2 billion rubles will be allocated to support the indigenous peoples of Taimyr until 2025. The funds are allocated by the Norilsk Nickel company based on the results of studies of the impact of the diesel spill at the TPP-3 of Norilsk on the life of the peninsula's population. One of these studies was the ethno-examination conducted by the Arctic Development Project Office. Andrey Grachev, Vice President for Federal and Regional Programs of Norilsk Nickel, spoke about this at the round table "Arctic Research for Sustainable Development", which took place on June 21 at the Public Chamber of Russia.
Elena Sharoykina, Chairperson of the Public Chamber's Commission on Ecology and Environmental Protection, reminded the participants that an open dialogue between the company, the authorities and society began a year ago. Then, to work on adjustments to the fuel spill response plan and to ensure public control, they created an expert group under the RF Civil Society Commission on Ecology and Environmental Protection, which included representatives of NGOs and science.
The heads of Norilsk Nickel, leaded by Senior Vice President for Sustainable Development Andrey Bugrov, presented a special report (White Paper) on the elimination of the consequences of environmental incidents in 2020 and the Company's Integrated Environmental Strategy.
Nikolay Doronin, Chairman of the Board of the Arctic Development Project Office, spoke about how the impact of the diesel spill on fisheries (one of the main sources of income for the local population) was studied in the framework of the ethnological expertise. “For additional verification, analyzes were carried out in two laboratories simultaneously - the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk and «Typhoon».
The studies did not reveal any excess of the permissible levels of harmful substances in the fish of the Pyasina river basin, but it would be interesting to compare the results with the data of the Federal Agency for Fishery,” said Nikolai Doronin. The department carried out its own examination, but the details of the results obtained have not yet been presented.
The roundtable participants noted the openness of Norilsk Nickel in the situation with the spill, but also pointed out that there is still work to be done. Only the results of further monitoring will show whether additional measures are needed to eliminate the consequences of the spill, said Vladimir Chernyshev, head of the department of state supervision in the field of use and protection of water bodies, atmospheric air and land supervision of Rosprirodnadzor. The results of such incidents are incomprehensible without full verification, which is based on primary data, says Ivan Blokov, director of programs, research and expertise of the Russian branch of Greenpeace.
“Learning from the accident is one of the most important factors in preventing future accidents,” said Alexey Knizhnikov, head of the environmental responsibility program for WWF's business. According to him, it is very important to create documents that describe the experience in as much detail as possible.
Andrey Grachev stressed that the company constantly maintains a dialogue with the indigenous peoples of the North. The company created a department to collaborate with them, in May the first meeting of the Coordinating Council of the communities of the indigenous peoples of the North was held.
Norilsk Nickel is essentially shaping a new practice and setting standards for relations with local communities,” says Andrei Grachev. Pavel Sulyandziga, an expert on the rights of indigenous peoples, who joined from the United States, and the head of the Taimyr Indigenous People's Commissars Association, Grigory Dyukarev, then took the floor.
Grigory Dyukarev noted that ethnological expertise complies with foreign practice and international regulatory documents, in particular, the principles of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: the customer was the Association of the SIM and the Far East of the Russian Federation, and the expert commission included representatives of various research institutions, including the Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography and others.
In addition within the framework of a round table in the Public Chamber, they spoke about the studies planned in the territory of Taimyr in the near future.Thus, Nikolai Yurkevich, Director of the Scientific Research Center for Environmental Safety and Preservation of a Favorable Environment of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the continuation of the Big Norilsk Expedition in 2020. The team of scientists is going to visit the Norilsk industrial region again in order to build a model of the relief of the territory, study the sources of pollution and determine the background values of the content of harmful substances, as well as assess the hydrobiocenosis of water bodies. The Polar Fund of Artur Chilingarov will also conduct its research on the peninsula, which in the summer of 2021 plans to study phyto- and zooplankton, ichthyofauna and birds of the Taimyr tundra and the effect of pollutants on them.
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