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Program supported by the Ford Foundation

News, August 2009

Location: Primorskiy Krai, Terneisky raion, Plastun settlement.

Duration: August 18-20, 2009

Participants: 35 participants representing 7 regions of Russia attended the seminar.

The objective of this seminar was to inform representatives of different Russian regions on the opportunities of new jobs creation in the framework of “Sustainable development and jobs in rural areas” (RURALJOB) Program implemented by the fund for Sustainable development supported by Ford Foundartion.

August 18, 2009, Sunday

Morning session

Sergey Grigorievich Kurchinsky, Head of Terneisky raion administration, and Oleg Fokin, FSD Executive Director, greeted the seminar participants and wished them constructive work.

At this session, the seminar’s key speaker Sergey Grigorievich Kurchinsky, Head of Terneisky raion administration, provided an overview of local development plans and defined the current challenges related to high electricity and energy prices as the main obstruction to local sustainable development. He also spoke about the local development program scheduled through 2012. The major development vectors of this program are ecotourism and recreational tourism, sustainable hunting, energy efficiency and deep wood processing. He also informed the seminar participants about two new jobs that were created in the hospital with the use of saved funds.

He also briefly described the mechanisms of cooperation between local administration and Terneyles OJSC in the framework of the current project and mentioned the 10-year agreement between them  on the free supply of sawdust for the new boilers. The overall economic effect of this effort was estimated at the level of 6 million roubles a year for the local budget.

Andrey Zaytsev, FSD projects manager spoke about the RURALJOB program and explained the importance of the dissemination stage of the program.

Plastun RURALJOB project implementer Galina Maximova presented project accomplishments and explained the importance of cross-sector cooperation in such projects. She informed the audience about the program’s Website - www.uragus.ru.

Olga Tremasova, seminar organizer from Northern Primorye Fund, and her colleagues described already completed civic initiatives in the area of jobs creation those that are still in progress in the municipality. New jobs were created in Ust-Sobolevka, Plastun and other settlements of the municipality.

Opening of the RURALJOB Seminar in Plastun Settlement

Afternoon session

 At this session, the seminar’s guests shared information about the situation in remote forested municipalities of their regions.

Sergey Alexandrovich Smirnov, head of Varnavino Municipal Administration in Nizhegorodskaya oblast, which is the second model territory of the RURALJOB Program, spoke about projects implemented in this locality and stressed the extreme importance of converting municipal energy facilities to the use of local energy resources. He, however, pointed out the risk from such conversion in cases of wood waste shortage or when it may be used alternatively (for the manufacture of various wood products). That is why the third grant awarded to this municipality was intended for the purchase of grinders that allow using tree branches and bark as fuel and, thus, increase the sustainability of the new scheme.

Representatives of Laso raion, Khabarovskiy raion in Khabarovskiy Krai, and the city of Dalnegorsk in Primorye described the completed and ongoing civic initiatives in the area of jobs creation in their municipalities.

Seminar guests Maria Strukova (Yekaterinburg), Sergey Nikitenko (Kemerovo) and Vladimir Belogolovov made presentations on the current state of job creation in the sector of the sustainable use of non-timber resources and environmental justice in their regions. Mrs. Strukova described the mechanisms of regional support of such businesses granted by the Government of Sverdlovskaya oblast. Mr. Nikitenko informed the participants about the existing opportunities for business development using funds from federal programs. Mr. Belogolovov presented his view on project preparation with respect to the factor of municipal vitality (development, stagnation or degradation) and warned against investing in efforts that degrade municipalities - this issue aroused a heated discussion that took place after the end of the presentations.  He also spoke about using local values maps as a means of taking an inventory of local resources and increasing the transparency of municipalities budgets, thus, making them more attractive for investors.

During the general discussion that took place after presentations, the participants focused on the following topics:

1. Risks related to the conversion of the municipal energy sector to the use of biomass.
2. Impact of the new Forest Code on program approaches and sustainable forestry.
3. Alternative job creation in the tourism sector.
4. Importance of educating local qualified specialists.
5. Monitoring and evaluation of the results of the job creation effort.

August 19-20, 2009, Wednesday-Thursday

Seminar participants went on a site visit to OJSC Terneyles and two enterprices: veneer sheet factory having been launched in 2009 and Teknowood beam factory that was launched in 1997. Tthey were guided by deputy director of Terneyles Mr. Mashkov Eduard Yurievich.

Seminar participants on a site visit to Terneyles OJSC enterprises

Later seminar participants took part in the  site visit to Plastun hospital’s heating station. Seminar participants became acquainted with the work of the new boilers, received technical information on the project and learned about plans for future development. They also examined the old sun collectors that were installed over 20 years ago but still provide hot water for the hospital’s laundry.

Seminar participants on a site visit to Plastun Hospital heating station
during which they examined the new biomass fuelled boilers

In the afternoon same day the general discussion of the projects and the outcomes of the RURALJOB program on the whole was continued. The seminar participants concluded the following:

1. It is important to manage risks related to biomass shortage in municipalities. These may be reduced by signing long-term agreements with biomass vendors and diversifying sources of biomass.
2. To avoid brain drain, new local jobs should be mainly filled by local youth who are currently receiving educations at colleges and universities in other cities. To achieve this, it was proposed to engage them in local development and job self-creation projects as part of their student projects.
3. It is vital to perform an overall inventory of local resources, define priorities and conduct extensive polls among local residents prior to designing and implementing project.
4. All possibilities of creating jobs, including in the tourism sector and in sustainable agriculture, must be considered. Local values maps are an important tool for achieving this.
5. Cross-sector cooperation and help from NGOs to administrations and businesses is an effective means of promoting a constructive dialogue between officials and citizens.
6. The new Forestry Code creates many new and not always favorable conditions for sustainable forest use, especially in the area of forests control and conservation. However, local initiatives both legal and civic may improve the situation (video surveillance, informal agreements, voluntary control and certification, etc.).
7. A comprehensive methodology for evaluating and monitoring the results and effects of new job creation is required.
8. There exist many opportunities for funding  job creation initiatives, including funds from the Federal Budget in accordance with Order #31 of the Ministry for Economic Development and also from various federal business support programs. However, close cooperation with regional authorities is required to obtain access to these funding opportunities.