FUN TO WANDER IN THE NATURAL RESERVE
On 7-14 July 2018 the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development facilitated a tour on landscape and environmental characteristics of intact forests of the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve for members of the Nature Association of the Canton of the Jura, Switzerland. In addition, the visitors had a chance to see a moose farm and the reserve’s museum and learnt about the history of the specially protected natural area.
The tour was held along demonstration routes of the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve developed by the Silver Taiga Foundation back in 1998, which are still used a lot. The information about the routes is shared among members of the foundation or its partners. The Swiss Nature Association learnt about them from Jürgen Blaser, a professor of the Bern University, who walked along them in 2017 with a group of students and professors of the university – 22 people in total. They studied regularities of the natural dynamics of taiga and specifics of the forestry sector in the Komi Republic.
At the moose farm in the reserve
This year, the group of Swiss nature lovers walked along the Piedmont Taiga of the Northern Ural route lying on an old horse road that used to connect two small villages – Sobinskaya and Shaytanovka – some time ago. Now, there are cordons of the reserve instead of them. The visitors also inspected two routes near the Shezhym cordon.
“The Swiss tourists were astonished at the rich nature of the reserve. They were pleasantly surprised about hospitality and friendliness of the reserve inspectors, but most of all they were overwhelmed by the vastitude of intact wilderness. Switzerland is a small country which can be travelled across in 3-4 hours, so they were deeply impressed travelling by boats for two days with no people in sight and hiking for many kilometers,” Yury Pautov, director of the Silver Taiga Foundation, who conducted the tour for the Europeans, says.
The Swiss were deeply impressed travelling by boats for two days with no people in sight and hiking for many kilometers
The tour was attended by biology and zoology experts. Ornithologists managed to accumulate really lots of material. On the routes, they observed rare birds which have disappeared in Switzerland or are endangered. During the visitors’ stay on cordons they saw bear traces. One of the travelers was lucky to see a bear cub crawling about on the river bank, when the boat was moving up the Pechora river.
The Swiss visitors of the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve are interested in wilderness and visit mostly natural reserves and national parks
The Swiss visitors of the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve are interested in wilderness and visit mostly natural reserves and national parks. They have been to Poland (Belovezhskaya Pushcha), Canada, Senegal, Madagascar, owing to the fact the Swiss Nature Association arranges such expeditions in many countries of the world. As for Russia, it was the first experience of the group in this country.
The Silver Taiga Foundation has been arranging educational programs in the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve since 1999. For this time, experts from Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Russia have tested the environmental routes.
“Previously, the reserve’s infrastructure left much to be desired – one had to sleep in tents, bathe in the river and cook on fire. Now, visitors may relax in comfortable conditions in a hotel or guest houses on the Shezhym cordon. There is a banya which you can use any time. The routes are equipped with signs, cleared of debris, visitors are offered various souvenirs. This, of course, became possible due to the reserve’s staff who focus a lot on education and popularization of one of the most beautiful protected areas of Russia,” Yury Pautov sums up.
The group is for the first time in Russia
