Bellona – St. Petersburg

Bellona Foundation
NGO
Industry Environmentalism and environmental rights
Founded April 1998
Headquarters St. Petersburg, Russia
Area served
Russia
Key people
Alexander Nikitin
Number of employees
17
Website www.bellona.ru

Bellona — St. Petersburg is a branch of the environmental rights organization the Bellona Foundation, which is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Founded in 1986, the Bellona Foundation primarily functions as a nuclear watchdog and focuses on developments in Russia.

The St. Petersburg office of Environmental Rights Center Bellona (ERC Bellona) was founded in April 1998 following the trials of such activists as Fedorov – Mirzoyanov, Nikolai Shchur, and Alexander Nikitin, who had begun to distribute information about environmental threats and were being persecuted by the very agencies responsible for causing these threats. These cases highlighted the need to provide legal support, as well as that for an organization to defend the rights of all Russians to unspoiled natural resources and reliable information about their condition.

Goals of the organization

ERC Bellona's aims are centered around the belief that the rights to unspoiled natural resources and to reliable environmental information are fundamental, and its mission is to protect these rights.[1]

ERC Bellona's goals include:

Projects

ERC Bellona's activities takes three main directions: legal, informational, and expert assessment. The Legal direction is concerned with extending legal help to Russian citizens. The Informational direction is intended to increase awareness, both through its website and quarterly magazine, Ecology and Law. The Expert Assessment direction is geared towards generating independent presentations, expert opinions, and various other informational materials on topics such as: atomic energy safety; methods for dealing with nuclear waste; the development of environmentally sound, renewable energy; and issues concerning the transport of oil and gas.[1]

Each year, ERC Bellona carries out more than five different projects, the results of which are published on its website in the form of annual reports. However, Bellona considers its founding and continued operation as an environmental rights organization whose reputation and image allow it to raise issues and solve problems of environmental safety, defense of natural resources and environmental human rights, to be its primary achievement over the last ten years. ERC Bellona has informational, legal and expert resources that allow it to be a crucial partner for NGOs, civil activists, and ordinary citizens whose rights are violated by the government and members of the business community.[1]

Staff and location

The staff of ERC Bellona consists of permanent employees, part-time personnel and volunteers. Staff members are:

ERC Bellona is located in the center of St. Petersburg, on Suvorovsky Prospect.

External links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://www.bellona.org/Aboutus/bellona_in_piter