Model river Mezen project Working group discussed the difficulties of sustainable river management organization
What is sustainable river management? How to establish such management? What hinders it? What problems do the users face? Discussion of these issues became the main topic of another meeting of the Model river Mezen project Working group, which took place on June 6.
Przemyslaw Majewski, recent Director of the Silver Taiga Foundation and a current member of the Foundation Coordination Council, devoted part of his speech to identification of sustainable fish resources management criteria and further on told about the Polish experience in this field. Polish practice of rivers and lakes resources management caught the interest of the Working group members, especially due to the fact that in Poland, same as in Russia, the main owner of the resource is the state and the usage of the resource is conducted on the leasing terms. Same as here, lease holding is executed on a competitive basis with such major criteria as competence of an applicant, availability of the necessary equipment and a management plan, which has to undergo a preliminary examination and receive an approval of its quality from the scientific institutions.
Along with this, in Poland, unlike us, almost 100 percent of waters are leased. Rivers are mainly (around 90 percent) leased by regional amateur fishermen’s unions; lakes in most cases are rented by the cooperatives organized on the basis of former SovRybKhozes, as well as by tour operators and same amateur fishermen’s unions. Remarkably, all these economic entities – fishermen’s unions, cooperatives, etc. first and foremost unite the local residents. By the way, on the Polish rivers the state is represented by one water management agency with regional divisions, in contrast to Russia, where the waters are under the authority of one department, whereas the fish is in charge of another department, etc.
Same as here, there are difficulties in conduct of monitoring for economic needs; there are some resource protection-related problems. Besides, the quotas are not regulated due to insufficient knowledge about the dynamics of the resource condition. However, fish resources management in this country is still heading towards the sustainable use. As a result – improvement of fish resources condition in the rivers. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the lakes where decline in fish resources mainly determined by ecological reasons was registered. It has already resulted in negative economic and social consequences, which has became a serious concern for local self-government bodies and society lately.
Based on the speech of Przemyslaw Majewski and a subsequent discussion, it’s obvious that sustainable resources management, in this case fish resources, cannot be created once and forever. It’s a process and all interested parties have to be permanently engaged in a dialogue for implementation of such approach. The fact of presence of a manager on the river doesn’t mean that management will be responsible. It’s important for all the parties interested in conservation of the resource to move jointly in this direction.
Director of LLC “Koin” Oleg Belyakov specially invited to the Working group meeting as a practician experienced in recreational fishing continued a talk about the river management-related problems. The plot leased by “Koin” is located on the Vym and probably the experience of this company with its benefits and drawbacks will be useful for organization of the resources management on the Mezen.
Working group members reviewed the results of the Interregional working meeting “On the condition of the Atlantic salmon population in the Mezen river basin and possible ways to restore the resource”, conducted in Syktyvkar on May 30 this year by common efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Komi and Silver Taiga Foundation. The information about the meeting was delivered by Silver Taiga Foundation Director Yury Pautov. Besides, potential group members of an interregional working group formed now for development of an interregional program for conservation and restoration of salmon in the Mezen was discussed.