Pacific Environment
Encyclopedia
Pacific Environment is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California
, USA founded in 1987. Its objective is to protect the living environment of the Pacific Rim
.
1. Support Local Environmental Struggles: Over one-third of Pacific Environment’s budget is dedicated to funding grassroots organizations on the front-lines of the environmental movement.
2. Hold Banks and Corporations Accountable: Pacific Environment confronts tax-payer funded banks that back oil, gas, mining and timber extraction and the companies that profit from these often environmentally-devastating projects.
3. Promote Best Practices: Pacific Environment supports and encourages sustainable fishing, renewable energy
and other initiatives that put environmental protection and communities first.
4. Build a Global Movement: By forging coalitions and partnerships with environmentalists and other community members around the Pacific Rim, Pacific Environment is building a united movement to deal with the global threats we face.
, beginning a long history of work in Russia
. In 1993, a Pacific Environment campaign with Russian partners led to the creation of the Botchi Nature Reserve
, protecting valuable forests in the Russian Far East that were to be logged by Weyerhaeuser Corporation. That same year, Pacific Environment worked with the Udege
people in the Russian Far East to protect the 3-million-acre (12,000 km²) upper Bikin Watershed against logging by the Hyundai Corporation. This area is now a wildlife refuge. By the mid-1990s, they began to focus on the linchpin financial role international institutions were playing in resource extraction in Russia and initiated a long-term effort to link grassroots environmentalists around the Pacific Rim to international policy decisions, particularly those of government-supported Export Credit Agencies
. Pacific Environment pioneered efforts to block the financing of destructive projects and improve others as one of the founding members of an international campaign to reform the social and environmental policies of Export Credit Agencies, known as ECA Watch. While Pacific Environment's biggest successes in the 1990s were in Russia, they also began to focus more broadly on the Pacific Rim. In China
, Pacific Environment took advantage of the growing opportunities to partner with that country's emerging environmental movement by helping dozens of local groups become more effective watchdogs of local government, especially through the media. They also assisted these groups in encouraging the Chinese government to review environmental impacts. Pacific Environment's partners at Greener Beijing utilized the internet to organize a campaign against consumption of turtle and tortoise species in Hainan Province. After a government investigation prompted in part by the campaign, the Hainan Yang Sheng Tan Company halted its import of turtle and tortoise species after financial losses and public pressure. And in 2004, Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao ordered officials to reconsider plans for a dam along the Nu River after journalists and environmentalists teamed up to spotlight the issue.
Pacific Environment splits its activities between five main programs the Russia Program, China Program, Alaska Program, California Energy Program and Responsible Finance Program
For the past 20 years, Pacific Environment has partnered with Russia
n environmentalists to ensure the peoples in these regions have a voice in decisions that impact their environment, health and livelihoods. Pacific Environment works alongside Russian and international nonprofits
to protect wild lands and wildlife, promote responsible fisheries management, and advocate environmental controls on oil, gas and minerals development.
Pacific Environment’s Russia Program has five key campaigns:
Pacific Environment enhances the Chinese environmental movement by:
Pacific Environment’s Alaska Program partners with native, fishing, environmental and scientific communities to confront cultural and environmental threats to Alaska
and the surrounding waters. These partnerships focus on safeguarding critical habitats, including the world's largest salmon run, the feeding grounds of the endangered northeastern Pacific right whale
, old-growth seafloor habitat, and areas essential to community subsistence. The three key campaign goals are:
Pacific Environment's California energy program works to maintain California
's commitment to clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas
es by:
Pacific Environment’s Responsible Finance Campaign promotes environmentally and socially sustainable
policies and practices among public and private finance institutions with interests and projects in less wealthy countries. With a principal focus on the extractive sector (oil, gas, mining, and forestry) operating on the Pacific Rim, Pacific Environment persuades these lending institutions to be more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens’ concerns, particularly in project-affected communities.
The international campaign to reform the policies and practices of public and private banks has expanded its focus to include multilateral development banks, export credit agencies, and large private international banks. After a decade of campaigning, a basic environmental policy framework is now in place for each of the three classes of institutions. However, proper implementation of these policies has become a vexing challenge especially in countries like Japan, where banks are playing an increasingly proactive role in fulfilling national security goals to obtain extractive and energy resources.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA founded in 1987. Its objective is to protect the living environment of the Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim refers to places around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The term "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and islands in the Pacific Ocean...
.
Mission statement
Pacific Environment protects the living environment of the Pacific Rim by promoting grassroots activism, strengthening communities and reforming international policies. This mission is achieved through these actions:1. Support Local Environmental Struggles: Over one-third of Pacific Environment’s budget is dedicated to funding grassroots organizations on the front-lines of the environmental movement.
2. Hold Banks and Corporations Accountable: Pacific Environment confronts tax-payer funded banks that back oil, gas, mining and timber extraction and the companies that profit from these often environmentally-devastating projects.
3. Promote Best Practices: Pacific Environment supports and encourages sustainable fishing, renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
and other initiatives that put environmental protection and communities first.
4. Build a Global Movement: By forging coalitions and partnerships with environmentalists and other community members around the Pacific Rim, Pacific Environment is building a united movement to deal with the global threats we face.
History
The organization was founded 1987 as Pacific Energy and Resources Center. In 1991, Pacific Environment became the first international organization to bring widespread attention to the threats facing the Siberian taigaTaiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
, beginning a long history of work in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. In 1993, a Pacific Environment campaign with Russian partners led to the creation of the Botchi Nature Reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
, protecting valuable forests in the Russian Far East that were to be logged by Weyerhaeuser Corporation. That same year, Pacific Environment worked with the Udege
Udege
Udege are a people who live in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai regions in Russia. They live along the tributaries of the Ussuri, Amur, Kungari and Anyuy Rivers. The Udege speak the Udege language, which belongs to the Tungusic language family...
people in the Russian Far East to protect the 3-million-acre (12,000 km²) upper Bikin Watershed against logging by the Hyundai Corporation. This area is now a wildlife refuge. By the mid-1990s, they began to focus on the linchpin financial role international institutions were playing in resource extraction in Russia and initiated a long-term effort to link grassroots environmentalists around the Pacific Rim to international policy decisions, particularly those of government-supported Export Credit Agencies
Export Credit Agencies
An export credit agency or Investment Insurance Agency, is a private or quasi-governmental institution that act as an intermediary between national governments and exporters to issue export financing...
. Pacific Environment pioneered efforts to block the financing of destructive projects and improve others as one of the founding members of an international campaign to reform the social and environmental policies of Export Credit Agencies, known as ECA Watch. While Pacific Environment's biggest successes in the 1990s were in Russia, they also began to focus more broadly on the Pacific Rim. In China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Pacific Environment took advantage of the growing opportunities to partner with that country's emerging environmental movement by helping dozens of local groups become more effective watchdogs of local government, especially through the media. They also assisted these groups in encouraging the Chinese government to review environmental impacts. Pacific Environment's partners at Greener Beijing utilized the internet to organize a campaign against consumption of turtle and tortoise species in Hainan Province. After a government investigation prompted in part by the campaign, the Hainan Yang Sheng Tan Company halted its import of turtle and tortoise species after financial losses and public pressure. And in 2004, Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao ordered officials to reconsider plans for a dam along the Nu River after journalists and environmentalists teamed up to spotlight the issue.
Organisation
Pacific Environment employs 16 employees located throughout the Pacific Rim with offices in San Francisco, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Washington DC; Vladivostok, Russia; and Beijing, China. The reported operating budget from the 2005-2006 fiscal year was $1.2 Million, with the majority of that coming from foundations.Pacific Environment splits its activities between five main programs the Russia Program, China Program, Alaska Program, California Energy Program and Responsible Finance Program
The Programs
Pacific Environment takes on specific challenges in key geographic areas throughout the Pacific Rim, and employs key international leverage points to bolster local campaigns. They engage in five major areas of focus outlined below.- Russia Program
For the past 20 years, Pacific Environment has partnered with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n environmentalists to ensure the peoples in these regions have a voice in decisions that impact their environment, health and livelihoods. Pacific Environment works alongside Russian and international nonprofits
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
to protect wild lands and wildlife, promote responsible fisheries management, and advocate environmental controls on oil, gas and minerals development.
Pacific Environment’s Russia Program has five key campaigns:
- Opposing Oil and gas development on Sakhalin Island
- Siberia Pacific Pipeline
- Preserving the natural habitat in Kamchatka against illegal fishing and predatory mining, oil and gas drilling
- Opposing the construction of a dam and pipeline in the Altai region
- Monitoring and restricting miningMiningMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
- China Program
Pacific Environment enhances the Chinese environmental movement by:
- providing partners renewed financial support to hire and retain staff enhancing both their professional capacity and efficacy in accomplishing their advocacy and civil society goals.
- organizing a network for partners to share experiences and information relevant to their water pollution work through bi-annual workshops and regular consultation with each other and with Pacific Environment
- assisting partners in developing communications strategies that will enable them to generate media attention on local efforts to fight water pollution.
- Alaska Program
Pacific Environment’s Alaska Program partners with native, fishing, environmental and scientific communities to confront cultural and environmental threats to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and the surrounding waters. These partnerships focus on safeguarding critical habitats, including the world's largest salmon run, the feeding grounds of the endangered northeastern Pacific right whale
Right whale
Right whales are three species of large baleen whales consisting of two genera in the family Balaenidae of order Cetacea. Their bodies are very dark gray or black and rotund....
, old-growth seafloor habitat, and areas essential to community subsistence. The three key campaign goals are:
- Prevent all offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in Bristol BayBristol BayBristol Bay is the eastern-most arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km long and 290 km, wide at its mouth...
and the BeaufortBeaufort SeaThe Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort...
and Chukchi SeaChukchi SeaChukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...
s - Dramatically increase shipping safety response and prevention plans along the Great Circle Route
- Facilitate an international coalition of stakeholders to protect the unique biodiversity of the Bering SeaBering SeaThe Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
- California Energy Program
Pacific Environment's California energy program works to maintain California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
's commitment to clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es by:
- Keeping Liquefied Natural GasLiquefied natural gasLiquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport....
out of the West Coast - Promoting Community Choice, a plan that would allow San Francisco and the East Bay cities of Oakland, EmeryvilleEmeryville, CaliforniaEmeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
and BerkeleyBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
to buy up to 50% of the cities' electricity from "off-grid" renewableRenewable energyRenewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
sources - Retrofitting aging, polluting power plants to significantly increase energy efficiency and reduce overall energy demands
- Responsible Finance Program
Pacific Environment’s Responsible Finance Campaign promotes environmentally and socially sustainable
Social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the...
policies and practices among public and private finance institutions with interests and projects in less wealthy countries. With a principal focus on the extractive sector (oil, gas, mining, and forestry) operating on the Pacific Rim, Pacific Environment persuades these lending institutions to be more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens’ concerns, particularly in project-affected communities.
The international campaign to reform the policies and practices of public and private banks has expanded its focus to include multilateral development banks, export credit agencies, and large private international banks. After a decade of campaigning, a basic environmental policy framework is now in place for each of the three classes of institutions. However, proper implementation of these policies has become a vexing challenge especially in countries like Japan, where banks are playing an increasingly proactive role in fulfilling national security goals to obtain extractive and energy resources.