Local population hope to get support from the State Council of the Komi Republic
A meeting of the Udora district community with the chairman of the Committee of the State Council of the Komi Republic on nature management and ecology A.P. Makarenko was held in Koslan. During this meeting a discussion on the topic raised in one of the editions of the thematic supplement “Model river Mezen” by a reader Mikhail Fedorovich Loginov (an article “Near the river – but without fish?” dd. May 29th, 2012) was continued.
M.F. Loginov offered, first of all, to stop or restrict sport and amateur fishing organized on the area leased by the Federal State Institution “Komirybvod” in the upper reaches of the Mezen (Mezensky №1 plot). Secondly, he suggested introduction of changes in the rules of amateur fishing with account of the interests of the indigenous population of the rural districts. These proposals – in more detail and with specific justification – were sent by the author to the State Council of the Komi Republic. Moreover, many representatives of the Udora community and some deputies of the municipal district Council signed the letter addressed to the legislative body.
This very initiative was a reason for organization of the meeting. Alongside with Alexander Makarenko and authors of the letter it was attended by representatives of Federal State Institution “Komirybvod”, department of Aquaculture and Fishery of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Komi Republic, department of state control, supervision and protection of water biological resources of the Udora district, Udora district Environment Protection Committee, “Agroudora” cooperative, Komi Regional Non-Profit Foundation “Silver Taiga”, hunting and fishing society, etc. Head of the Udora municipal district V. Fedorov was the moderator of the meeting.
Many participants of the meeting supported the author of the letter and expressed themself in favor of prohibition of amateur fishing in the upper reaches of the Mezen (upstream of the bridge). Natalia Vurdova, Head of the department of state control, supervision and protection of water biological resources of the Udora district, also acknowledged the problems related to the situation on the fishing plot Mezensky №1. In her opinion, the leaseholder doesn’t manage to control the situation on the leased plot. Besides, Natalia Vurdova voiced her claims against the tour operators working in the district and the administration of the district. According to her, presence of tourist groups on this territory makes the poaching situation worse, whereas the administration of the district doesn’t facilitate the improvement of the situation.
In the opinion of the next speaker, deputy Alexander Klokov, the discussion shouldn’t be focused on the prohibition of the recreational fishing and tourism, because “bans will hardly enable us to solve a lot of problems”. It’s required to get the situation under strict control: to deal with the huts illegally built in the upper reaches only during the last years, actively involve outside inspectors – members of the hunting and fishing society.
Nikolay Krivushev, Head of the Udora district Environment Protection Committee, shares the same position. He offered to the participants of the meeting “not to prohibit but to discuss how it’s possible to carry out the control by means of joining the efforts of all departments and the public opinion.”
One more participant of the meeting, Head of the Federal State Institution “Komirybvod” Yury Tsylke, agreed that it hadn’t been possible to establish a civilized recreational fishing on the leased area so far. According to him, it’s difficult to control the plot with the length of 105 km, and the state-financed organization doesn’t have money to arrange it properly. However, it’s needed to move forward. For example, it’s possible to start stocking of the area with juvenile grayling, which a tenant can manage. According to Yury Ludvigovich, prohibition of the sport and amateur fishing doesn’t mean that poachers who took a fancy to these places will stop visiting them.
Having heard different opinions, A. Makarenko suggested establishing of a public council in the region for solving such problems. The council will accumulate all opinions and make decisions taking into account interests of each party.
As for the second problem touched upon by Mikhail Fedorovich Loginov – impairment of the rights of the local residents, primarily, indigenous population, to the traditional use of river resources – it didn’t arouse any disputes and disagreements among the participants. In spite of the fact that the current version of the Fishing Rules contains some easing compared to the previous one, rural residents with their life mainly depending on the river and forest resources still stay lawbreakers.
In this regard, coordinator of the Silver Taiga Foundation Valentina Semyashkina in her speech paid attention to the fact that, unfortunately, Russian legislation includes only industrial fishing or sport amateur fishing, whereas traditional use of river resources – for the local population needs – is not covered by the law. In other words, rural population has the same rights as the amateur fishers with fishing as a hobby far away from the primary needs. In her opinion, it’s possible to change the situation to some extent at the republican level by acceptance of the law on traditional nature use, as in many remote villages of the republic people are living almost entirely by means of natural resources and traditional management.
As a member of the Working group of the “Model river Mezen” project, she also turned attention of the State Council representative to the proposal of the project members on the necessity to develop an agreed interregional (Arkhangelsk region and Komi Republic) state program on rescue of the Mezen salmon population, because it’s hard to change the situation by piecemeal actions. The Working group of the “Model river Mezen” project together with involved specialists is ready to develop the proposals for this program if the republican authorities will support this initiative and come forward with this initiative to the authorities of the Arkhangelsk region.
Translated by Irina Sokolova