The second conference devoted to the foundation of Coordination Council for voluntary forest certification in Komi was held on October, 26 in Komi State Forestry Service. The members of forestry units and wood enterprises certificated according to the voluntary forest certification system, representatives of educational establishments, enterprise advisers, and Silver Taiga Foundation took part in the conference.
A group of Swedish specialists visited Pechora-Ilych Natural Reserve during August 31 – September 08, 2010 . They had a field study tour «Landscape-ecological characteristics of virgin taiga forests».
In October – November 2010 the representatives of Silver Taiga Foundation have gathered field materials on the territory of Komi Model Forest for the «Ecosystem and landscape background of forestry and FSC certification planning» project under cooperation with European Space Agency (ESA), Mondi Group and FSC International.
Can logging companies participate in preserving of biological diversity? Yes, they can, and they must. Unfortunately, they are not always ready for it. That is why one of the current objectives of Silver Taiga Foundation is to work out methodological recommendations for saving biological diversity during logging as a part of the project “High conservation value forests”. To show the logging companies new methods and to make recommendations more visual, specialists of the Foundation are planning to organize training seminars and excursions.
During the last week of June, Silver Taiga team visited the Pechora-Ilychski Natural Reserve. This trip was part of the study course “Landscape-ecological Peculiarities of Pristine Taiga Forest” organized specifically for Silver Taiga staff. It was conducted by Yury Pautov, forest policy coordinator of Silver Taiga Foundation.
During a fortnight of 8-20 June, Silver Taiga Foundation organized an expedition to Pyssa pristine forests massif, which is situated on the border of Udora district (Komi Republic) and Leshukonskoye district (Arkhangelsk region). Pyssa pristine forests massif is one of the last large low-disturbed forest territories in the European part of Russia which was marked by non-governmental nature conservation organizations.
The Forests Dialogue “Virgin forests of the Komi Republic: alternatives to extensive forest exploitation” was held on 12 and 13 April at the initiative of the Silver Taiga Foundation in Syktyvkar.
Public version of the documents of Koigorodok forestry unit can be found among other official documents in the Russian version. There are “Plan of forest management of Koigorodok forestry unit” and “Summary of monitoring results of the forest, forest production, forestry and its social and ecological consequences of Koigorodok forestry unit for 2009”.
At the end of August, 2009 Silver Taiga representatives organized a two-week expedition to Pyssa pristine forest massif situated in the North of Udora region of Komi.
The goal of the expedition was to investigate pristine forests along Pyssa river, define an ecological value of this forest massif, get acquainted with traditional use of nature in pristine forests by local population and estimate the value of pristine forests for local population.
On June 5, 2009 a final workshop dedicated to Russian-Sweden project «Elaboration of revelation and investigation strategy of high biological value in south taiga zone» was held in St. Petersburg State Forestry Academy. The project realization period is spring 2006 – spring 2009. The project is managed by Pro Natura Fund and Baltic Fund for Nature.