Norilsk Nickel on ecology, indigenous peoples of the North, and public control

The implementation of events within the strategy pursued by Norilsk Nickel’s production divisions in the field of ecology and climate change will require up to $ 1 billion per year, said Andrey Bugrov, the company’s Senior Vice President for Sustainable Development. “The program is designed until 2030, so we have 10 years ahead. According to my calculations, this will approximately cost a little less than one billion dollars a year,” he said during a roundtable at the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation dedicated to the presentation of Norilsk Nickel's environmental strategy.
Elena Sharoykina, Chairperson of the Civic Chamber's Commission on Ecology and Environmental Protection reminded the participants that an open dialogue between the company, authorities and society began a year ago. At that time, an expert group was created under the Russian Federation Civic Chamber Commission on Ecology and Environmental Protection, which included representatives of NGOs and science, with a task to work on adjustments to the fuel spill response plan and to ensure public control.
“For additional verification of accuracy, tests were carried out in parallel by two labs, one at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk and the other at the Typhoon Research and Production Group. The studies did not reveal any excess of the maximum permissible levels of harmful substances in fish in the Pyasina river basin, but it would be interesting to compare the results with the data of the Federal Agency for Fishery,” said Nikolay Doronin, Chairman of the Board of the Arctic Development Project Office. The agency carried out its own expert investigation, but the results obtained have not yet been presented.
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 Department for State Supervision over Water Bodies, Atmospheric Air and Land at Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage). The results of such accidents cannot be fully understood without 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 Alexei Knizhnikov, Head of the Program for Environmental Responsibility of Business at WWF. According to him, it is very important to create documents that describe these lessons in as much detail as possible.
Vice President of Norilsk Nickel Andrey Grachev stressed that the company is maintaining a permanent dialogue with the indigenous peoples of the North. Thus, Norilsk Nickel established a department within its organizational structure to work with them, and the Coordination Council of the indigenous peoples' communities held its first meeting. “Norilsk Nickel is essentially shaping a new practice and setting standards for relations with local communities,” Andrey Grachev believes. The discussion on this topic was continued by Pavel Sulyandziga, an expert on the rights of indigenous peoples, who joined the panel from the United States, and Grigory Dyukarev, Head of the Taimyr Indigenous Peoples Association.

Vladimir Malakhov, Rough&Polished