Another regular meeting of the Model River Mezen Project Working Group was held on May 15. The main subject of the discussion was the information about the results of the meetings with the local population, representatives of the relevant institutions and self-government authorities of the Mezen district. The Working Group members discussed also the results of the survey conducted in the three Mezen districts according to the conclusion of the interdistrict conference held in Leshukonskoe village in 2014.

Nikolay Shilov, the project coordinator, made a report on the foregoing topics. A great amount of the information was presented to the members of the Working Group, thus it was said about the local population’s attitude towards the situation with the fishery resources of the Mezen and the quality of the resource management, including justification, practicability and fairness of the existing ways of fishing by the local population. The locals were also asked to give their opinion concerning the reasons of the loss of aquatic bioresources, especially salmon. Different proposals, very often exactly opposite, were put forward by the villagers with regard to easing of the situation. Without doubt, one is unlikely to find an ideal way of restoring the exhausted resource due to ambiguousness of the reasons that led to the current situation, as well as the socio-political situation, which is extremely complicated in rural districts. However, the results of these meetings and the survey helped to learn more about the local population’s opinion. They are also important for correcting the project activity and suggesting the further actions towards saving and restoring the resources of the Mezen.

According to Valentina Semyashkina, Silver Taiga Deputy Director, implementation of the project objectives is a long-term cooperation of all interested parties, including relevant institutions, institutes of science and education, NGOs and the local population. This year Silver Taiga Foundation has signed and is realizing the Cooperation Agreements with FSBI “Komirybvod”, “AgroUdora” cooperative, Specially Protected Natural Areas center of Komi Republic. Besides, several joint actions have been planned with the other structures and organizations, including educational institutions.

The proposals of the Working Group members were taken into consideration during preparation of the activity plan for 2015. Some of them have already been realized, the others will be finished during this summer or autumn. For example, a Field School will be organized in June for the students of the Usogorsk State School. An expedition is scheduled for this August to appraise the amount of the upcoming reclamation work on Irva River. According to the last year expedition, the river and its tributaries became bogged up and overgrown. It leads to shortening of the food supply and to the exhaustion of the fish resources. The monitoring and the replenishment of the salmon’s spawning grounds on the upper reaches of the Mezen River and its tributaries will take place in September-October for the 5th season in a row.

Due to systematic and coordinated actions of all interested parties, the foregoing actions, as well as the future activities of the project would contribute to restoring of fish resources and lead to the sustainable resource management.

Working Group meeting

Working Group meeting

Translated by Denis Popov (student)

This was the name of a two-day seminar for rural tourism organizers and guest houses owners conducted under Model River Mezen project in the Udora district of Komi.

The given seminar is not the first event devoted to the rural tourism development in the Udora district: Silver Taiga is supporting this activity under its projects. It should be noted, that the participants of the given seminar had an opportunity not only to exchange the information with each other and to discuss the urgent problems, but also to get acquainted with the experience of the rural tourism development in the neighboring Arkhangelsk region thanks to participation of the entrepreneur from Pinega district Tatjana Sedunova.

Tatiana is being engaged in the rural tourism organization for eighteen years already and, according to her, she has experienced a lot of this business, from the period of outright ridicule in her address to the active support of both the villagers and the authorities. Starting the business in cash-strapped nineties, like many, with trade, she invested her first serious profits in the construction of a children’s camp in the ancient village of Kuchkas… She was one of those who began to revive the famous Artemievo-Verkolsky monastery… Thanks to her initiative the following has been organized and is functioning: tourist rafting from Pinega river headwaters, buying-out of mushrooms and berries from the population and their processing, youth camps, etc. There are guest houses in Verkola and some other villages of the Pinega land and many local people are involved in rendering of services to tourists. The first tourist products and tourist routes spontaneously appeared in the district have been structured, Pinega district has been divided into four clusters, the four most visited areas. They are: the Wild Pinega (the head of the river), the Fairy Pinega (around Karpogory area), the Orthodox Sura (birthplace of John of Kronshtadt), the Blessed Verkola (motherland of many talented people of Pinega). About 2 thousand people visit the local tourist routes per year, 80% of the tourists are from Moscow, but, according to Tatiana, people from the Arkhangelsk region have also begun to come here in recent years.

Being a member of the Arkhangelsk regional Assembly and Deputy Head of the parliamentary Committee on culture and tourism, Tatiana also pays a lot of attention to development of other rural areas of the Arkhangelsk region including villages along Mezen river.

Thanks to Tatiana’s presentation of the rural tourist routes and her comments upon it, the participants of the seminar got acquainted with the directions of tourism development in the neighbouring districts of the Arkhangelsk region. It was interesting to listen to Tatiana’s experience in details. She spoke about her first steps in tourism development, revival of the northern villages, ways out of difficult situations, cooperation with the local population including cultural and educational workers, old residents, farmers, etc.

Tatiana paid special attention to the fact, that thanks to the rural tourism development local people have begun to care about their villages; they support the initiative and propose their own interesting and promising ideas; some people are coming back from towns and cities, restore their native houses and begin to deal with the guest tourism…

According to Tatiana “guest house – it is the whole industry of hospitality” and she gave an example of one of her guest houses in Verkola village, where not only traditional services are provided, but also there is a conference hall in order to conduct meetings, workshops, conferences, etc.

«Tourism – is a good business. But you should be patient as a lot of time and effort are needed to achieve a success!» – says Tatiana to the beginning entrepreneurs from Udora district of Komi. They have a great desire to develop tourism in their district, but have no support of both the villagers and the authorities.

However, Udora representatives have gained some experience in tourism business. Victoria Semenova, specialist of the economic development department of Udora district administration, presented in short the information about tourism development in the district. Alexander Morozov (Udora Necklace ltd.) and Nadezhda Morozova (Children’s Activity Centre) shared their experience of river resources recreational use. Dina Ivanovna Chuprova, a teacher and an organizer of the rural tours, told about the formation of tourist product variants on the basis of the guest houses of Udora district and about the results of research expeditions of children.

Anna Yurchenko, a representative of Tourism Agency of the Komi Republic, answered the questions about the state support of tourist projects. Besides, the participants of the seminar expressed their ideas and proposals towards the Agency including the annual republican exhibition «Rest in the North», which is not functioning nowadays.

During the second day of the seminar the participants visited Selyb village, the guest house of Bushenev’s family, where they were met by the village creative team. Olga Busheneva presented the tourist product step by step – the guest house, the village museum, the church, which is being set in order by the local population. The participants also got acquainted with the local icon painter Oksana Baklanova. They were impressed by her workroom, the story about her work secrets, peculiarities and technique of modern icon-painting, famous Mezen paintings, etc.

At the end of the second day the participants spoke about the benefits and drawbacks of Selyb tourist product and how it is possible to turn the tourism to the sector of the village economy.

According to the participants, the seminar was extremely useful and positive. Besides, the participants exchanged the contacts with each other and are ready to cooperate including exchange of tourist troops of schoolchildren, development of a joint tourist product and participation in the annual conferences of the guest houses owners in Pinega.

The first day of the seminar in Koslan. The Head of Udora district Administration Nikolai Zhilin is among the participants.

The first day of the seminar in Koslan. The Head of Udora district Administration Nikolai Zhilin is among the participants

Participants of the seminar

In Selyb village

Coffee-break with the local dishes

Village creative team

The guest house owner Olga Busheneva is conducting an excursion in the village museum

Tatiana Sedunova in her guest house in Vercola village

In the workroom of the painter

Valentina Semyashkina
Photo by Sergey Davydov and Nadezhda Morozova

During the summer holidays, schoolchildren from the Udora village Politovo took part in the ecological and local lore expedition along the route Politovo – Pyolyaninstan – Politovo, organized by the teacher and local historian Dina Ivanovna Chuprova with the support of the Model River Mezen project.

The expedition’s primary objective was to collect the information about the history of the place Pyolyaninstan and fishing traditions on the upper reaches of the Mezen. Besides, it was assumed, that the experience gained during this journey and the collected materials would help to develop a tourist route to this place, where the residents of several Udora villages had been engaged in the traditional occupation since olden times.

Preliminary, the pupils got familiar with the literary sources about Pyolyaninstan and, in the first instance, with the novel of Yury Vasyutov “Shyr kyvto kato” (“A mouse is swimming and dancing on the waves”), collected the information among their fellow-villagers – residents of Politovo, and during the trip talked to the people they met directly in the fishing camp. Such informants as Politovo resident Alexandr Andreevich Loginov and old-timer Mikhail Fyodorovich Loginov born in this land and now living in Usogorsk managed to tell many interesting things about the history of the place, family plots, fishing traditions on the Yovva, and the fishing camp with which a lot was associated in their life and the life of their fathers and grandfathers.

The expedition participants tell: “Pyolyaninstan is not reflected on the map, but it exists and it’s still inhabited by the people involved in the ancient as the world occupations – hunting and fishing. It is a cherished dream of many Udora residents to make it into Pyolyaninstan and live there for some time. But what kind of place is it? As is known, the Mezen makes a 577 km “loop” on the territory of the Udora district figuratively called “Udora necklace”. In the loop throat the distance between the banks of the lower river area (near the villages Politovo and Patrakovo) and its upper area reaches the lowest value of 27 km. Due to the lack of financial resources, Politovo fishermen are still getting to their family plots using their grandfathers’ 28 km paths…”

The expedition participants reached Pyolyaninstan by other way – the road connecting Verkhnemezensk with the forest village Barma. In the 70-80s of the last century this road had been used for wood transportation from the Barma logging depot. Currently, a 47 km road is broken to such extent, that few of the local residents use it. Thanks to an experienced driver and guide Alexandr Loginov, accompanying the group, they managed to reach Pyolyaninstan without significant problems, though it took a considerable amount of time. The pupils learned from Alexandr Andreevich, the son of a well-known fishing master Andrey Ivanovich Loginov (Ivan Oney), who had been the head of the fishing brigade in the 70s, and from other locals, that Pyolyaninstan had been founded by the brothers Dorofey and Mikit. In the 19th century they built the first family houses here. In 1961, the place consisted of 6 houses, and today there are sixteen of them – including the new ones. By the way, in Pyolyaninstan the expedition participants Alexey Mikhaylov and Nikita Trofimov got familiar with the houses built by their grandfathers and great-grandfathers and even took photos near them.

The expedition participants have collected the information about the history of the fishing camp, photographed and described the old family homes, as well as the auxiliary constructions of the fishermen – barns and ice cellars for storage of the caught fish and game, and learned about the history and owners of each of them. They have also made a description of the new constructions – the houses built here in the second half of the past century and already in the beginning of the current century. Among those – a former sovkhoz house for the hay producers living here during the hay making time. An interesting part of the group work was collecting of the information about the toponimy of the upper reaches of the Mezen.

Currently, the schoolchildren jointly with their teacher are engaged in the processing of the collected information. They are preparing a report and presentation based on the material obtained during the expedition, as well as the description of a future tourist route from Usogorsk to Pyolyaninstan.

Valentina Semyashkina
Translated by Irina Sokolova