By CS Staff

Since 1974, a network of biosphere reserves has been established on Earth within the framework of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program. These lands are a tool for biodiversity conservation and scientific testing grounds for studying and finding solutions for a balanced interaction between nature and humans.

To be nominated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve, a natural area must fulfill the objectives of biodiversity conservation and development and have a scientific function. Biosphere reserves are approved by the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program at the request of the respective state.

In September 2021, the Council and the international network of unique natural territories approved the Russian Federation’s application to add Kuznetskiy Alatau as a new biosphere reserve.

Kuznetskiy Alatau State Natural Biosphere Reserve is located in the Kemerovo region, the most urbanized region of Siberia. It serves as an accumulator and natural purifier of precipitation, which feeds the rivers that extend far beyond the reserve during the annual precipitation cycle. These waters provide 70-80% of the inflow of the upper and middle reaches of the region’s main water artery, the Tom River. They are characterized by a large number of spawning grounds and wintering pits. 

A dense river network has been formed in the area and outside the Kuznetskiy Alatau Reserve, which is home to a diverse range of over 1,300 species, including burbot, pike, perch, lenok, Siberian podkamenschik, grayling, and taimen. The area is also home to the Indigenous Peoples of Shor, who have suffered for many years from the destruction of their sacred lands and territories by large coal mining companies.

On October 28, 2021, a month after the Kuznetskiy Alatau Nature Reserve was granted the status of biosphere reserve, the Russian Agency for Subsoil Use sold a license for the exploration and mining of hard coal for 25 years at the Cheksinsky site. The site is located close to the protected zone and shares 19 kilometers of a common border with the reserve.

In 2024, the license holder, Kuzbassrazrezrezugol Company (KRU), started geological surveys at the site, which continue to this day. Indigenous people have already lost the possibility of traditional fishing on the territory of the license area and in the surrounding area. Geologists’ heavy machinery scares away animals for dozens of kilometers. A highway is being built in the taiga forest toward Cheksinskoye to bring construction and mining equipment, and the reserve is already being negatively affected. 

Experts point out that the geological characteristics of the occurrence of a significant part of coal seams will not allow for mining by a closed mining method. Therefore, open-pit coal mining cannot be avoided. The open-pit method of coal mining involves drilling and blasting technologies. Noise from open-pit machinery and explosions in coal mines can be heard for tens of kilometers. Suspended and polluting substances generated during coal mining are carried by air masses to considerable distances. Additionally, several spawning rivers will be destroyed.

The company’s infrastructure plans, which include building a work camp near the site, a road for transporting equipment and workers, and a railway line for exporting products, will also affect the taiga areas adjacent to the reserve.

Coal mining in Kemerovo Oblast has already resulted in contaminated soil around mining enterprises and their infrastructure for many kilometers in all directions. Coal mining leads to the degradation of plant species in the adjacent territories, while rare and protected biological species are being wiped out by the hundreds of thousands. Rivers are turning black and carrying their poisoned waters hundreds of kilometers downstream. 

The Kuznetskiy Alatau Reserve’s protected status positively impacts the reserve’s biodiversity and adjacent territories. The Shor People here can engage in traditional forms of livelihood and pass on careful and non-destructive nature management skills to the next generations. Mountains and water are honored by Indigenous Peoples and are considered sacred living beings. They are worshipped, gifts are brought to them, and requests are made. 

The coal mining project at the Cheksinsky site poses an immense risk to the Shor Peoples, who will lose the opportunity to engage in traditional ways of life on all territory, and to the Kuznetskiy Alatau State Natural Biosphere Reserve, which will be negatively impacted by the project and jeopardize its importance as a biosphere reserve.

In this regard, Shor Indigenous Peoples from Siberia call on environmental and Indigenous international organizations to help disseminate this information and draw UNESCO’s attention to this issue. Coal companies should not operate within the boundaries of an international biosphere reserve – an essential place for Indigenous Peoples.