This report describes the catastrophic consequences of gold mining and violations of the rights of the Shor – a small Indigenous people living in the southwestern area of the Republic of Khakassia and in southern Kemerovo Oblast. Placer gold mining destroys rivers and the natural environment in general in places where the Shor people traditionally reside, which poses a threat to their existence as a people and to their traditional language and culture, particularly because it is their centuries-old relationship with the nature surrounding them that determines their worldview, daily activities, and way of life.
The Shor are a Turkic-speaking small Indigenous people living in southern Kemerovo Oblast and in neighboring districts of the Republic of Khakassia, the Altai Republic, and Krasnoyarsk and Altai krais. Their population reaches almost 13,000, and 24 percent of them live in cities (2010 census).
This report is based on field data collected by ADC Memorial in June 2021 and open source materials. ADC Memorial would like to express its gratitude to the members of the Indigenous peoples and local communities of Khakassia and Kemerovo Oblast and the experts, activists and environmentalists who provided information for this report.