The Third Seminar under the KA334 «Mining Road”

August 19-21, 2013
Pazhala - Kolatselga, Russia

Regular, already the third, Seminar under Mining Road Project was held in Pazhala in 130 kilometers from Petrozavodsk.

More than 35 people representing almost all Mining Road Project partners met to discuss the progress of the Project, share their achievements and agree joint actions for further Project implementation.

Jari Nenonen, the partner from Geological Survey of Finland, told about walking routes arrangement, their information support and the results of the work.

Vitali Shekov, the Project coordinator, informed about the Project progress, including the works implemented by the Leading Partner, Institute of Geology of Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences; special attention was paid to the results of Tulmozero Mining Park preparation for visiting by tourists.

Terhi Rautiainen from Outokumpu Mining Museum presented the results of works made by the Mining Museum.

Denis Kuznetcov and Ekaterina Prokhorova showed presentation about exposition devoted to the history of mining of Pryazha district opened on June 7, 2013 in Pryazha Ethno-Cultural Center.

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Karelia, in the person of Marina Utitcyna, presented musical report about Mining Road Youth Expedition work in creating Tulmozerye Mining Park.

There were excursions during the Seminar.
The visit to the private museum of Alisa Petrovna, who lives in Kolatselga and gathered exposition on the history of her home village in her own house, was very memorable for the Seminar participants.




The Seminar participants also visited the ruins of Tulmozero Ironworks, where the Mining Park is now being established.






For some Finnish Partners there was an additional excursion to the Project sites that are being prepared for tourist companies use on the Russian side. The sites in Pitkaranta and Sortavala districts were visited.

This Seminar has become one more step in Mining Road Project work. Communication during the Seminar presented a good possibility for discussing all the aspects in the Project implementation, propose new - sometimes surprising - solutions for better implementation.
 
Please, visit our web site: http://miningroads.ru where you will see information about our activity in the Project.

Matka.ru project creates the International youth center

Matka.ru (KA342) project is finalizing preparatory activities for creating the International youth center Matkachi near Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia.

LLC Freedom, the contractor for preparation of design specification and estimates and construction of the Matkachi center prepared a sketch plan of the buildings.

The accommodation unit will comprise 7 rooms each designed for 4-6 people. Sanitary rules were considered while designing the premises, total area is calculated on the basis that in children’s camps 4,5 sq.m is required for one child. Total capacity of the accommodation unit for children is 32. During youth camps the total capacity will raise up to 50 people. There will be bathrooms and showers in the building, all adapted for people with limited mobility.

The plan of study and administration unit includes a kitchen and a community hall that will combine a dining area and a training room. The roof over the training room will be elevated in order to make it more spacious. Large windows will ensure beautiful lake view and make the hall bright. 

A 3D model of the buildings is published on the Matka.ru project web site http://matkachi.ru

The blueprints were approved by the Matka.ru administration and the construction company is now able to proceed to the next stage of production of project documents. It’s planned to begin constructing works in October-December 2013.

The proposal on financing the 2nd stage of the Matkachi center development was included to the plan of preparation to the 100-year anniversary of Karelia Republic (2013-2020) which is now evaluated by the State Commission of the Russian Government. On September 4 the deputy minister of education of Russia Veniamin Kaganov studied the perspectives of the project during the meeting of the State Commission in Petrozavodsk.

Inclusion of the Matkachi center to these plans creates the basis for developing the activities initiated by the project in long-term perspective.

Denis Rogatkin

Results of the study of potential Russian rural tourist are available

The study carried out in the RUNAT project gathered updated information and insight into the potential Russian rural tourists and created rural tourist segments based on their motivations and expectations. Besides motivations and expectations, information was also collected on activities, accommodation and on the sources of information used in holiday planning. Data was gathered in Saint Petersburg and Moscow with a paper and pen survey. Also an electronic survey questionnaire was available. Total amount of responses received was 2096.

Besides rural tourism related questions, a few questions regarding general holiday planning were also included in the survey. Respondents were asked to choose the most important motivations for choosing a holiday destination. The four most important statements were the following: Enjoying comfort, spoiling myself (48.4%), broadening my mind, enjoying sightseeing (39.1%), enjoying the sun and water (34.8%) and enjoying landscape and nature (31.1%). The type of destination that was the most preferred was a location on seaside (53.2%).

Based on the importance of the travel motivations, four segments were distinguished via cluster analysis and discriminant analysis: Memorable Experience Seekers, Active Rural Holidayers, Comfort Seeking Romantics and Casual Rural Holiday Seekers.

Read more on the website http://www.uef.fi/fi/aducate/market-research

Satu Karhapää-Puhakka, Project Manager

Aducate, Centre for Training and Development

University of Eastern Finland

www.aducate.fi/runat

"Eco-efficient tourism" proves eco-friendly technologies to be profitable

A training seminar "Eco-efficient technologies in tourism" was held in Sortavala on May, 30 as a part of project KA358. The participants of the Seminar were presented the experience and best Russian and foreign practices of establishment and development of tourism stopovers along popular tourist routes. 

The target group of the Seminar included specialists of District and Settlement Administrations, local entrepreneurs, experts and community leaders developing tourist services in the District, as well as students of Sortavala college who will implement eco-efficient technologies in practice in the near future. 

The keynote of all presentations and vivid discussions was an idea that the introduction of eco-efficient technologies is inevitable despite of all challenges and limitations that exist in Russia. Ultimately, every ruble spent on increase in eco-efficiency leads enormous benefits through the decrease of costs and increase in profit. However we should remember that tourists pay for a beautiful view from the window of his cottage, but not for the energy efficient heat pump installed there. This is why it's extremely important to find a balance between the introduction of eco-friendly technologies and natural beauty of leisure areas. 

For more information - eet-northcentre.ru

AQUAREL heads to White Sea

World-level Arctic ocean research, cultivation of high-value seafood for the top restaurants in St Petersburg and beyond, compounds for ecological cosmetics and a total disconnection from the hectic urban life, staged in the midst of amazingly rich bio- and geodiversities at one side of the coin – extensive challenges posed by logistics, energy production and the Arctic climate on the other. These are some of the main discoveries made by the nine “AQUAREL - Aquatic Resources for Green Energy Realisation” (KA397) project’s Finnish and Russian representatives on the project’s White Sea trip 3^rd-6^th June 2013.

The trip was initiated and hosted by Mr Alexander Pozin from the AQUAREL partner “Mariproduct” JSC. Mariproduct produces mussels, fish and other marine-based products like cosmetics ingredients and offers also services for tourists. The company runs the Marine Farm “Sonostrov” on the island of Tonisoar which is located in the Louhi Region, about 70 km south-east from the village of Chupa. Although accessible from mainland by foot, the distance to the island has to be covered by boats from Chupa due to the lack of roads to more proximate locations. 

Mr Alexander Pozin, director of “Mariproduct” JSC

The main goal of the AQUAREL trip was to deepen the project partners’ understanding on the offerings, circumstances, challenges and possibilities provided by the White Sea and this particular remote location. Corresponding with the project’s main theme, of a special interest for the consortium were the challenges that such isolated, peripheral locations face with energy production and modern solutions for them. The solutions that are applied should enable both electricity and heat production by maximizing the use of local, easy-to-access and environmentally-friendly resources in a sustainable manner. Now having the very practical insight into the conditions and resources available, AQUAREL experts will continue studying the potential embedded in the utilization of, amongst others, storm-cast algae found on the White Sea shores in large quantities. Also the project’s investigations for other innovative biomaterial based solutions applicable to decentralized energy production at peripheral locations will be continued in Finnish-Russian research and business collaboration.

Mussels harvesting at Tonisoar

The AQUAREL project is a collaborative initiative of 3 Finnish and 5 Russian organisations. It focuses on developing energy production from fish waste and aquatic biomaterials, thus reducing the load on ecosystem and providing novel possibilities for creating energy and additional income for fish farms and fish processors in the Republic of Karelia and in Finland. The project started in October 2012 and will last for 20 months.

The project’s main outcomes reached in the project by June 2013 are:

- Increased interest towards fish waste utilisation amongst fish farmers and fish processors

- Report on fish waste production locations and quantities in the Republic of Karelia

- Study on the equipment applicable to fish waste processing in Karelia

- Active collaboration and contacts with fish farms and fish processing plants in Karelia

- Started: Study on White Sea algae utilisation and energy production possibilities

- Studies on the energy potential of different biobased materials available in the Republic of Karelia

- Active collaboration between the project partners, including plans for novel collaboration initiatives and partnerships

The AQUAREL crew

More information about the project: www.culmentor.com/aquarel