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Analyst opines on efforts to earn political dividends on environment in Belarus
MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) – There is a group of activists trying to earn political dividends on the environmental agenda, analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (BISR) Yekaterina Rechits said at the meeting of the Expert Community project “Environment: Fashion or Need” in BelTA’s press center on 18 December.
The participants of the meeting discussed environmental trendsetters in Belarus. For example, this year the environmental agenda was dominated by the construction of the accumulator factory in Brest. The experts tried to find an answer to the question: is there any other agenda, apart from the environmental one, in the actions of the activists? Yekaterina Rechits suggested dividing Belarusian environmental activists into three groups. People from one of them were not involved in environmental activities before certain circumstances forced them to get into this matter. This can happen, for example, when a project bearing environmental risks is running in their community. “We should not disregard another group of alleged environmental activists who have nothing to do with efforts to address environmental issues, but they take up the green agenda just for hype. They are trying to take advantage of the public concern over environmentally dangerous manufacturing projects, the impact of global environmental trends on the Belarusian society and earn political dividends from this situation,” the analyst said. However, no one has managed yet to break into a career in politics using the environmental agenda in Belarus. There are no opinion leaders in this field in the country yet.
Yekaterina Rechits called for appreciating the efforts of professionals who promote environmental conservation, have expertise and knowledge in this matter, are eager to collaborate constructively with the government and do not run afoul of political decisions. “However these communities are rather seclusive. We need to look into the reasons for that. Is that because of the generally low level of environmental consciousness of the public, or because of the lack of effective communication channels between public associations and authorities, including respective ministries?” the analyst asked.
Executive Director of the Renewable Energy Association Vladimir Nistyuk believes that such issues can be removed by public outreach activities. “Sometimes bubbles appear where they are not supposed to be. When we do not know what is going on, when the public has no access to information and decision-making and just has to face the facts, they respond to it with an inner protest and this protest is meant not only against the factory in Brest, but rather disregard for their opinion. People do not know what is really on the mind of those who built the factory and those who calls them to take to the streets. People should know the truth,” he emphasized.
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