On April 16, 2009 the methodological recommendations on biodiversity conservation during loggings in Komi were approved by the State Forestry Service of the Komi.
The recommendations have been developed by Silver Taiga representatives aiming at meeting the requirements of legislation in the sphere of nature protection and biodiversity conservation.
Silver Taiga Foundation has issued a booklet «Recommendations on mushrooms and berries sites allocation important for the local population» written in the Russian language by Yury Pautov and Dmitry Zasukhin under Forest Village Project.
The recommendations are meant for forestry specialists, local authorities of the Komi Republic, activists and for everyone interested in a complex multiple forest resources use and sustainable forest management implementation.
Silver Taiga Foundation has issued a booklet «Recommendations on public hearings organization» written in the Russian language by Yuri Pautov, Valentina Semyashkina and Tamara Makarova under Forest Village Project. The booklet will be interesting for the institutions of self government which organize public hearings, for the community and others who are interested in local people participation in forest management and in environmental issues.
The given booklet continues and enlarges the booklet of 2004 written by Silver Taiga representatives. The recommendations presented in the booklet have been approved by environmental authorities of the Komi Republic.
The booklet reveals goals, objectives and main principals of public hearings organization and holding, rights and obligations of public hearings organizers and participants, practical suggestions for the initiators, organizers and participants of the hearings.
In the Attachment of the booklet you can find a list of regulatory acts of the Russian Federation and the Komi Republic with regard to the participation of the local population in decision making process concerning natural resource use and recommendations on public hearings protocol and conclusions drawing up.
The booklet is free of charge. For additional information you are welcome at office@komimodelforest.ru
On April 15-16, 2009 the Deputy Director of Silver Taiga Foundation Yury Pautov shared the experience of Komi Model forest development in Nizhniy Novgorod region of Russia.
The meeting was initiated by the Forestry Service of Nizhniy Novgorod region and Finnish consulting company «INDUFOR» which are going to create a Model forest under Russian-Finnish program of cooperation with regard to sustainable forest use in the North-West of Russia. The program is being implemented already in Vologda, Archangelsk and Murmansk regions and the Republics of Komi and Karelia.
The meeting was devoted mainly to informing of the interested parties about the project perspectives and to the definition of the project priorities and main activities. At first it was planned to involve several parts of the forestry unit of Nizhniy Novgorod region with the total area of 40 000 ha. During the meeting it was proposed to enlarge the territory of the future Model forest including the biospheric reserve «Nizhegorodskoe Zavolzhje».
The name, structure, the forms of management and financing of a new Model forest are not defined yet. Moreover most of the participants of the meeting showed an interest in the project and are ready to cooperate in its development.
According to Komi Model forest experience the mutual interest and cooperation of the interested parties is the passport to the project success. Let’s hope for a new successful Model forest in the North-West of Russia.
An ecological evaluation of a large pristine forest area (LPFA) located on the border of Archangelsk and Komi regions was made on April 9-10, 2009 on the basis of WWF-Russia in Archangelsk.
The meeting was initiated by Silver Taiga Foundation under High Conservation Value Forests Project. The goal of the project is to find and strengthen the compromise solutions with regard to conservation and sustainable use of pristine forests in Komi and to disseminate the experience to Archangelsk region.
Before 2009 there were 7 pilot settlements in Forest Village Project. Not long ago two more villages have joined the project. They are Priuralsk village situated in the foothills of subpolar Ural (Pechora region) and an old Komi village Turja on the west of the Komi Republic (Knyazhpogost region).
An interview with local people should be done in case the village joins the project. Interview’s data will help to identify the real socio-economic situation of the village. In the end of March 2009 Silver Taiga representatives went to Priuralsk village to make an interview.
The Republican Forest Dialogue was held in Syktyvkar on March 12-13, 2009. Foreststakeholders and other interested parties took part in this event.
This Dialogue was organized by Silver Taiga Foundation under Forest Village Project and it was the continuation of the international Forest Dialogue held in October 2008.
The following issues were discussed during the Republican Forest Dialogue:
Are there natural resources for development of the main branches of industry in Komi forest settlements? What are possible schemes of economically effective resources use? What are the barriers in the development of agricultural and forest industries? What are the ways out ofthese barriers? Is there any possibility to develop tourism and processing of non-timber forest products in Komi forest villages? The participants tried to answer these and some other questions during the Dialogue.
It has been decided to continue discussions of the urgent forest villages’ development issues.
On October 21-24, 2008 more than 50 interested stakeholders from Komi, Russia and some foreign countries got together in Syktyvkar for the Forest Dialogue aiming at discussing «Forest and Rural Livelihoods».
On July 18, 2008 the representatives of local population, funds, science, forest business from Syktyvkar, Udora, Pechora, Izhma, Sosnogorsk and Troitsko-Pechorsk regions of Komi gathered in Silver Taiga Foundation office to discuss the draft of the Forest Plan of the KomiRepublic.
According to a new Forest Code of the Russian Federation the whole system of forestry and business planning has changed a lot. The main innovation of the Forest Code is the Forest Plan of the region – a document of medium-term strategic planning approved by the Head of the Republic for the period of 10 years. The Forest Plan should define the main directions of regional forests use and regeneration in accordance with their resource-economical, ecological and social value.
The main author of the Forest Plan of the Komi Republic is the branch of the Federal Unitary Enterprise «Roslesinforg» – Sevlesproekt (former Northern forest management enterprise of Vologda town). The economic part of the Forest Plan has been prepared by the Institute of socio-economic and energy problems of the North of Komi scientific center of the Russian Academy of Science, the general scheme of forest roads development has been elaborated by the Territorial Fund of Information of the Komi Republic.
According to the procedure of the Forest Plan elaboration and approval it should be broadly discussed and approved by all interested forest stakeholders. With this purpose the Forest Plan draft was presented on the web site (http://komles.rkomi.ru/index.phtml) of the State Forestry Service of Komi in the beginning of July 2008. It should be mentioned that this document is very big in size so it is not easy to get it from the Internet.
In fact the draft of the Forest Plan of the Komi Republic is the continuation of the soviet system of remote forest territories development with no roads, population and infrastructure. As for the developed central and southern regions they are not in the focus of the Plan. Most of the participants of the meeting think that central and southern regions have more perspectives for intensive forestry. The intensification of forest growing in these regions can constantly provide logging companies with wood and more people can get job for a long-term period.
According to Galina Knyazeva a chairman of Community Chamber of the Komi Republic the authors of the Forest Plan should pay attention first to the structure of the forest reserves while projecting and elaborating the scheme of forest development and not to the risky investment projects which are not likely to be realized.
Finally the participants of the meeting agreed to continue the discussion of the Forest Plan draft in the regions of Komi and to direct all the comments and remarks concerning its content to the State Forestry Service of the Komi Republic at email: Okomles@parma.ru or by fax: +7 8212 244327.
Besides the leaders of the Pechora River Rescue Committee Valentina Semyashkina and Tamara Makarova came to the conclusion that according to item 1st of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation and item 12th of the Federal Law № 174 ФЗ «About ecological expertise» the Forest Plan draft is entitled to the state ecological expertise. As a result of a discussion a corresponding letter has been sent to the Minister of Natural Resources and Preservation of the Environment of the Komi Republic Alexander Borovinskikh.
A seminar «Effectiveness of Public Hearings» was held on July 17, 2008 under the project «Forest Village» in the office of Silver Taiga Foundation. The seminar was attended by the representatives of funds, business and autonomous bodies from Udora, Priluzje, Izhma, Sosnogorsk and Troitsko-Pechorsk regions of Komi.