«I’ve Gained a New Knowledge and Inestimable Experience During the Workshop in Usinsk»

A young ecologist and GIS-specialist of the Silver Taiga Foundation Alexandr Borovlyov has attended the Summer Environmental School – a workshop on detection of environmental disturbances held in Usinsk by the Greenpeace Russia and the Pechora River Rescue Committee.

This workshop that lasted almost two weeks was designed for the young people interested in solving environmental problems and taking practical measures in this regard. Volunteers – local people, activists of environmental non-governmental organizations from the Komi Republic, Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous districts were trained in methods of environmental monitoring. In total 14 people participated in this workshop. One group studied geographic information systems (GIS), another – mass media and media technologies.

On his return Alexandr BOROVLYOV shared his impressions:

– The primary goal of the Summer school was to teach volunteers willing to participate in the environmental activities how to detect and correctly describe environmental disturbances, and how to transfer this information in a proper way to the related authorities – supervising agencies, environmental services…

The trainer of the GIS group was a Greenpeace specialist Vasiliy Yablokov, the Moscow State University lecturer of Applied Geoinformatics and Mathematical Modelling in Mapping. With the second trainer, Olga Serebryannaya, a representative of Esri company in the CIS, our group studied ArcGIS 10.3 software, namely all tools of this software and all possibilities, which this software provides. We learnt how to use this software in the environmental monitoring. It was very interesting and exciting!

The Mass media group under the guidance of its trainer, the chief editor of the online magazine 7×7 Maksim Polyakov, studied how to make proper records of the detected disturbances with the help of photographs and video recording, and also how to prepare and present news about environmental disturbances in mass media and to distribute them in social networks.

In addition to our study, we shared with each other our experience in the sphere of the environmental protection. For example, in my report “Use of GIS-technologies in sustainable forest management” I tried to tell about the Silver Taiga Foundation projects on the development of the sustainable forest management and how GIS-technologies help us in it.

GIS is such a universal tool, which helps us to visualize information, make certain statistical calculations, analyze, compare and use other methods of information processing both in sustainable forest management and other spheres of forest use. It helps to compare the material of the past and current developments, to study the chronology of the process in question.

The workshop in Usinsk was arranged in a “theory & practice” mode, which means that in the morning we studied theoretical information and in the afternoon we applied this information in practical tasks. We also had field practice where we collected data on the ecosystem situation in real time. First, we went to the forest, collected data using GPS navigator, and after we processed this data in GIS software and presented them in the form of a map.

On the whole, the workshop was well-organized; the program was very rich and interesting. It was well-equipped from the technical point of view: the hosts of the workshop came with their own router and provided good wireless internet connection. This ensured a continuous work without technical problems. I have got acquainted with interesting and committed people from different parts of the Komi Republic and other regions of Russia.

All tools that we studied during the workshop in Usinsk will be definitely useful in the forest sphere. Through my participation in this workshop I’ve gained a new knowledge and inestimable experience!