MEETING AT RODNOYE

by Viacheslav Sokolin, Rodnoye Eco-community

On 28 October 2006 a meeting was held in the local comprehensive school in the village of Il'ino between Alexander Viktorovich Smirnov, personal representative of the Russian President in the Sudogda District of Vladimir Oblast, who chairs the local Public Consultation Committee, and the residents of the surrounding villages and delegates from the eco-community of Rodnoye. Officials invited to speak included the chairman of the Sudogda Council of People's Deputies B.V. Mishulin, Deputies E.V. Sigunov and P.V. Borisov, as well as Head of the Golovino Rural District G.V. Kravchenko, currently serving as leader ot the local chapter of the United Russia party.

Questions were raised about possibilities for developing the territory specifically to accomodate the establishment of new eco-communications, with a view to implementing the special federal programme on the development of the village by 2010 and national priority projects. An agreement was reached on working out a joint plan on development possibilities. Andrei Lazarevsky, an expert from the Russian State Duma who spoke at the meeting, discussed forthcoming changes in land legislation.

The parents in the hall were accompanied by a large number of children of different ages, along with a teacher from the Il'ino school, Eleonora Malinkina, who recommended that the adults follow the example of the children who had come to Il'ino from different parts of the country. Even though they came from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, this did not hinder them from finding a common language, studying hard and delighting their teachers and parents.

Also present at the meeting was Ms N.S. Kukushkina, an elder from the congregation of the Church of the Holy Grand Martyr Dimitri Solunsky, which was located right next door to the Rodnoye eco-settlement. The discussion was warm and friendly, a number of different questions were raised openly, and opinions frankly expressed. In responding to questions from the floor, Alexander Smirnov noted that he saw no problem in implementing the possibilities discussed.

There was general support for the initiative of a collective appeal to Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to allocate one hectare of land free to Russian citizens for lifetime use with right of inheritance (but without right of sale) for the creation of a kin's domain. Produce grown in this kin's domain should not be taxable. The text of the appeal was read and approved at the meeting.

Viacheslav Sokolin, Rodnoye Eco-community - www.Anastasia.ru

VLADIVOSTOK, 7 November (Viktor Koziakin, National News Agency Correspondent) .

In the Primorie (Pacific Coast) Province of Russia the destruction of cedar forests has taken on catastrophic proportions, and the residents of the taiga village of Ariadnoye are ready to defend their ‘Nourisher' with shotguns in hand, if they do not get any help from the Russian authorities.

Only the ‘Greens' and local residents are concerned about the fate of this ‘tree of life'. Tired of lawlessness in the taiga, the residents of the taiga settlements in Primorie have given up hope of receiving help from either the Russian Natural Resources Service or the Russian Forestry Agency. They no longer trust the Russian President's personal representative in the Far East. Even less can they count on any so-called ‘favours' from the Governor of Primorie. At their meeting the residents protested openly against the cutting of the cedars.

Everything has a limit, including people's patience. Despite a 1989 official prohibition against cedar cutting, these trees continue to be subject to active logging operations in Primorie. Some hide behind fake licences for ‘environmental thinning', while others openly participate in illegal poaching. The scale of cedar devastation has gone far beyond permissible limits. Primorie residents are no longer in a position to keep track of how their (not only the region's but the whole country's) natural cedar wealth is being plundered.

Two years ago ecologists launched “Project Cedar — Tree of Life” in five regions of Primorie. In support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) some 70,000 cedar sapllngs were planted. Over the past six months eighteen different school expeditions surveyed the cedar stands and cutting sites in the Chuguev, Ternei and Krasnoarmeiski regions of the province.

WWF activists approached Japanese buyers of Russian Far East timber, asking them to stop buying cedar wood and avoid the risk of acquiring illegal goods. The ‘Greens' have been demanding through their actions, questionnaires and appeals that the Primorie cedar forests be left in peace. They are promoting the idea of creating cedar reserves near Primorie communities that would be looked after by lcoal residents and could be used for their own needs. After all, for thousands of people living in the taiga villages of the Russian Far East, the cedar is indeed a ‘tree of life'.

The urgent need to take emergency measures is clearly evident in the case of the taiga village of Ariadnoe, where wild brigades of timber poachers began hacking down cedar trees. They literally had Ariadnoe by the throat, tossing felled cedars into practically every stream feeding the Malinovka River — at Upper Kontora, Todokhova Creek and Ladoshina Creek.

The poachers' brazenness and impunity drove the villagers to appeal to the district authorities for protection. Alas, however, there was no response to the demand to put an end to the lawlessness. Then the Ariadnoe residents decided to take matters into their own hands — they collected more than 130 signatures on a petition protesting the cutting of cedars and lindens and then appealed to the Russian WWF and to the press.

Some four hundred and fifty people — just about the whole popluation of Ariadnoye — turned out for a meeting.

“It seems today that we are no longer in charge of the forest — the poachers are,” said resident Viktor Begun, expressing his concern at the meeting. “Because there's no controlling them. Does that mean that we local residents are just nobodies?”

“You won't be able to find a cedar-cone even in broad daylight!”

The general outcry of the gathering went something like this: “We appealed to the District Chairman a week ago, but the cutting hasn't stopped. We're the ones who live here, not these entrepreneurs who come barging in here to destroy the taiga. It won't be long before our children and grandchildren have nothing left to collect in the forest — you won't be able to find a cedar-cone even in broad daylight. Once they cut down the cedars and lindens, what's next? Poisoning the bees by crop-dusting?”

The only advice the official representatives could offer at the meeting was to set up volunteer protection patrols.

An appeal from the residents of Primore was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin: “We believe that all cutting of cedars and lindens, including so-called ‘environmental thinning', should be banned outright. ‘Environmental thinking' is nothing but a loophole for big industry. And the ban should be strictly enforced.”

The taiga residents are convinced that an outright ban is the only valid solution to radically change the status quo. The main thing is to get this appeal to the President and have him respond to it before the Primorie cedars are nothing but a memory.

National News Agency (ANN) - www.ANNews.ru

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