Model River Mezen: Project Prospects Discussed by Working Group

Main five-year project results and possible solutions to the challenges preventing further progress to the sustainable management of the Mezen river resources were discussed at a regular meeting of the Model River Mezen Working Group.

Nikolay Shilov, the project coordinator, made a presentation on the current status and project issues, and focused mainly on the problems encountered by the participants while performing certain planned activities, such as reclamation activities at fishing grounds or stocking them with fish, which are vital to achieve the target – sustainable river resource management.

A major part of the meeting was dedicated to detailed planning of 2016 activities and discussing the perspectives of the project.

Before the start of the long-term project planning the Working Group members reviewed its strengths and weaknesses, which are clearly visible now at this stage, identified issues yet unsolved and the most challenging problems, tried to discover possible solutions, and to determine in what ways the project is to be developed later on. The project achievements include well-adjusted continuous monitoring and resource monitoring systems, non-formal comprehensive problem solving approach with a variety of stakeholders involved, cooperation with the local AgroUdora Cooperative with regard to sustainable resource management, good information sharing, proactive involvement of schoolchildren into the issue of the sustainable river resource management, and support of the local population initiatives related to the project … Inefficient cooperation with federal authorities and respective committees of the State Council of the Komi Republic, and shortage of activities under the interregional Agreement between the Komi Republic and Arkhangelsk region were seen by the Working Group as the project’s weak points …

The Working Group identified key focus areas of the project for its next stage in the coming five to six years.

Another issue considered at the meeting referred to changing the composition of the Working Group – it was unanimously agreed to accept Leonid Pavlov, executive director of the AgroUdora Cooperative, as a member of the Group.

Photos by Alexander Borovlyov