06.06.2022 // On World Environment Day, 5 June, Russia celebrated Environmentalist Day. It is a holiday for all environmentalists, environmental specialists and environmental activists alike. This year, the main festive event was the Unified Arctic cleanup, which was attended by residents of all cities in the Arctic zone of Russia.

The large-scale campaign was initiated by the Project Office for Arctic Development and the Clean Arctic federal project. From 4 to 6 July in all the northern cities, volunteers — schoolchildren, students and concerned citizens — cleaned up the trash and tidied up popular recreation areas. Representatives of several indigenous peoples of the North — Nenets, Enets, Sami, Dolgans, Nganasans, Evenki and Chukchi — also took part in the cleanup.

The scope of work was even greater than planned. In Karelia, only one city was supposed to participate in the campaign, but eventually, volunteers cleaned up in six other cities and towns — Belomorsk, Letnerechenskoye, Kemi, Loukhi, Pyaozerskoye and Chupe. And in Chukotka, where the cleanup was originally scheduled only in Anadyr, Pevek, the northernmost city in Russia, joined the campaign. Even 77-year-old Maria Mussussen, who had flown in from the village of Ayon for treatment, came out there to pick up trash. She became the oldest volunteer of the campaign, setting an example for the younger generation.

The results of the work of the Clean Arctic project were highly appreciated by the President of Russia on 28 May.

'It's encouraging that the project has already had a real impact. Volunteers helped to clean more than a hundred hectares of accumulated garbage on Vilkitsky Island, in the settlements of Tiksi and Valek, in Novodvinsk fortress, and in general, this work covers more and more territories of the Russian Far North,' noted Vladimir Putin.

During the last weekend in May, volunteers of Clean Arctic in Murmansk, Kandalaksha and Kirovsk collected more than 12 tons of garbage.

'Our region has become an outpost of the federal campaign, giving start to a large set of environmental activities this year,' Andrey Chibis, Governor of the Murmansk Region, commented on the work of volunteers.

Last year, volunteers collected more than 1,500 tons of trash in the highlands. But there is still a lot of work ahead: on 27 May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the area of garbage pollution in the Russian Arctic — about 2.5 hectares.

'The Clean Arctic federal project is designed to become a single platform to unite all environmental initiatives in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. We are glad to see that more and more people, residents of northern territories, who care about the future of their native land, are joining these campaigns,' said Ruslan Gubaidullin, Chairman of the Board of the ANCO Clean Arctic.