Forest Village
On April 1st Silver Taiga Foundation began a new project in the Komi Republic called «Forest Village».
The full name of the project is «Village integration around economic improvement».
The duration of the project is 1 year with the possibility of prolongation.
The project sponsor is Ford Foundation – an international charitable organization aiming at lowering the poverty rate and development of democracy (see www.fordfound.org).
The project is going to focus on sustainable management of forest resources which are constant and renewable base of taiga village economics. Loggings close to villages, exhaustion of natural resources, decreasing of the number of specialists, violation of mushrooms and berries land during logging operations lead to the poverty of the village, but it is not necessary.
Exhaustion of important forest resources is not directly connected with the market economy but it is conditioned by the shock of transition period and lack of traditions, knowledge and cooperation of forest stakeholders for the organization of sustainable use of available natural resources. The project aims at improving the situation by means of creation of positive examples of rural population integration.
The project is going to involve six villages located in five most remote from the center administrative units of the Komi Republic which are economically depressed:
- Priluzje (Spasporub and Verholuzje villages) – south,
- Koigorodok (Kazhim village) – south-west,
- Udora (Pyssa village) – north-west,
- Pechora (Byzovaya village) – north,
- Ust-Kulom (Puzla village) – east.
The project is based on the experience of interaction with the local population and ways of increasing of socio-economic local communities activity obtained during 10 year Komi Model Forest Project and approved in practice in Priluzje region of the Komi Republic.
You can ask coordinator Yury Pautov about project details at YPautov@komimodelforest.ru.