SALEKHARD, September 9. /TASS/. The Green Arctic non-governmental organization and the Gazprom Neft Company's volunteers collected more than 290 tons of waste during seven environmental expeditions to the Yamal Peninsula in 2026. They also cleaned 115 hectares of territories and landscaped natural sites, the Native Towns social investment program's press service said.

"In 2026, Gazprom Neft volunteers and the Green Arctic public organization landscaped nature reserves and collected more than 290 tons of waste, having cleaned 115 hectares on the Yamal," the press service said, adding Gazprom Neft's volunteers had joined the mission for the fourth year.

The expeditions' participants collected the waste and scrap metal that had accumulated over decades of the North's development. They worked also in the Poluysky Nature Reserve, the Ingilor Nature Park, at the Oka old communications station in the Tazovsky District, and on the Gulf of Ob coast near the company's Novoportovskoye deposit.

"Ecological expeditions are an important part of the company's sustainable development strategy. Our events with the authorities and regional communities in Yamal have featured more than 15,000 people, sharing a common goal," Yarina Sugakova of Native Towns said.

In the Poluysky Nature Reserve, the volunteers laid a wooden trail and equipped an observation deck by the lake. In the Ingilor Nature Park, they cleaned Pusyorka Mountain, restored fences of the world's largest musk ox nursery, and renovated Yamal's northernmost temple. One of the first expeditions featured the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region's Governor Dmitry Artyukhov. He helped restore the animal enclosure. In the Nemuryegan River area, Gazprom Neft volunteers from Muravlenko installed a life-size figure of a woolly rhinoceros. It became the second art object in the park after the sculptures of a mammoth and a baby mammoth that appeared a year earlier.

Gazprom Neft is implementing the Clean Environment project in Yamal under the Native Towns program. Over 2023-2026, under the project, 2,483 tons of waste was collected in Yamal and1,950 hectares of territories were cleaned.