The Silver Taiga Foundation Entered to Register of “Non-Profit Organizations Exercising Functions of a Foreign Agent”
14 June 2017 – The Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development, with the history of its environmental projects in forestry districts of the Komi Republic lasting since 2002, was entered to the register of “non-profit organizations exercising functions of a foreign agent” by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
The main reason why the Foundation’s activity was seen as “political” was the organization’s address to the Komi Republic governor with regard to the Decree on incorporation of the Ministry of Natural Resources into the Ministry of Industry signed by him. The address proposed to suspend the validity of the Decree and arrange consulting sessions with the stakeholders on whether such incorporation was reasonable based on the analysis of potential positive and negative effect. Participation in the working meeting on that topic, where the Silver Taiga Foundation director was invited by the Komi Republic governor’s Administration, was also considered as “political activity”. And even the Foundation director’s involvement in the work of the Public Environmental Council, which used to report to the Ministry of Natural Resources, but has been reporting to the Ministry of Industry this year, was also qualified as “political activity”.
“Our team has been working for almost two decades in the Republic”, says Silver Taiga’s director Yury Pautov. “Owing to our projects the Republic has allocated, assessed and is preserving intact forest massifs of high environmental value, it develops voluntary forest certification and supports local initiatives aimed at sustainable development of rural areas, domestic tourism development, environmental education and training for youth…. At field trips and educational workshops held by our staff in these years hundreds of forestry professionals and logging companies’ employees managed to upgrade their skills, hundreds of students and local residents learnt about the life of forest and sustainable forest management…. For the whole length of our service we have been actively cooperating and are still collaborating with the Republic’s environmental authorities, the state forest service, ministries, municipalities, regional and local public organizations, scientific and educational institutions…. No one has ever had an idea to accuse us of any political activity as a result of all stated.
Is it possible to implement large-scale environmental and sustainable development projects indeed without any contact with state authorities or local self-government bodies?! It is a rhetorical question. But anyway we have to ask it!
The Silver Taiga Foundation will contest its being included in the register of “non-profit organizations exercising functions of a foreign agent” in the court.
