New Project First Steps

A training seminar under a new project «Forest Village» was held in the office of Silver Taiga Foundation on May 15, 2008.

The representatives of the villages selected for the project took part in the seminar. At first the participants got acquainted with each other and then the project coordinator Yury Pautov represented the project, its goals, objectives, period etc.

To go on with the project it is necessary to define a social position of the local population, sources of their income, goals and rationality of natural resources use and possibility of further development of the village. With this purpose a questionnaire has been prepared called «Potential sources of income of the rural population on the basis of sustainable use of natural resources». The participants of the seminar looked through the given questionnaire, expressed their opinion and asked questions.

Later on the questionnaire was tested on the representative of Silver Taiga Foundation. During this test some amendments were inserted into the questionnaire as the test aimed at coming close to the real situation and foreseeing the difficulties which could be met during the interview in reality.

Then the participants discussed the criteria of selection of respondents, agreed the future project plans and labor agreements were concluded with the interviewers.

At present the interviewers are actively questioning the local population as the work should be done until June 30, 2008.