International Programs
Indigenous Peoples Community Action Initiative
The Arctic Contaminants Action Program has also created a model environmental justice empowerment program in Russia called the Indigenous Peoples Community Action Initiative. The initiative works to empower indigenous communities in the Arctic to successfully address their local hazardous contaminants issues.
This sustainable and replicable project has already resulted in the removal and safe storage of over a metric ton of PCBs and persistent organic pollutant pesticides from remote indigenous villages in Alaska and northern Russia. Our approach is to work with Indigenous Communities represented in the Arctic Council to develop grassroots capabilities to address sources of contamination in their villages, and develop replicable models for use in other Arctic communities. Training has been completed for 40-resident volunteers in the coastal villages of Lavrentia and Lorino.
The initiative has already completed work on the management of PCBs and obsolete pesticides in Nenets Autonomous District of NW Russia (removed over 700 kg of DDT-containing pesticides to safe storage) and removal and destruction of five PCB-containing transformers from two villages in Fort Yukon, Alaska (285 kg of PCB-containing liquids).
The above pictures show residents of Lorino and Lavrentia collecting drums. The drawings below, depicting hazardous waste drums, were drawn by children in the indigenous villages of Lavrentia and Lorino, Chukotka Autonomous District, Russia.
