the mit press environmental justice and sustainability in the former soviet union jun 2009

Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union edited by Julian Agyeman and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union Urban and Industrial Environments Series editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College For a complete list of books published in this series, please see the back of the book. Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union edited by Julian Agyeman and Yelena Ogneva Him melberger The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Sabon on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed on recycled paper and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Environmental justice and sustainability in the former Soviet Union / edited by Julian Agyeman and Yelena Ogneva Himmelberger. p. cm. (Urban and industrial environments) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 0 262 01266 9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978 0 262 51233 6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Environmental degradation Former Soviet republics. 2. Environmental justice Former Soviet republics. 3. Environmental policy Former Soviet republics. 4. Former Soviet republics Environmental conditions. I. Agyeman, Julian. II. Ogneva Himmelberger, Yelena. GE160.F6E576 2009 363.700947 dc22 2008042144 10987654321 Contents Contributors vi Introduction 1 Julian Agyeman, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Caroline Campbell, with additional research by Julia Prange 1 The Law as a Source of Environmental Justice in the Russian Federation 21 Brian Donohoe 2 Thinking Globally, Limited Locally: The Russian Environmental Movement and Sustainable Development 47 Laura A. Henry 3 Places and Identities on Sakhalin Island: Situating the Emerging Movements for ‘‘Sustainable Sakhalin’’ 71 Jessica K. Graybill 4 Oil Wealth, Environment, and Equity in Azerbaijan 97 Shannon O’Lear 5 Civil Society and the Debate over Pipelines in Tunka National Park, Russia 119 Katherine Metzo 6 The Role of Culture and Nationalism in Latvian Environmentalism and the Implicati ons for Environmental Justice 141 Tamara Steger 7 The Fight for Community Justice against Big Oil in the Caspian Region: The Case of Berezovka, Kazakhstan 153 Kate Watters 8 Viliui Sakha of Subarctic Russia and Their Struggle for Environmental Justice 189 Susan Crate 9 Environmental Justice and Sustainability in Post-Soviet Estonia 215 Maaris Raudsepp, Mati Heidmets, and Ju ¨ ri Kruusvall 10 Environmental Injustices, Unsustainable Livelihoods, and Conflict: Natural Capital Inaccessibility and Loss among Rural Households in Tajikistan 237 Dominic Stucker Conclusion 275 Index 283 vi Contents Contributors Julian Agyeman Tufts University Caroline Campbell Tufts University Susan A. Crate George Mason University Brian Donahoe Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany Jessica K. Graybill Colgate University Mati Heidmets Tallinn University, Estonia Laura A. Henry Bowdoin College Ju ¨ ri Kruusvall Tallinn University, Estonia Katherine Metzo University of North Carolina at Charlotte Yelena Ogneva Himmelberger Clark University Shannon O’Lear University of Kansas Tamara Steger Central European University, Hungary Dominic Stucker University for Peace, Costa Rica Maaris Raudsepp Tallinn University, Estonia Kate Watters Crude Accountability Introduction Julian Agyeman, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Car oline Campbell, with additional research by Julia Prange Although President Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated political, social, and environmental reforms in the 1980s, the corruption and economic chaos that followed the collapse of the former Soviet Union (FSU) in 1991 effectively spiraled its fifteen constituent republics into recession (Edelstein 2007, 3). The transition from Communist rule to indepen- dence and market economies resulted in a period both of intense eco- nomic and political turmoil within the countries and of tensions between them. Severe economic failure through the mid-1990s, followed by a slow recovery, the strains of decentralizing and of establishing national political power, eroding social and health care systems, and in- creasingly evident crises in ecological, environmental, and public health devastated these societies, at least in the short term. Although, once established, their market economies should eventually result in increased income and improved public health—greater disease prevention, higher- quality health care, healthi er lifestyles, and improved regulation of envi- ronmental and occupational risks (Adeyi et al. 1997)—the deleterious impacts of the Soviet Union’s collapse persist. Even before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Russian society resounded with reform and experimentation. President Gorbachev suc- cessfully introduced the nation to a new period of openness, known as ‘‘glasnost,’’ under which the closed societies of the Cold War era could be dismantled and a new global dynamic could emerge. Abandoning the restraints of state-controlled production, the Soviet regime opened doors to political and social reform it could never have touched during the Cold War. At the same time, glasnost exposed Russia’s legacy of ecocidal contamination, only glimpsed during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Unfor- tunately, the fragmenting of the Soviet Union pushed Russia backward into a regressive phase of its transition, stalling reform efforts and obscuring the path toward sustainability (Edelstein 2007, 3). Perhaps the largest challenge in assessing the political, sociocultural, and environmental aspects of the former Soviet Union is its vast geo- graphic reach and the broad diversity of its cultural, historical, ethnic, economic, political, ecological, environmental, and social characteristics. Indeed, as our chapters show, the widely differing individual and re- gional histories, levels of development, economic stability, environmental and ecological activism, cultural identities, and geopolitical affiliations of the FSU republics belie their common history as Soviet Socialist Republics. The relatively highly developed Baltic cou ntries of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia are today members of the European Union (EU), and ranked 43, 44, and 45 by the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (UNDP HDI) report of 2007. 1 By contrast, the strug- gling Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are ranked 73, 109, 113, 116, and 122 by the same index. In addition to these Central Asian nation-states, the loose confederation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) com- prises the eastern European states of Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova; the Caucasus states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; and of course the entirety of the Russian Federation. In examining charact eristics of the FSU republics, particularly those in Central Asia and the Caucasus, socioeconomic problems stand out as the most obvious—unemployment, poverty, and an unstable, transitioning market economy. These issues are coupled with a decline in income and a rise in income inequality. As is well tested and proven by Western cap- italist economies (the United States in particular), greater income in- equality results in worse public health and welfare for the lower-income communities. Indeed, poor public health has become an increasingly dire problem for the former Soviet Union, made all the worse by the fact that a half million Russians continue to live in contaminated areas (Zy kova et al. 2001). Furthermore, the legacy of Communist growth strategies at the expense of the environment, coupled with deteriorating industrial systems and a focus on economic recovery, have wreaked havoc on eco- logical processes, and on the environment, more generally (Saiko 2001). The desertification of the Aral Sea, the pollution of Lake Baikal, and the radioactive contamination of thousands of square miles of Byelorussia (present-day Belarus) in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident 2 J. Agyeman, Y. Ogneva Himmelberger, and C. Campbell [...]... motivated by two related, overarching questions: 1 To what extent are increased popular environmental awareness and associated activism driving public policy and planning in the former Soviet republics? 2 Are there emergent, separate brown (environmental justice) and green (environmentally sustainable development) agendas or are these joining together in a single just sustainability or human security agenda?... region Instead, we seek to begin a conversation on the growing global awareness of environmental justice, sustainable development, just sustainability, and human security, and what shape, focus, and trajectory resultant activism and public policy and planning are taking, or might take, within the countries of the former Soviet Union In response to these questions, four key generalizations emerge from the. .. ‘‘socioeconomic and environmental change on Sakhalin Island in the post -Soviet era is largely occurring due to multinational-led offshore hydrocarbon development in the Sea of Okhotsk.’’ Pointing to ‘‘an emerging focus on environmental justice and sustainability issues,’’ she shows how ‘‘different sets of actors with different interests in and different visions for—creating ‘sustainable Sakhalin’ ’’ are raising ‘‘questions... nationalism and cultural heritage, environmental activists in Latvia set about democratizing their country and achieving its independence from the highly centralized, authoritarian regime of the former Soviet Union in 1991.’’ Pointing to the nationalistic and cultural elements of the Latvian environmental movement during the political changes and early transition, she asserts that ‘ the Latvian environmental. .. Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Decision Making (adopted in 1995) and the Johannesburg Plan for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (adopted in 2002) are but two of the significant initiatives promoting sustainable development through the agency of large, multinational NGOs and the numerous commissions and programs of the United Nations—most notably, the. .. outweigh environmental factors in the increase in mortality (Little 1998), there is considerable evidence that environmental and occupational hazards have significantly contributed to the worsening of overall health in the former Soviet Union The decentralized legal and justice systems of the Russian Federation and other FSU republics have not been able to effectively enforce industrial and environmental. .. included environmental justice in their mission statements or activity descriptions.4 In other words, the overwhelming majority of these groups focus their energy on the green, as opposed to the brown, agenda What nine of our twelve authors do see, however, is the emergence of at least a justiceinformed environmental discourse in the former Soviet Union, if not a full-fledged environmental justice or... environmental justice issues and public participation in these fields They then present the specifics and rationale of ‘‘Sustainable Estonia 21,’’ the national strategy of sustainable development Finally, Dominic Stucker, in ‘ Environmental Injustices and Unsustainable Livelihoods: Natural Capital Inaccessibility and Loss among Rural Households in Tajikistan’’ (chapter 10), analyzes the relationship between environmental. .. power and a failure to implement the laws Another key factor in creating and maintaining this situation is that, nearly twenty years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of the former Communist republics are still struggling to achieve economic and political stability That being the case, activists seeking to advance brown and green agendas could well find themselves at odds with each other,... impacts of ‘ environmental turbulence’’ (Edelstein 2007, 186), an indicator of the disruption and changes forced upon people as they realize they are living in a contaminated environment These changes involve both lifestyles and ‘‘lifescapes’’ or ‘‘how people think about themselves, their health, their homes, the environment, and those whom they rely upon for help during trying situations’’ (Edelstein 2007, . published in this series, please see the back of the book. Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union edited by Julian Agyeman and Yelena Ogneva Him melberger The MIT Press Cambridge,. power and a failure to implement the laws. Another key factor in creating and maintaining this situation is that, nearly twenty years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of the former Communist. bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Environmental justice and sustainability in the former Soviet Union / edited by Julian Agyeman and Yelena