Environmentalists are in solidarity

Greenpeace supported the proposal of "Rivers Without Borders" to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment of the situation in the Baikal region as soon as possible.

The World Bank is "washing its hands" - the threat to Baikal from Mongolia remains. With this title, the Russian office of Greenpeace published its position on the topic.

“The World Bank took the word of the lobbyists of the Mongolian hydropower project and decided not to investigate its danger to the world heritage site Lake Baikal. Greenpeace believes that this decision could lead to irreparable consequences. Hydropower projects in the lake's watershed must be approved by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, independent experts and the local community .

Greenpeace recalled that the Board of Directors of the World Bank at a recent meeting agreed with the proposal of its Inspection Board not to appoint an investigation into the project for the construction of a hydroelectric power station in the basin of the largest tributary of Lake Baikal - the Selenga River. And all this is due to the fact that the management of the MINIS project, which is financed by the World Bank, promised to take into account "fair criticism of environmentalists" and "postpone the preparation of construction documentation and first conduct a comprehensive regional environmental assessment of the situation in the Baikal basin."

“On the one hand, the World Bank and MINIS are giving a long-awaited response to the appeal of environmentalists and residents of the Baikal and Selenga region, who have been criticizing the dangerous project since February 2015... On the other hand, the decision taken by the Board of Directors can help implement the project, which is dangerous for Baikal. There is no sufficient reason to believe that the promises of the MINIS project management will be realized. The bank's management cannot fail to know that hydrobuilders have a wealth of experience in circumventing the demands of the public and government agencies. In the history of the Mongolian project, there are already cases of violation of procedures. For example, the announcement of a tender for an environmental assessment of a hydroelectric project that threatens Lake Baikal without prior public hearings,” the report says.

Greenpeace Russia is convinced that the implementation of the decision of the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee should become an absolute priority for the World Bank. She recommended that Russia and Mongolia urgently and jointly “develop a transboundary strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for future hydropower and water management projects that have the potential to impact on the World Natural Heritage site (Lake Baikal).” In this regard, Greenpeace supports the proposal of the coalition "Rivers Without Borders" and other public associations, together with which it plans to achieve the soonest implementation of the UNESCO-recommended comprehensive assessment of the situation in the Baikal region.

“Without the approval of projects by independent experts and the local population, there can be no question of continuing the development of projects for Mongolian hydroelectric power plants,” Greenpeace concludes.