Thursday, Apr 29, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | International
By Owen Boycott
LONDON, APRIL 28. Manana Kochladze has been accused of working for Russian intelligence and of being a spy for the Americans. By training, she is an expert on the physiology of the brain. Her mental powers, however, are now focused on preserving the environment. Last week, she received a prestigious international award for her campaign to mitigate the impact on her native Georgia of an oil pipeline being constructed by a consortium led by the British oil giant BP. Work on one of the most contentious stretches of the 1,750 km line is due to start shortly and Ms. Kochladze (32), is at the forefront of legal battles to steer it away from the landslip-prone fringes of Borjomi national park. The Goldman prizes are worth $125,000 to each recipient. They have been described as ``the Nobel prize for the environment''. Six are given out each year to grassroots activists who have advanced conservation causes and resisted exploitation of vulnerable natural habitats. The citation for her prize from the San Francisco-based organisation declares: ``Her fearlessness and tenacity in the face of widespread government corruption and industry interests have won critical concessions to protect local villagers and have prevented the environment from being steamrolled''. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will eventually pump a million barrels of oil a day 1,087 miles from the Caspian Sea's gushing wells to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. British-based human rights and environmental groups have also been at the forefront of the protest movement, warning that the subterranean pipeline may reignite ethnic conflicts, threaten pollution and accelerate global warming. The project is underwritten by, among others, Britain's export credit guarantee department. Ms. Kochladze, who founded the Georgian watchdog group Green Alternative, helped to compile a 220-page dossier that alleged the project breaches World Bank lending guidelines on 173 separate counts, including failure to consider the danger of earthquakes or oil spills in the Turkish port of Ceyhan. It also argued that consultation with affected villages had been inadequate. Ms. Kochladze says that science for science's sake felt like a luxury compared to the immediate social and environmental crises facing her people. Her new profession has not made her universally popular. ``I have been described in the Georgian media as a Russian spy for opposing the pipeline and also been accused of working for the Americans and Iranians,'' she says. But she is adamant that she has her country's best interests at heart. ``The oil is only going through Georgia, and has zero benefit (for most people) and little benefit for the state. The environmental danger, however, is quite high compared to the income. ``There's a real threat to the Borjomi national park. The local mineral water brand brings in more money than the pipeline ever will. It's a tourist area, part of our cultural heritage. The water firm employs about 25 per cent of the local population. ``Oil spills could result in job losses. It's an area subject to landslips. The experts told them not to put the pipeline there. If any oil leaked out it would be catastrophic. It would pollute the source of the mineral water. ``We never had any hope that we could stop this pipeline,'' she says. ``The issue was to ensure that it was in compliance with the highest international standards. Unfortunately, it is far below them. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004.
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