As part of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary since foundation of the Kostomukshsky Strict Nature Reserve, an IntellGreenBelt project training seminar on promotion of PA (protected area)-based educational excursions and learning tourism was organized.
The seminar was co-organized by the Karelian Research Centre and the Kostomukshsky Strict Nature Reserve (a project partner). The seminar participants were government officials (Republic of Karelia Ministry of Nature Use and Environment, RK Ministry of Culture, RK PA Directorate), experts from scientific and educational institutions of Finland and Russia, mass media.
In addition to presentations on the IntellGreenBelt project and progress, the seminar programme included presentations on various aspects of tourism development. One of the presentations dealt with GIS applications in PA management and monitoring. Other topics were the involvement of wetlands and historical and archaeological sites in ecological and learning tourism. The concept of promoting scientific excursions and learning tourism in Kostomukshsky reserve, prepared within the IntellGreenBelt project and presented by the reserve director A. Tarkhov, arose much interest. The presentation offered exhaustive information about the current situation with tourism in the reserve, as well as about the visions and practical steps to develop it.
The seminar was set in the field, at the Kostomukshsky reserve integrated monitoring station, so that the participants had the possibility to both visit the wilderness and witness the practical outputs of the reserve’s tourism development activities. The participants walked nature trails and saw the recently built infrastructure: trails, gazeboes, scenic overlooks, etc. The efforts will be continued within the IntellGreenBelt project, which will deploy information boards in the reserve this summer.
Project activities related to building small hunting, fishing and learning tourism infrastructure are now progressing from the planning, feasibility study and negotiating phase to the implementation phase. That is why, once the seminar had ended, the project experts moved straight to another project pilot area – Muezersky District, where small infrastructure is to be built for fishermen and hunters. Practical construction issues were discussed during the working meeting at the Muezersky District Administration (another project partner) and the visit to the site selected for infrastructure building. Having examined the sites, the working group agreed they were not just an optimal choice for building facilities for hunters and fishermen, but also enabled involvement of additional tourism resources, such as nearby structures from World War II.
Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery (photo by Igor Georgievsky)
