“Udora Region population as a key project participant”
This year Komi Regional Non-Profit Foundation “Silver Taiga” started implementation of the “Fish resources and local population – Model River Mezen” project. The objective of the project is restoration of fish resources with their further sustainable management. It’s clear from the title of the project that the river Mezen flowing through the Udora region has been chosen as a “model” one and the local population – residents of the Udora region – are going to become the key participants of the new project.
The project has been developed by a special working group organized by Silver Taiga Foundation. It consists of the representatives of the administration and the population of the Udora region, Ministry of Natural Resources and Ministry of Agriculture of the Komi Republic, Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Fish Resource Agency of the Komi Republic “KomiRybVod”.
The project implementation is planned to be finalized until the year 2022. Potential problems which may arise during the first three years of the project implementation were discussed during the meetings of the working group, which were held in June, July, and October of 2010, and in January of 2011. The first timeframes of the full-scale project and the program of its implementation for the nearest year were also defined during these meetings. The members of the working group agreed on the point that today local population is “on the sideline” of the fish resources management; and existing prohibitions, which are quite often ill-conceived and unrealistic, do not facilitate fish restoration.
Interests of the local population and public interests are poorly reflected in the fish resources management; holistic approach to the river management is missing. During the industrial development of the forests the interests of the local inhabitants are not taken into account, and as a result traditional nature use based on the family and community areas is being destroyed.
Director of Komi Regional Non-Profit Foundation “Silver Taiga” Przemyslaw Majewski
Project initiators suggest another approach to the resources management and this is the main essence. Today the director of Komi Regional Non-Profit Foundation “Silver Taiga” Przemyslaw Majewski will tell us about the goals and objectives, first steps and perspectives of the “Fish resources and local population – Model River” project.
– “Silver Taiga” is an organization involved in the development of the sustainable forest management. Why have you turned your attention to the river resources this time?
– We have been thinking about this problem for a long time already, because the forest landscape and its management are surely included into the sustainable forest management. A river is an essential part of the landscape and they should not be considered separately. We started to plan the project related to the river resources already in 2006, but we couldn’t find budget for its implementation. Now this initiative is supported by the international MONDI group, and its management realizes the importance of this problem and the fact that the timber logging and condition of the river network are interconnected.
– Why have you chosen the Mezen?
– In our opinion, the pilot project cannot have an immense geography. For example, the river Pechora is too big for this. The Mezen is also not a small river, but if we compare the amount of population living here, we will notice a significant difference. Besides, there are more chances to implement such plans on the territory where something additionally facilitates the process. What do I mean? It’s mainly settled, indigenous population living along the banks of the Mezen, and these people understand that if they do something bad they will harm themselves. Accordingly, if they focus their efforts to improve the situation they will be the ones who will benefit in the first place.
This is a key point required for sustainable management. Besides, a local initiative aimed at the same direction has been developed in the Udora region, through which territory the river Mezen is flowing. A cooperative was established there and is already in operation. The main target of this initiative is to enable the local population to participate in the river resources management. And the third crucial factor is that the residents of the Arkhangelsk region settlements, located along the banks of the Mezen, has a good understanding of the problems and are willing to cooperate.
Moving towards trust and cooperation (these are the things sustainable management cannot exist without) will be more successful on the territory inhabited by not such considerable amount of population – there are no big cities located in the basin of the Mezen, large-scale industry is missing there, and there are almost no temporary residents who would be hardly interested in the project perspectives.
– What do you see as the major problems related to the river resources?
– Actually, there are several main problems. First, for many years we’ve had overexploitation of fish resources, i.e. people have been catching more fish than the fish population was able to reproduce. Second, the activities of the government agencies in charge of these issues are poorly integrated and not systematic, and the lack of this systematic policy strikes the eye. Third, there is no interested landlord managing the river. And the forth problem is a disastrous position of the village, which is kind of excluded from the participation in the river management, though the river resources are of extreme importance for it.
– Are these problems typical only for us or it’s a general trend?
– Almost every society goes through such situations. At one time or another – either the population gets bigger or there is an increase of the resources availability – it happens almost in every country of the world. And only when the situation comes “to the edge” people start to take measures. Normally, their first reaction to the situation is “prohibition”. Therefore, first of all they start to impose the restrictions. Later on, they begin to understand that though the prohibition can bring some results, in fact, it doesn’t alter the essence of the matter, doesn’t eliminate the reasons caused the disastrous state of resources. Thus, they come to understand that it’s sustainable management what is needed. Afterwards, the question is raised: who will be a manager? What kind of motivation should he have to ensure a responsible management? It can be also, that a manager is highly motivated, but he has insufficient knowledge to provide a sustainable management – then he needs a support. In brief, there should be rational and reasonable approach to everything. Besides, there are tree compounds: economic, ecological, and social, which shall be definitely taken into account.
– You have mentioned several times that the local population should become a key participant of the project, which is an obligatory condition for the successful implementation of all the ideas. How do you see the role of the local population in the implementation of the project objectives?
– The population of the Udora region, the place where the core activities of the project are being implemented, is the main user of the fish resources. However, today the local residents have no access to the fish resources management. Theoretically, there is a possibility for population to manage the resources, but it’s not realized in practice. The target of the project is to achieve such situation when those who are most dependent on the resources, the people to whom these resources are of the most importance, will take part in their management. These are the local residents who have a long-term interest in restoration of the river resources and sustainable management. However, we do not say that the local population should be the only participant involved in the river management. The river is rather big. Local population is not able to control and manage all the parts of the river, for example, the remote ones. It’s quite possible to rent the areas inaccessible for the local population to some third parties, but when choosing the leaser it’s required to pay particular attention to his qualities as a manager. How to define a good manager? It’s possible. The only thing which is needed is a well-established public control.
– The project is aimed at solving the burning problems – it’s hard to argue with this statement. But what are the first steps in its implementation? What has been done already and what is planned to be done this year?
– The first thing we did was we gathered interested, motivated representatives of different organizations for discussion of the problems and joint search for the ways to improve the situation and the common coordinated actions. After the working group was formed we defined the ways and plans of the project implementation. The preparatory stage of the project, which began in summer of 2010, included both a practical part, i.e. the expeditions, and meetings with the population. During two expeditions with participation of Russian and international ichthyologists organized in summer of 2010 potential of the Mezen for restoration of fish resources have been assessed; and necessary recommendations have been developed. What conclusions have been made? First, it’s obvious that in general fish resources are exhausted. Second, there are traces of active poaching on the salmon spawning sites. However, there are some positive findings as well. The main one is that not all is lost, as there is still some fish in the river, which means that there is potential for its reproduction. It’s also very important that many residents of the region understand the fact that the situation is quite serious and are ready to act. Speaking about the results of the expeditions, I should also mention that all the required samples for determination of the fish population condition have been collected; and now they are being analyzed in the laboratory of the Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
This year we are planning to take actions in four directions. The first direction is to start a broad dialogue with the local population in order to prepare the ground for changing from the prohibitions to reasonable management. Second, to develop the cooperation in resources management with the cooperative “AgroUdora”. Third, to strengthen protection of the fish resources, first and foremost, on the salmon spawning sites in the upper reaches of the Mezen. The existing situation cannot be justified by the fact that the poor population is forced to consume these resources in order to survive, because it’s not the poor who are catching the salmon out. This is an obvious poaching. The forth direction of our activities is observation over the amount of fish population, both salmon and other species, inhabiting the upper reaches of Mezen.
– Przemyslaw, many people are expecting active stocking of the river with fish. What can you tell about this? Will there be any fish stocking conducted within the framework of the project?
– I am not an expert in this matter, but according to my experience (and experience of the specialists who visited Mezen last summer) fish stocking makes sense only if applied to the extinct or critically endangered species. It can be also used if there are significant obstacles for the natural reproduction of fish. Having a situation with overfishing fish stocking is senseless. In the first place, a river manager should be defined. There is no point in investing money in fish breeding for the poachers. All traditional fish species have been preserved in the Mezen and they can propagate – it’s important to give them a chance. I would not exclude fish stocking in the future, but there are some preconditions which have to be fulfilled, and it should be reasonable. Primarily, we need to establish a proper protection and rational management, after this we’ll see whether the artificial fish breeding will be needed.
Besides, there is a notion “land capacity”, which is determined for every single area and should be also taken into consideration. Fish are not the sheep in the corral. It’s not water the fish lives on, they only swim in the water, but an appropriate nutritive base should be also provided for them. Every fisherman knows that there are some parts of the river where fish can be easily caught and there are some areas where it’s absolutely impossible to catch anything, because there is no fish there. The river is an ecosystem and we must understand this.
We can also hardly speak about the industrial fishing at this stage – even in the short term, because the industrial fishing can completely exhaust the resources. The target of the project is to switch to a reasonable sustainable management, which will provide a benefit for as much local residents as possible. Above all, this management should be conducted in the interests of the local population. Of course, it should be taken into account that the local population doesn’t have sufficient funds, for instance, to start their business. Therefore, a minimum objective which we see now is to provide an access to the resources for the local residents for their own consumption, whereas a maximum objective is to develop the local business using the river resources (provision of recreation and tourism services, organization of amateur and sport fishing).
– What examples of sustainable river management in other regions and countries can you give?
– Some time ago there was so much salmon in the basin of the Baltic sea that according to the requests of the hired workers it was stipulated in their contracts that the employer will provide them with salmon for meal not oftener than three times a week. In fact, in those times the most accessible product was salmon. Then this species almost disappeared and the people were forced to take measures for its restoration. They didn’t succeed immediately, but today there is a sufficient amount of this fish: even in the center of Stockholm amateur fishermen regularly fish for salmon. However, the situation shouldn’t be left without control. For example, there are such cases that salmon is fished out in the nursery grounds. This is monitored, controlled, and the proper measures are taken.
Previously, there was a similar situation in Canada on the river Miramichi. There the people have long ago placed stakes on the fishing tourism, mainly arranged on the principle “if you have caught a fish – let it go”. Although, one can take the haul, but only if he/she has paid for it. To understand the scope of this activity you can just imagine that along 250 km of the river around 100 bases for sport fishing are established. The people have understood that they can earn by an order more out of sport fishing than if they would sell the fish.
Before they experienced the same situation, at some moment the amount of salmon has dramatically decreased. They started to mark the fish and it turned out that it was harvested from the fishing boats directly on the nursery grounds. The fishing rights were bought out from the Greenlandic government, but instead of fishing the people gave a chance to fish to propagate, and the situation started to improve.
– How is the local population involved in this process? What is its role?
– In Canada on the river Miramichi 32 organizations were engaged in development of the sustainable river management. In this regard, the society is very active there. All the residents take care of the river, particularly, but not inclusively, to keep it clean and beautiful. There are small settlements located along the river and a lot of tourist bases scattered along its banks…The owners, mainly the local residents, are living right there. All the guides are local, part of them are Indians. Incidentally, there is also an Indian reserve there and the indigenous population, Indians, have some additional rights concerning the use of the river resources, and less restrictions on their exploitation.
– Thank you. Let’s hope that the project implementation will also help the residents of the Udora region to switch to the rational and responsible river management.
The interview was conducted by Valentina Semyashkina