Prospects of Clean Arctic Discussed in Moscow

Next year, the land area covered by the Clean Arctic initiative will grow twofold, said the project’s manager Andrei Nagibin at a meeting held this 27 December by the Ministry for the Far East and Arctic. The meeting participants took stock of the pilot project’s outcomes and discussed plans for 2022.

“We had a good start. Our volunteers have collected more than 1.5 thousand tons of waste in the Arctic”, said Alexei Chekunkov, the Far Eastern and Arctic Minister. According to him, more than 70 various locations across the Russian Arctic were cleaned up by more than 2 thousand people who had joined the project.

The project will expand its activities next year. As stated by Mr. Nagibin, in 2022, volunteers will be deployed in twice as many locations than in 2021. The number of volunteers willing to take part in a major Arctic cleanup effort amounts to more than 3 thousand.

Arctic regional authorities have been actively making plans for the upcoming 2022 season. Among key objectives are the removal of illegal dumpsites, collection and processing of SMW, cleaning up protected areas, and land recovery. Another important task is the removal of wrecked ships from the Arctic seas. To efficiently manage the project’s financial and human resources, Minister Chekunkov suggested joining forces, under the auspices of Clean Arctic, with other conservancy and environment-related initiatives implemented in the Russian High North.

PORA takes an active part in this project. Nikolay Doronin, Chairperson of the PORA Managing Board, is also a member of the project’s Expert Council. In 2021, PORA contributed to a cleanup held in Taimyr.

Arctic Today is a column by PORA CEO Alexander Stotskiy analyzing major international, national and regional events and trends in the Arctic.