“AgroUdora” Cooperative – Problems and Outlook Revisited
On the initiative of the Silver Taiga Foundation and AgroUdora cooperative, another meeting of the cooperative members, engaged in the fishing on the leased fishing grounds of the Irva river, was held on 30 October in Koslan. Almost the entire first half of the day the fishermen, mainly the residents of Glotovo and Koslan, together with the representatives of other interested organizations discussed the current situation in “AgroUdora”, and their most pressing concerns. Most importantly, they have talked about the prospects, development opportunities, and the best and most efficient ways to organize the fishing grounds management with the greater benefit for the local population. In the afternoon, the seminar on the challenges and opportunities of the public control, which is an important prerequisite of the sustainable resources management, was held in the framework of this meeting.
Opening the meeting, the “Silver Taiga” Deputy Director V.T. Semyаshkinа drew attention of the participants to the fact, that the summer-autumn activities, held by the Foundation jointly with “AgroUdora” in the framework of the “Learning to manage sustainably” project, had been conceived and organized primarily for the benefit of the local residents, united in a cooperative. However, all these initiatives can lead to the desired result only if the cooperative members themselves will seek to establish the sustainable long-term river management. Unfortunately, judging by the speech of the cooperative Chairman G.I. Politov on the outcomes of this year’s activities, “AgroUdora” members do not show much initiative so far. Besides, the team facing numerous problems of various kinds is clearly missing a self-discipline, as well as attention and support – both on the part of the municipal authorities and relevant government institutions. Collaboration in the common interests is not yet in place.
This very topic – importance of the cooperation between all stakeholders to establish a proper river management – was covered by the speech of the Silver Taiga Foundation ecologist Nikolay Shuktomov. In fact, the subject of cooperation has been repeatedly discussed in the course of this meeting. For example, the Head of LLC “Udora necklace” A.R. Morozov has spoken about his work on the tours organization with the involvement of the residents of other district villages ready to serve tourists – provide their guest houses and work as guides – on the mutually beneficial conditions. He suggested to the Glotovo residents starting a similar work – development of a rural tourism, including a fishing one, in the framework of the “AgroUdora” activities – in partnership with him.
The Head of the district agriculture and food directorate S.D. Beresneva, having actively participated in the discussion, informed the participants that the republican ministries jointly with the municipality practice financing of the local development projects on a competitive basis; and the cooperative may well take part in such competition and get support. For example, for organization of the system for prompt fresh fish delivery and sale to the district center residents. It is not existing today, because the fishing grounds are situated quite remotely, delivery is not established, and everybody sells fish as he can.
The Head of the Udora division of the interregional NGO “Komi voytyr” A.R. Vaneeva has actively joined the discussion of the river management-related problems. By the way, it was upon her initiative that one of the sections of the annual district conference “Komi voytyr” scheduled for 20 November will be devoted to organization of the sustainable management and rural development.
Some other proposals, recommendations, and friendly advice have also been addressed to “AgroUdora” at the meeting, including the ones from the Head of the district environment protection committee N.P. Krivushev and the Head of the Udora division of FSBI “Komirybvod” A.V. Lenkov.
Alexey Lenkov has informed the participants about the fish breeding prospects in the Mezen basin, stressing the fact, that it would be possible to continue stocking of the fishing grounds with fish started this year by “Komirybvod” and “AgroUdora” with support of the Silver Taiga Foundation. Some other topical issues have also been discussed. For example, how the cooperative should agree with “Komirybvod” and legally organize the reclamation works, that need to be conducted on the fishing grounds.
The meeting turned out to be intense and, hopefully, useful. And, probably, the information about the forms of public control, practiced in other Russian regions, will help the local cooperative to establish public control on the leased fishing grounds, which is highly relevant, according to the meeting participants.
The seminar participants are getting familiar with the program
The Head of the Glotovo branch of the cooperative Oleg Ilyich Krivushev speaking
Valentina Semyаshkinа
The photo is made by Sergey Davydov
Translated by Irina Sokolova
