News digest from Kyrgyz media related to Kumtor’s Biodiversity Focus Group Meeting held on
19 October 2012 in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
22.10.12
TV review
PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION (OTRK)
Topic news story: Biodiversity Management Strategy
It is the duty of extracting companies to carry out compensation steps to increase the biodiversity of
regions affected by mining, said Emil Shukurov, Editor of Kyrgyzstan’s “Red Book” of endangered
species. Regrettably, many modern productions leave behind unfarmable if not contaminated lands.
But there are exceptions, there are businesses which are interested in keeping their regions in sound
condition.
Biodiversity management strategy is a complex term that is something of a novelty to miners in
Kyrgyzstan. Yet, it's high time to seriously ponder on it. It is Kumtor Operating Company that has
become the initiator in this field. The gold miner has suggested starting work on biodiversity
conservation with compiling a specific document.
Kylychbek Jundubayev, Biodiversity Expert:
What Kumtor has initiated is good, and we should support it. Moreover, this practice should become
universal in the mining sector.
Thank God, we still have what needs conservation and maintaining, experts say, due to enormous
efforts taken to restore biodiversity in the region.
Alexander Vereshchagin, Deputy Director of the Sarychat-Ertash National Reserve:
Biodiversity has been restored within the past decade, and now it corresponds to the world level. The
snow leopard population has been restored to 17 within the Reserve. Also, we have 2,600 argalis
now. This indicates that the system has started working. Kumtor is our immediate neighbor so that
we can cooperate closely, support various projects and conduct joint research.
The Editor of Kyrgyzstan's Red Book of endangered species, E.Shukurov, was among the first to
support the biodiversity management concept. This should also be the concern of the rest miners in
Kyrgyzstan, he said.
Emil Shukurov:
All miners in Kyrgyzstan should take compensation steps to restore and increase biodiversity in their
target areas. Otherwise, they have no moral right to work in this country while destroying it. No
wonder the miners are the first to become committed to biodiversity. The health of the soil, flora and
fauna, and of course that of the local population, has always been their top priority.
According to the workshop participants, they hope Kumtor's initiative will pave the way to the
development of the biodiversity conservation strategy for all the rest Kyrgyz operations, not
specifically for miners alone, as any operation is known to impact on the environment.
PUBLIC TELEVISION «ELTR»
Topic news story: Environmental Seminar
A workshop has been held in Bishkek that brought together Kyrgyz environmentalists and their
American colleagues from Prizma, a US-based ESIA and CSR Advisory Practice. They discussed the
biodiversity conservation and management strategy in the areas near the Kumtor mine. The initiator
was the Canadian investor itself. Its initiative has been supported by environmentalists who urged
other companies to give serious attention to the health of their own target areas.
Numerous environmental initiatives have, in fact, long become a characteristic feature of the key
investor in Kyrgyzstan. Beach cleaning, dust suppression, planting of spruces in the Barskaun Gorge
are but a small part of the gold miner's activities in the field of the environmental protection. Experts
maintain that numerous rumors about the harm allegedly done by the company to the environment are
nothing but fancy.
E.Shukurov, Editor of Kyrgyzstan's Red Book of Endangered Species:
All statements about discharges allegedly contaminating the Naryn River are just nonsense that has
nothing in common with the reality. Such statements are just incompetent. Kumtor complies with all
international standards and is far superior, in this respect, to all the rest mining companies active in
Kyrgyzstan.
The environmental workshop held recently in Bishkek has discussed the Company's new strategy
designed to conserve biodiversity in its target area. It should be noted that this initiative is a new one
in Kyrgyzstan. Yet, the idea has been supported by the environmentalists who have urged the other
companies to give consideration to biodiversity issues in their own target areas.
K.Jundubayev:
I have never seen anything like the approach taken by Kumtor in its strategy. Every mining company
in this country should have a similar long-term, short-term or medium-term strategy.
According to experts, a systemic approach is what really matters in such an important issue. This
means one has to act in several directions at once without concentrating too much on one species
alone. The right approach will immediately produce good results.
A.Vereshchagin:
A number of comprehensive research projects have received financing. They do not focus on the
snow leopard or the argali exclusively but on the ecosystem at large. So should it be: everything at
one and the same time. Now, we are going to adopt this system, which is quite new. I believe our
biodiversity restoration program will be a success, and the future generations will have something to
inherit from us.
These general ideas were complimented by numerous suggestions as to their practical translation into
life. Some suggested creating minor reserves, organizing environmental routes and patrols. On the
whole, the workshop has identified collaboration opportunities in support of biodiversity
conservation in Kyrgyzstan. As part of this, Kumtor is expecting to make financial commitments in
support of priority programs which will be announced by year end.
24.KG NEWS AGENCY
In recent years, caring for the nature has come into fashion in Kyrgyzstan. It has really become
just a fashion, because in fact neither proper attention is paid to environmental problems nor funding
is allocated for their solution. Everything comes down to the largest and therefore “the most harmful”
Kumtor mining company (due to which, however, the country has been surviving during the last few
years). It is unknown what the other license holders do, although there are 906 of them in
Kyrgyzstan, and 546 licenses were issued for mining operations. Moreover, over the years of
independence 2,015 licenses have been cancelled in Kyrgyzstan, and the question whether the
developers cared about the nature or not is also wrapped in obscurity.
Dr. Prof. Emil Shukurov, Honoured Scientist of Kyrgyzstan, who was one of the originators of
modern Kyrgyz ecology, told about the nature protection activities carried out in Kyrgyzstan, what
measures to preserve the biodiversity are taken and why all attention is focused only on Kumtor.
“Could you tell us how the overall biodiversity status is assessed in the world and in
Kyrgyzstan?”
“After the recent Rio+20 conference, it has become clear that no country in the world has fulfilled all
liabilities under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which they had joined. Loss of biodiversity
has not stabilized and continued in every country. The same situation is observed in Kyrgyzstan. We
have suddenly found that we can sign conventions, do nothing or do just the opposite and no
responsibility will be borne for it. Indeed, no one is responsible. Under this convention, we should
have built a strategy and the plan of actions, but nothing has been done. In 1995, it was presented to
the Government and the public. But the document has never been adopted, though it was developed
by the best local and international experts. Thus the state has shown its disregard for the nature,
which is going on today.”
“Another attempt to develop a strategy is being made now, can it change the situation?”
“There are two strategies for biodiversity conservation being developed in parallel: the corporate
strategy for Kumtor and the general one for the whole country. I put high hopes on the adoption and
implementation of Kumtor’s strategy, because they have more strict control over spending, and the
money will most certainly reach the nature.
All our nature protection activities are funded based on the leftover principle. It is not just a
disregard, but the real hostility against the nature. If the State Agency works in an off hand way, the
task of the state is not to close it and cut funding, but to make a perfect working body of it. I believe
our Government is unreliable.”
“The situation with Kumtor has become a cause to think about the creation of such a
framework document. I should ask what is your assessment of the activities of yet another
Commission?”
“Commission for inspection of Kumtor was motivated by other, political problems. It is easier to
come to light against the background of Kumtor. Who knows, for example, about the state enterprise
Makmalzoloto? Nobody knows what and how it is doing. But it is a state-owned enterprise, and you
can take nothing from it: no money, no publicity. I do not challenge the professionalism of experts,
but they worked under the contract. The majority of arguments do not stand up to criticism.”
“What is the environmental situation at other deposits? All claims are laid only to Kumtor, but
it is nonsense to think that the situation at other deposits is somewhat better.”
“We do not have operating enterprises of the same scale as Kumtor; we almost do not have operating
mining companies at all. Therefore, it is impossible to say that some company can be compared to
Kumtor by the impact. We should take into account the unit of production and compare whether the
impact of Kumtor on the unit of production is greater than that of other companies. At the preparation
phase, some enterprises have much more impact on the nature than Kumtor, which has been holding
mining operations for a long time. It is the only company, which works according to both domestic
and international standards. Of course, there is a lot to be improved, but when they start talking about
incredible pollutions of Naryn River, these illiterate statements obviously prove the political bias of
the Commission members.
Other enterprises (Jerooy, Andash and Taldy-Bulak) are just being prepared for operation, there is no
production there yet. They have planned environmental measures, but it is still too early to talk about
their implementation. Developers are more concerned with the possible interruption of their work
rather than the nature protection measures. We were going to establish a new national park in the
basin of Sary-Jaz River. However, the state authorities answered that there were license areas in that
region, and this fact is inconsistent with the nature protection. How can we talk about the nature
protection activities on behalf of the state, if officials admit inconsistency of mining operations with
environmental protection?”
“Is there the golden mean? The local community, heated up by talks about the harm caused to
the nature, sometimes goes to extremes...”
“To increase the welfare of the people, it is necessary to set tasks of job creation, unrelated to the
mining, before Kumtor. The people should see the prospects: Kumtor will go away, but other
enterprises will remain. Efforts of the Government should be focused on these activities instead of
squeezing extra money out of the budget-making enterprise and drowning them in the budget. The
population does not see this money. The company should also allocate some funds to the projects on
biodiversity conservation and implement them jointly with the population.”