MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations

Preserving Magadan — Expanding Public Participation

In the 1930s dozens of placer gold mines (gold obtained through washing or dredging) were run as part of the Gulag prison camp system in the Magadan region of the Russian Federation. These days, Magadan gold is produced from both modern hardrock gold mines, such as the Kubaka and Julietta mines, and a wide of variety of placer gold operations run by smaller local corporations. With increased mining came the need to understand and help clean-up the environment.

Through a series of international exchanges that brought staff from the three organizations together for field programs and training workshops that date back to 1998, Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), the Magadan Center for the Environment (MACE) and Pacific Environment (PE) joined together in a major effort to increase public involvement in mining-related decisions in the Magadan Oblast (region) in Russia’s Far East. The work in 2005 was funded by a grant from the Foundation for Russian American Economic Cooperation (FRAEC) a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported foundation. The project focused on communities and local officials in Magadan region, the second largest gold producer among the regions of the Russian Federation, which lies north of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Water is beginning to erode the tailings impoundment of the Dukat silver complex; liquid can be seen on the surface of tailings dam.

MACE recognized the need to provide accurate detailed information about mining processes, environmental legislation, and public participation methods to local communities to help establish a foundation for people to use to increase public involvement in decision-making about mining. This recognition provided the impetus for the development of “A Guide to Support the Expanded Use of Citizen Environmental Rights in Magadan and Eastern Russia” published in both Russian and English version. By providing an overview of mining and reclamation methods, the economic and technical “lifecycle of a mine,” and Russian regulatory programs and international mining guidelines, the Guide provides a foundation for communication among concerned citizens and with decision-makers, mining company representatives and the public about mine development issues.

Using the Guide and other tools, MACE convened workshops and seminars in the small communities in northern of Magadan that are closer to the mines than the regional center on the sea coast, Magadan City, that is home to leading governmental and corporate entities in the area but far from the mines and the streams and hunting areas they impact. These workshops were conducted by MACE staff throughout 2005 including a series of programs conducted with SRIC and PE staff in the Region in June 2005. Along with an emphasis on expanding public involvement in the mining districts, MACE sought to expand receptiveness among regional officials and mining companies to public involvement activities. To accomplish this goal, MACE and its international and local partners scheduled periodic meetings with governmental and company leaders to establish sustained communication addressing mining technology considerations and public policy process knowledge as opposed to a “for the mine, against the mine” mindset.

The effort to establish sustained dialogue on technical and policy issues bore fruit when the Magadan Regional Governor agreed to co-host a conference in late 2005 as a culminating event of the project. This activity attracted a region-wide audience of involving leaders from the government, private and public sectors of society and culminated in the Governor announcing an initiative called “Ecology and Mineral Resources in Magadan Oblast” to improve the environmental and social practices of regional mines.

An unreclaimed tailings impoundment pile at Karamkin gold complex has water entering tailngs through a leaaky dam on upstream of tailings pile, and seepage through gaps in the steel lined diversion channels in the downstream dam.

As the price of gold continues to climb and mineral exploration activity increases in Magadan, the Governor’s program provides a framework for continuing the expansion of public involvement in Mining Policy in Magadan Region beyond the MACE-SRIC-PE project.

Magadan Center for the Environment
Olga Moskvin
www.mace.ru

Pacific Environment
Misha Jones
www.pacifienvironment.org

Paul Robinson
Southwest Research
www.sric.org
“A Guide to Support the Expanded Use of Citizen Environmental Rights in Magadan and Eastern Russia”
Russian: http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=366)
English: (http://www.sric.org/mining/docs/FRAEC-cit-guide.pdf)

STARTING a DIALOGUE The value, or success, of the FRAEC project in Magadan Oblast can be measured in a number of ways. The most obvious measure of success is the increased respect that the mining industry and the regional administration have for our Russian project partner, the Magadan Center for the Environment. MACE was a known entity before this project began and its staff had played an important role in bringing to the attention of the government and industry the need for public accountability. Russia is not a country where the public can easily participate in public process, this despite the numerous laws that mandate such participation. Magadan Oblast is no exception. MACE has, however, been able to etch out a role for itself, and for the public sectors it represents, and this is because its staff and partners understand the value of getting its facts right. When you come to a public hearing with an understanding of the project, when you offer sound criticism, and when you do this professionally and with a sense of assurance that you are representing the interests of people whose lives, physical and cultural, depend upon you convincing others that the public's interests need to be protected, even if the "opposition" is inclined to disagree with your position or analysis, you earn respect, and trust, and you find yourself called upon to participate and organize future activities because you are viewed as a reliable partner. MACE has earned itself that trust, and our project helped to expand and deepen it among the public, the industry and the government. Our project was greeted, well, if not with open arms, at least with a recognition that the partners, MACE, SRIC and PE were serious about looking at mining in the public interest and were interested in listening to all parties to further a dialogue that was collegial and not confrontational. In looking back on the project, I don't think that anyone would have suggested that one outcome would be policy reform. And yet there appears to be movement in that direction. Project partners looked for ways to involve government officials in this project. Meetings took several forms, including public forums, information seminars and direct contacts with official in their offices. The project highlight was a regional, daylong meeting attended by the regional governor, Mr. Dudov. The anticipation for this meeting was that at last the public would get a chance to hear from industry and government on what they are doing to come up with ways to be more economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally responsible in their mining and oversight activities. And to the surprise of at least some in the crowd, Mr. Dudov announced that he would call for the development of a regional program entitled "Ecology and Mineral Resources in Magadan Oblast," The proposal is to develop a regional mining program through its chief agency for mineral resource management, the Department of Natural Resource Use. The regional challenge with this policy initiative is to develop a mechanism that will allow all stakeholders their opportunity to voice agendas for this program. This dialogue, if it occurs, will be as important as any final program document, for if the dialogue is successful, and all stakeholders feel their interests are adequately represented in the program, a regional precedent will be established: a multi-stakeholder process will have occurred. Results of this process would be not only a mechanism to flexibly manage and respond to resource extraction issues, the process would also indicate that civil dialogue on issues important to the people of Magadan Oblast can occur. – Misha Jones, Russia Program Specialist, Pacific Environment, Vladivostok Office