails were essential in making that happen.”

President Medvedev is expected to make a decision on the route for the highway on October 12. It is believed that he is only considering two routes, both of which go through the Khimki Forest. EarthAction is joining Russian campaigners in urging Medvedev to select a third option that bypasses the Forest completely. 

 

***UPDATE***

While President Medvedev was expected to make a decision on the highway route yesterday, a final verdict has yet to be made public. At this time, it is unknown whether the fate of the Khimki Forest has been decided. If you have not already sent a letter to President Medvedev, please send a message now, urging him to select an alternative route for the highway through his website. We want to take advantage of the opportunity to act on this very important and urgent issue! 

To read the full media release, click here.

 

KREMLIN BACKS DOWN--KHIMKI FOREST SAVED (FOR NOW)

On August 26th the New York Times reported that Russian President Medvedev, reacting to the global public outcry, postponed construction of the highway through the Khimki Forest on the outskirts of Moscow. From the NY Times article: 

“Given the number of appeals, I have made a decision,” Mr. Medvedev said in a message on his video blog. “I order the government to halt the implementation of the decision to build this highway and conduct further civic and expert discussions.”

“This has flabbergasted us. It was completely unexpected,” said Sergei Ageyev, a member of the environmental group leading the opposition to the highway. “It is simply a stunning victory for civil society.”

In July, the EarthAction Network issued an Action Alert to its 2,600 Partner Organizations in over 150 countries asking them to write to President Medvedev and ask him to stop construction of the highway through the Khimki Forest. We are pleased to have helped with this "stunning victory for civil society."

Read the whole article here.

Protect Moscow’s Khimki Forest—the land, the trees and local environmentalists desperately need help

     

Moscow’s Khimki Forest is 2,600 acres of public conservation land that’s an urban refuge for people and wildlife. Despite laws that prohibit road building and logging, Khimki forest is being bulldozed and logged. Environmentalists working to protect this forest are physically defending the trees with their bodies while they, along with journalists, are being attacked by thugs and arrested and jailed by police. 

In Russia, Article 11 of Federal Law 172-FZ forbids the destruction and development of public forests for road building when alternative routes exist. In this case, several do, but in November 2009 Russian Prime Minister Putin made a ruling that transferred the Khimki forest from protected land status to lands zoned "for transport and infrastructure". This ruling makes it possible and profitable for the French company with the road building contract to put the road through Khimki Forest so that it can also cut down and sell its valuable timber.

In Russia today, 26 road construction projects are proposed for public conservation lands. Organizers against the projects claim that construction of these roads are being allowed to proceed by corrupt politicians for the benefit of their for-profit construction company partners which stand to make enormous sums of money. Transparency International-Russia recently conducted an analysis of the Khimki project that provides documented evidence of corruption.

The bulldozing and cutting of trees has just begun in Khimki Forest despite a lack of cutting permits and no solid financial backing.

Under pressure from citizens and organizations the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have announced they are reconsidering their plans to provide funding for the motorway through Khimki. However, the banks have not yet officially refused to fund the construction of this road through the cherished woodland. Now is a very important time to send a message to the banks asking them to not lend any funds for this project. Without funding the road cannot be built, and the bank is under enormous scrutiny due to international headlines decrying the treatment of the activists and the dubious nature of the project.

TAKE ACTION:

If you are a defender of nature and justice, we hope you will join us in taking action. Ask the Presidents of the EBRD and the EIB to refuse to provide funding for this project. Click here for the Bankwatch Network website where you can sign a letter that will be immediately delivered to EBRD & EIB bank officials.

The second and equally important action you can take is to send a letter to Russian President Medvedev. Ask him to reverse Putin’s November 2009 ruling that transferred the Khimki forest from protected land status to lands zoned "for transport and infrastructure", and immediately halt the road project in Khimki Forest and ensure that projects like this throughout Russia abide by Article 11 of Federal Law 172-FZ which forbids the destruction and development of public forests when alternative routes exist.

 

President Medvedev
Il'ynka street, 23
103132 Moscow, Russia

 

Thanks in advance for your support,

 

The EarthAction Network

For more information:

 

Mikhail Matveev, Movement to Defend Khimki Forest (English and Russian) Mobile + 7 965 392 28 14 Vladlena Martsynkevych, CEE Bankwatch Network (English and Russian) Mobile + 38 066 731 26 57

Erik Hoffner, Orion Grassroots Network, (English) [email protected]

Click here to read more on this desperate situation. Khimki Forest is just the first of dozens of Russian forests set to be bulldozed for profit. Stopping this project could put an end to the destructive trend. Please forward this message to fellow activists near and far so we can help stop it now.