ISAR | Past Successes

Since the early 1990s, ISAR: Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia has awarded hundreds of small grants--from as little as $300 to over $10,000--to activist groups in the former Soviet Union. The following narratives, representing only a fraction of these, paint a picture of the kinds of citizen efforts ISAR is proud to have supported.

• Public Awareness and Participation
• Media Interest in NGOs
• Government Involvement and Support
• NGO Influence of Environmental Policy and Legislation
• Creative Ecological Business: Profit and Sustainability
• Civic Action to Address Neglected Social Needs
• US-Eurasian Partnerships
• Global Recognition of the Power of Activism

With funding from ISAR, the Moldovan NGO AGROECO conducted a thorough water monitoring program and used the results to generate awareness and public participation in several communities. Activists traced poor quality drinking water to polluted underground water sources in six regions throughout the Ruit River basin. Villagers were present as their well water was examined, and monitors explained the effect of farming and sanitation processes on water quality. AGROECO presented the results of these investigations at over 30 town meetings and at five round tables with government representatives and the mass media. At each meeting, AGROECO distributed leaflets with information about the connection between drinking water quality and people's health and informed local community members of simple methods to protect their wells from pollutants. Approximately 1,200 people took part in the project including children, students, women and pensioners. Information about the monitoring efforts appeared in several Moldovan newspapers as well as over radio and television. As a result of this project, residents of seven villages decided to take measures to improve and protect their water quality through the creation of "Green Patrols." Follow-up tests demonstrated a dramatic reduction in water pollution.

In 1995, Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy announced that it planned to complete construction of a partially built nuclear plant in the town of Kostroma, an agricultural and woodland area located 370 kilometers northeast of Moscow. City residents were alarmed, but they felt helpless, unsure of how to respond. The Kostroma affiliate of the Socio-Ecological Union (SEU), however, began to gather signatures in order to hold a referendum on the matter. By the beginning of 1996, the necessary number of signatures had been gathered and registered with the local authorities. With a grant from ISAR, the Kostroma SEU conducted a major public education campaign through the fall of that year. Many feared that though most people were opposed to the proposed construction, not enough citizens would participate in the referendum to make it valid. In spite of these doubts, the Kostroma SEU's education work paid off--59% of the 241,000 voting population turned out at the polls. In December 1995, a resounding 87% voted against the completion of the nuclear plant.

Concerned with the lack of widely distributed information on the environment in Ukraine, the Varnyak Environmental Society sought to increase coverage both on television and in the newspaper. With an ISAR grant, the Varnyak Society produced a series of 47 television shows called "Environmental Messenger." These reports on environmental issues, interviews, and round table discussions aired on the local television station, which has a viewing audience of more than 150,000. The Varnyak Society also produced a 25-minute film called "Western Donbas on the Threshold of Catastrophe," which was shown to viewers in the region. Concurrently, members of the Varnyak Society wrote 46 articles for the paper Western Donbas, which has a circulation of 7000. Follow-up surveys showed that 62 percent of residents knew about the television show and 51 percent had seen the newspaper articles. As a consequence of these media efforts, community members began to report violations of environmental laws to the NGO, which conducted spot checks of those violations. Moreover, coverage of environmental issues in the local press has continued. Western Donbas initiated a column for readers to write in with questions about the environment and the local television station began producing the show "Our TV Viewers Blowing the Whistle."

An ISAR grant in the Russian Far East resulted in a new public organization, the children's radio studio "Clean Voices." Through this program, school-age journalists participate and report on environmental festivals and seminars and investigate ecological topics. Their reports go beyond on-site narratives, delving deep into issues, including background history, interviews, and analysis of the social, political and economic effects of a given environmental problem. Forty-six radio shows were prepared and aired by the young journalists, providing listeners with the opportunity not only to learn more about ecological issues, but to hear the voices of children throughout the region. The young reporters' initiative spurred the children studying at a regional Animal Rehabilitation Center to form their own press center, a project which consequently received an ISAR grant.

The ISAR grantee Tajik Society for Nature Protection published an updated version of the Red Book, a catalog of rare and endangered flora and fauna. This particular publication is notable as it is the first to appear since 1991, as well as the first version ever to be printed in the Tajik language. This edition helps to promote conservation efforts in the rural areas of Tajikistan, where Russian is not spoken. The book, a well written and attractive publication, was presented at an open meeting attended by NGOs and government officials.

Public awareness of environmental problems depends in large part on video and television programs that convincingly and effectively portray the threats that nature and human communities face today. To this end, ISAR-Moscow, in partnership with Ecologia Trust from Scotland, initiated the KinoShkola, or Film School project. Film School aims to develop the professional television and video production skills of Russian environmentalists to strengthen a network of environmental NGOs, independent information centers, and media companies engaged in environmental activism. Twenty experienced environmentalists were selected from all across Russia to take part in a two-week training session in the Caucasus Mountains. Russian and UK filmmakers and television journalists developed and conducted the training course jointly. Each participant shot a short film and then presented it to all of the teachers and students at the conclusion of training. Environmentalists were later able to broadcast these films over regional and national television channels, thanks to their new skills in producing professional quality video. Students who established useful contacts with Russian and international filmmaking experts planned future partnership projects, found opportunities to raise funds more effectively, and even joined forces to produce new video projects collaboratively. Some Film School graduates have since located new resources for video production, while others have purchased modern video equipment. The Film School has inaugurated a new phase of information and experience exchange among environmentalists who specialize in NGO public relations and media relations. Once the Film School attracted the attention of both NGOs and donors to NGO media projects, the school's graduates became highly in demand, and they now receive frequent email queries for help and advice on NGO media projects all over Russia. ISAR-Moscow's forward-looking strategies ensure that the professionalism, power, and visibility of Russian NGOs will continue to grow.

A $1,812 grant to the Third Sector Center for Information Support of Public Initiatives in Grodno, Belarus, enabled the group to organize a public hearing--the first in the region--to protest the construction of a series of dams on the Neman River. Despite initial resistance from local officials, the hearing and subsequent media coverage led to a request for more citizen input on the project by the Grodno Energy Department and a decision by the city to review construction plans. The project demonstrates that support for local environmental initiatives can generate citizen-government cooperation even in Belarus, which is governed by one of the most repressive regimes in the former Soviet Union.

In 1995, the Novosibirsk State University's Ecological Club, known as Eco Club, received an ISAR grant to be used for its Operation Black Stork project, whose goal was to locate the nests of rare and endangered birds of the Novosibirsk region and to advocate for greater protective measures for their habitat. In one year, Eco Club expeditions identified 14 nests and habitat regions of these threatened birds. Since then, the project has grown into a joint effort between the Eco Club and the Novosibirsk Committee on Ecology. Officials and activists are working together to turn these habitats into areas of special protection. This collaborative effort provides a positive example of how governmental organs and non-governmental organizations can find common ground to resolve mutual concerns.

Gaia, a children's environmental club in Ukraine, received ISAR funding to organize environmental camps to monitor small rivers in the region. Representatives from the region's Department of Water Resources and Management and from the Committee for Environmental Protection were among the 147 participants in the project. The Department of Water Resources also gave Gaia access to information, allowed the use of its facilities for the environmental camps, provided a bus for the children, and paid for expedition equipment. The Institute of Hydrology analyzed water samples taken by the children during the expeditions free of charge. Seeing the positive influence of the project on the community's youth, the local council offered to renovate Gaia's office space and to cover its electricity, transport and mail expenses. Such support will help to ensure the sustainability of the group's activities.

A grant for $2,210 to the Farmer's Center in Nukus, Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan) allowed the group to run a pilot project to deal with a severe local garbage problem. In the absence of centralized municipal garbage service, garbage and compost is dumped in the center of many communities in Nukus. The Center bought garbage containers and trained citizens to separate kitchen waste from other garbage in order to create compost for use in community tree planting. They published pamphlets and hired staff to run an educational program explaining the goals of the program. Center staff provided continual monitoring of the waste separation, transportation and storage, stopped unsanctioned dumping, and ran the composting and tree planting projects. They also recorded their efforts on film in order to demonstrate the project to other communities and encourage them to replicate their activities. Before long, government officials and makhallah tribal leadership councils were coming to the Farmer's Center to learn about recycling techniques. The project, now supported with locally raised resources, is promoting composting and recycling throughout the region.

ISAR supports and builds regional and international initiatives to address social and environmental issues in the FSU. ISAR's Caspian program convenes activists from around the Caspian Sea to find regional solutions to the many pressing problems facing the region, such as drastically declining sturgeon populations and the need for diverse economic development that goes beyond environmentally destructive oil and gas extraction. In the Far East, ISAR's "Living Seas" program unites the disparate regions of Russia's Pacific coast to preserve their valuable fisheries, nesting grounds for migrating birds, and a treasured way of life for the region's human inhabitants. In the US, Russia and Kazakhstan, ISAR also brings together anti-nuclear activists to collectively address the poisonous legacy of nuclear weapons and energy production in their home communities. In all the areas where we work, ISAR introduces the expertise and experience of the world's NGO community when appropriate to help place issues critical to FSU NGOs on the global civil society map.

In 1994, with support from ISAR, a group of journalists in Moldova, alarmed at the lack of public interest in the environment, established their own newspaper, Natura, for distribution throughout their country. Natura has become an important source of environmental information, but more importantly, has created a watchdog mindset in the public, mobilizing citizens against the exploitation of Moldova's natural resources. In June 1995, Natura learned that the government of Moldova had secretly drafted a contract to sell 7,000 hectares of the Silva forest, one of Moldova's last remaining forests, to a foreign firm for industrial exploitation. Before the deal was complete, Natura published an article about the impending sale, which was soon reported nationally. For this, Natura was threatened with closure. Citizens across Moldova began to fight to save this forest, appealing to the government and requesting public hearings. Under public pressure, and after a parliamentary inquiry and presidential intervention, the project was stopped and the forest preserved. In a television address, the President of Moldova thanked the newspaper for alerting the public to the threat. Natura has continued to influence environmental policy, lobbying successfully for the adoption of two laws, "On Protection of Wild Animals" and "On Protection of Moldova's Water Zones." Natura also actively participated in the development of the National Environmental Program, which will be effective in Moldova until 2020.

The Kyrgyz NGO Taza-Gul, with funding from ISAR, established a vermiculture compost station at a local farm to process the manure and bedding of 250 cattle. Through the process of vermiculture, earthworms break down the waste, producing "vermicompost" naturally, addressing the problem of waste without need for large capital investments or landfills. The organic compost is sold to area farmers as fertilizer, and sales from the project support the group's environmental education projects. In addition to building and operating the station, Taza-Gul has organized government support to conduct eight training sessions for farmers. When the President of Kyrgyzstan attended one of these sessions, the vermiculture project received national attention.

In Nukus, Uzbekistan, an ISAR-funded project supported the recycling of polyethylene waste as low-cost building materials. This pilot project reduced the town's plastic waste and provided a new roofing material while promoting the concept of recycling.

In Turkmenistan, two ISAR-funded projects took on the issue of profitable private farming by concentrating on the pernicious environmental effects of collective farming. In Dashkawz, an environmental group targeted state-owned farms by teaching about the ecological and economic benefits of small-scale sustainable farming. In Ashgabad, an ecology group provided training on an alternative form of fertilizing gardens. By using biohumus, a natural worm by-product, local farmers can gain higher yields without costly and environmentally hazardous chemical fertilizers. After a television broadcast about this system in which the grantee offered training and materials to anyone who was interested, the first requests came from the collective farm, which offered to pay the group not to share this information with private farmers. The ISAR grant made it possible to refuse this offer, even in the harsh economic climate of Turkmenistan.

The Byenkiv Wetlands along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine once teemed with fish and supported a rich population of birds and animals. But years of neglect caused the water level to drop to the point that most fish were unable to reach these wetlands, which traditionally served as spawning grounds for a variety of species. ISAR-Kyiv, together with its Ukrainian partner, Ednannia, provided an environmental NGO in the Nikolaev region with a $500 grant to organize residents and rangers from a nearby nature park to reopen the channel. The results were dramatic and almost instantaneous: In the course of one summer, fish crowded by the thousands through the reopened passage into the wetlands, attracting flocks of birds, particularly pelicans and storks, both endangered species. Local fishermen also benefited after their greatly limited fishing quotas were increased. Over the past decade, ISAR-Kyiv and Ednannia have funded over a thousand small-scale, grassroots-organized projects of this kindÑsmall grants that attract local volunteers, spur community involvement, and lay the ground for future investment. NGOs throughout Ukraine look to ISAR-Kyiv and Ednannia for support and guidance to address local environmental issues and to connect with partners and funders around the world.

A $500 grant to an NGO in Simferopol, Ukraine, on the Crimean Peninsula, enabled the organization to reopen an ancient well in a small village that was thought to have no local sources of drinking water. The villagers had become entirely dependent on trucked-in water. The centuries-old well was one of several that had been dug by Crimean Tatars, the original residents of the village. The Tatars, who knew how to keep the wells clean and operable, were deported by Stalin after the Second World War. As a result, the wells' existence was known only to a few older residents. The engineer activists who organized the project worked with the old people in the village to find the original well sites and used their ISAR grant to reopen the first one. Additional wells have since been reopened with funding from the Canadian Embassy.

In the Russian Far East, a $3,000 grant allowed a Blagoveshchensk NGO to conduct the first in-depth health study of an isolated northern indigenous group called the Amu-Evenk. The study, entitled "A childhood without Tuberculosis," sought to identify and publicize the shocking health conditions of children and adults caused by harmful gold-mining practices. The results of the study were widely published in local media, leading to an outpouring of help for the impoverished tribe and concerted efforts on the part of local government and NGOs to improve their living conditions. An important part of the effort included the institution of laws to guarantee indigenous land tenure rights crucial to preserving Amu-Evenk access to traditional reindeer herding territories.

With funding from ISAR, the Association of Hemophilia Afflicted supports hemophilia-affected citizens in two of Azerbaijan's major cities. The organization's main goal is to ease the suffering of this often overlooked group through public awareness, education, and direct medical assistance programs. The Association has developed a database of hemophiliacs and administered a survey that was used to assess medical needs and categorize disability levels. The group also developed educational brochures, which it printed in Azeri and distributed to physicians and patients. At the completion of the project, this fledgling NGO held a press conference to publicize its activities to the local and international community. The Association also prepared a proposal for Parliament to include hemophiliacs in legislation concerning the disabled and social services.

In the summer of 1999, Khabarovsk's Social Center for Youth Adaptation, "The Edge," used a $3000 grant from ISAR-Russian Far East to establish a summer camp, "Children of Nature," for at-risk teenagers. During the course of the two-month project, the Edge successfully implemented the project - designed to give foster-children and orphans life-long survival skills - and attracted volunteers and media attention to the center and the growing Third Sector of the Russian Far East. This project helped to greatly increase the NGO's reputation and standing within the local community by drawing public attention and support to the needs of troubled youth. Throughout the city the organization is now known as the center in which troubled youth effectively learn how to survive, not only in nature, but also more importantly in the every-day extreme situations.

Society Varketili, the first and most effective community-based organization in Georgia, represents a 70,000-resident suburb that has been cut off from regular water, electricity and all former systems of health care and community recreation. Over the last several years, Society Varketili has worked to earn the trust of its community. It rebuilt a park and recreation center with the assistance of thousands of volunteers and with grant funds from ISAR. Today, everyone who lives in the suburb can easily point out the Society's offices and speak of its programs. Varketili is operating as the de facto local administration of the suburb. Varketili has also attempted to increase the community's access to electricity from the three to four hours per day to which it was limited. Since one of the prime reasons for the lack of electricity was uncollected fees from the community, Society Varketili negotiated an agreement with the state electricity company to collect fees, pay the company and distribute the appropriate amount of electricity. Members of the Society went door-to-door to explain the arrangement to the community and began their collection efforts. Unfortunately, despite the successful collection and payment of fees, Varketili residents can still only be certain of electricity intermittently. Society Varketili has organized meetings with other NGOs in order to create a coordinated strategy for communicating their on-going problems to the media and government.

In May 1997, with an ISAR grant, a group of 100 Georgian NGO representatives blocked artillery training in the David Gareji Desert, which is home to 6th century monasteries, protected species and evidence of possibly the oldest human life in Eurasia. Military exercises were held in the Gareji desert during Soviet times, but had ceased from the late 1980s until 1996, when the Georgian army resumed its activity. In response, Georgian NGO activists, following unsuccessful attempts by youth organizations and student activists to ban the military exercises, transported over 100 representatives from over 32 NGOs to Gareji to protest the maneuvers. They set up their tents in the middle of the army's firing range, meeting the soldiers with signs and placards. The military officers agreed, on the spot, to cancel their activities and speak directly with the NGO leaders. As a result, environmental NGO representatives were included as members of a special commission to identify alternative locations for the military exercises.

The Youth Environmental League of Pridneprovie, Ukraine received two ISAR grants to increase information exchange and cooperation among NGOs in their region. By bringing NGO representatives together, the group provided local NGOs with a forum in which to exchange information. The Youth Environmental League also produced and disseminated an electronic monthly digest and, with its second grant from ISAR, began to distribute this digest in hard copy to organizations without access to e-mail. In addition, it also organized round tables, training sessions, and workshops for NGOs in the region. Based on these activities, the Youth Environment League created a directory of environmental organizations and activists from two Ukrainian regions. Finally, with support from ISAR, the League established an Internet server with which it provides free e-mail access to local environmental NGOs.

With an ISAR cooperative grant, the Ukrainian NGO EcoPravo and the US organization ABA/CEELI (American Bar Association/Central and East European Law Initiative) partnered in 1995 to organize an international conference in Ukraine for environmental lawyers. Lawyers from several countries with different legal systems exchanged experiences, collected and distributed information and discussed legal aspects of public participation in environmental protection. The conference enabled them to improve their qualifications and encouraged them to remain in the field. Participants laid a foundation for future contact and mutual support with other environmental advocates. As a result of this successful collaboration, EcoPravo and ABA/CEELI created Environmental Public Advocacy Centers (EPAC) in several Ukrainian cities to demonstrate to citizens that if their environmental rights can be enforced, so too can other rights. ABA/CEELI has become EcoPravo's main funder, assisted with its research of comparative legislation, helped develop a clinic program for law students, arranged for study tours in the US, and funded the participation of US specialists in EcoPravo's seminars. This collaboration has enabled EcoPravo to achieve significant results, including, arguing the first human rights case before a Ukrainian court.

Thanks to an $8,000 cooperative grant from ISAR's Caspian program, the Republic of Bashkortostan's Union of Ecologists; the Environmental Law Center, Ecolex-Azerbaijan; and the Ecojuris Institute, a Russian environmental law NGO, were able to increase public environmental control over the activities of transnational corporations engaged in oil extraction in the Caspian region. Designed to foster NGO cooperation, the joint project created a network of Azerbaijani NGOs to monitor oil extraction and transportation. The network developed the expertise to analyze Production Sharing Agreements and Environmental Impact Assessment documents developed by the corporations and looked at the discrepancies between current FSU environmental legislation and international standardsÑcontradictions that are skillfully utilized by the transnationals. With the new information gained from these efforts, the partner organizations ran a public awareness campaign to encourage the public to take a more active role in defending their environmental rights and freedoms. They also established a resource center devoted to addressing the legal issues involved in protecting both the environment and human rights in Azerbaijan. By uniting to resolve such concrete and important issues, NGOs from different countries of the Caspian region have forced the transnational corporations to review their environmental policies and have successfully influenced the policies of many regional governments.

With an ISAR cooperative grant, the California-based Pacific Environment and the Russian NGO Zov Taigi launched Operation Tiger, a public awareness campaign to promote protection of the endangered Siberian Tiger and its habitat and to encourage sustainable natural resource management in the Russian Far East. To educate the public, Pacific Environment and Zov Taigi published a bi-monthly journal, the only regularly distributed full-color journal in the Far East and the only one covering environmental issues, and distributed it to over 2,000 subscribers. To encourage local action, the partners produced and distributed films, slides, booklets, posters, and a children's book on the tiger and the biodiversity of the taiga. Together, they publicized wildlife protection laws and met regularly with regional Russian officials to discuss how to create anti-poaching brigades, stricter hunting regulations and wildlife protection. Pacific Environment and Zov Taigi also promoted a federal decree to protect the tiger, which was eventually signed by then-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Pacific Environment and Zov Taigi garnered very positive US press coverage for their efforts, and pieces profiling their collaborative work appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Time Magazine.

The Goldman Environmental Awards--the Nobel Prize for grassroots environmental achievement--chose two close friends of ISAR as its 2000 award winners. Oral Ataniyazova from Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan and Vera Mischenko from Russia were early ISAR grantees. In addition, Ataniyazova served on the ISAR-Central Asia expert board. An OB/GYN, Ataniyazova was honored for her work dealing with the effects of Aral Sea pollution on women's health. Mischenko, an environmental lawyer, was honored for her work defending environmental and human rights throughout Russia.

US Nuclear Safety NGO Activists Travel to Russia, June 2-18, 2001