Projects Efficiency and Strategy for the Future
At another meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Silver Taiga Foundation held on September 25, the issues relevant for the foundation life and activity were considered and the strategy for the near future was discussed.
The Coordinating Council is the supreme management body of the Silver Taiga Foundation and, according to its Charter, it performs the control functions, assesses the current situation, efficiency of the projects under implementation and potential of the new ones, ensures the observance by the Foundation of the goals it was created to accomplish.
The conducted meeting is already the second this year. The Foundation Director Yury Pautov has introduced the Coordination Council Chairman Jeremy Williams and its members Mikhail Karpachevsky, Przemyslaw Majewski, and Natalia Sedusova to the information on the main achievements of this year and the obstacles encountered during the project tasks implementation. The Council members have highly evaluated the High Conservation Value Forest project progress, especially an inclusion of the new SPNA on the base of the reserved valuable pristine forest massifs proposed by the Silver Taiga in the Republican program for development of the network of specially protected natural areas of the Komi Republic for the period up to 2030. Appreciation has also been expressed for the awareness-raising and educational work with the local population in the framework of the Model River Mezen project and the beginning of the joint programs with the Arkhangelsk region aimed at the monitoring of the Mezen salmon population.
An enthusiastic discussion was focused around such issues as the problems and prospects for the development of the Komi Model Forest, especially the Foundation interaction with the Russian and foreign partners in the new environment, where, in view of the sanctions imposed by the EU and other countries against Russia, implementation of many joint initiatives has proved problematic.
The Coordination Council members have become familiar with the results of the financial audit of the Silver Taiga Foundation activity for 2013, information on the financial situation of the organization, and the changes in the foundation staff, and discussed the dates of the next meeting. The Coordination Council members have made agreed decisions and developed recommendations the Foundation should adhere to in its current work regarding all the issues on the agenda.
Valentina Semyаshkinа
Translated by Irina Sokolova