The evolution of the environmental movement in Belarus: from Chernobyl to global climate change

The environmental movement in Belarus has experienced a significant transformation since its emergence in the 1960s when it was part of Soviet environmentalism. The nature of that movement and the factors that influenced its dynamic were, however, very different from those in open societies. Even though the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 shaped the environmental agenda and, therefore, the scope of environmentalism in that country, the most important factors in the evolution of the environmental movement in Belarus were the political and social transformations of the Belarusian society. The state has affected the development of the environmental movement not only directly through its capacity to repress civil society and close the policymaking system to non-state actors, but also indirectly through the deliberate shaping of public values.