Elena Sorokina 
During the next two weeks, Crude Accountability will be hosting a group of seven Russian specialists from the Russian environmental group Environmental Watch on the Northern Caucasus as part of our Peer-to-Peer Exchange Program.
The Peer-to-Peer exchange program is our mutual effort to help protect the Kuban River environment through the sharing of professional experience between EWNC and U.S.-based environmental organizations. The program provides group-based, intensive, and structured enrichment experiences for groups of U.S. and Russian specialists. The program is tailored to the specific interests of the participants and results in a number of specific takeaways that can be implemented in Krasnodar Krai.
The group will visit various coastal restoration projects along the coast of North Carolina, meetings with local environmental organizations and local farmers and fishermen. The program includes a trip to EarthWise Farm, the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s community garden to learn more about low-impact agricultural development and simple eco-friendly farming techniques such as, for example, organic pesticides that do not harm local rivers when it rains.
Our colleagues will also visit Trinity Center in Pine Knoll Shores to learn more about the efforts to decrease erosion, restore habitat and improve water quality by creating living shorelines with marsh grass and oyster reefs. These shorelines buffer the impact of waves, secure the beach from erosion and create habitat and food for animals. Our colleagues from EWNC are currently working to develop the similar pilot project in Krasnodar Krai and need more information that would help in implementing it back home.
While spending a few days in Washington, DC, Russian specialists are planning to learn more about the city Rain Gardens program and native plants.
EWNC will train US partners in how to apply to achieve international Ramsar Convention Wetlands status for protected areas along the eastern seaboard. The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands.
Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus (EWNC) is an environmental organization whose mission is to preserve wild nature and restore a healthy environment to the North Caucasus. Its priorities include biological conservation, public control over the development of environmentally dangerous projects, facilitating communication within the environmental movement and disseminating environmentally significant information. EWNC was founded in 1997 by a group of activists from the Krasnodar and Adygei branches of the Socio-Ecological Union (SEU) and is the leading organization of the SEU in the West Caucasus.
Learn more about EWNC and our mutual efforts to save Kuban river on our webpage.
For more information:
Kate Watters – kate@nullcrudeaccountability.org
Elena Sorokina – elena@nullcrudeaccountability.org