For environmental safety and public participation

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Every year NGO ‘Green World’ organizes environmental campaign tours on the South coast of the Gulf of Finland. In summertime these are bicycle rallies, in winter – campaigns on skis.
The main purpose of these events is to make people aware about environmentally dangerous projects on the South gulf coast, which have been or are implemented without the governmental environmental examination and participation of communities, which will be affected by industrial activities.
The program of these tours includes meetings with people, distribution of environmental booklets, showing films on ‘hot’ environmental topic of the region.

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The routes of rallies go through the territories where economic predators are trying to capture and exploit unique natural riches.

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Negligence of authorities creates favorable conditions
for the continuation of industrial aggression in the protected lands
of the South coast, which leads to the destruction of traditional
lifestyles and occupations of local communities.

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The state environmental examination and public hearings regulated by the Law on state environmental examination have been disregarded in the following cases:
Ecomet-S has been put into operation – the largest in Europe private plant, which melts radioactive metal waste on the territory of Leningrad Nuclear Power plant (LNPP, Sosnovy Bor). Thousand tons of hazardous waste have been melted. This resulted in an increase of the background radiation level and caused other negative consequences;

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The state environmental examination and public hearings regulated by the Law on state environmental examination have been disregarded in the following cases:
Spent nuclear fuel assemblies have been crowded in the temporary storage of LNPP; this heap of nuclear waste contains radioactivity equal to 40-50 Chernobyls
LNPP reconstruction is in progress;
Dry storage facility for nuclear waste (spent nuclear fuel) is built;
Technological unit is build for cutting spent nuclear fuels of LNPP.

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The state environmental examination and public hearings regulated by the Law on state environmental examination have been disregarded in the following cases:
Petrol station in front of the church entrance has been built and is used, in spite of the fact that the church is a monument of history and culture in the Pilot village (Lebiazhie, Lomonosov Rayon, Leningrad Oblast);
New Gorki project is lobbied in the Luga bay industry and residential zone, the operation of which can have a transboundary impact.

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Violation of the Russian legislation
Economically profitable projects are promoted without taking into account other values of this territory in a systematic and environmentally justified way. At this, rights of local communities, public groups and NGOs are violated, because they do not get adequate information and cannot participate in the decision-making procedure, as it is foreseen by the Law on the state environmental examination and Regulation on the environmental impact assessment.

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Violation of the Russian legislation
The integrated environmental examination, which estimates the total effect from the existing, constructed and planned industrial facilities, is not performed. This assessment is made only for separate projects, and it does not take the combined impact into account.

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The bicycle rally of 2003
produced a significant influence on the decision about the cancellation of the ‘Aluminium project’ – construction of an aluminium plant in Leningrad Oblast.
The project could destruct the main source of drinking water for Sosnovy Bor (the Sista River), nature protected area “Kotelsky”, protected wetlands of international value “Kurgalsky peninsula”, also recreation and tourism areas used by residents of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast.

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On the route the environmental cyclists’ group organized meetings with local activists and collected about 150 signatures under the petition addressed to the President of Russia, which demanded the observation of civil rights and environmental safety.
The bicycle rally of 2003

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Conclusions
We need to preserve and prevent risks for natural, cultural and historical values of the South coast of the Gulf of Finland as a basis for the sustainable balanced development of this region.
Sustainable development needs a policy, which guarantees the participation of citizens in the process of planning and decision-making.
To enjoy sustainability on the global scale we need to implement principles of sustainable development on the local level.