• Home • About Fund  • Partners • Contact Info • Fund's Programs
 

Sustainable Development and Jobs in Rural Areas (RURALJOB)

Funded by:

News:
September 2007. |  February 2008.  |  November 2008.  |  August 2009.  |  August 2009.  |  August 2009.  |  September 2009.

The Program was developed for supporting communities - Sustainable Development and Jobs in Rural Areas (RURALJOB) – aimed at helping rural communities located in forested areas to address the following issues:

The key goal of the Program was to create viable models of citizen participation in conservation in conjunction with dynamic local economic development based on equal access to natural resources (mainly, forest resources) and their rational use. The fulfillment of this Program in 2007-2009 was funded by the Ford Foundation.

The Program, in effect, was a follow-up and a practical implementation of an earlier small research project carried out by FSD – Energy Efficiently at the Municipal Level: Local Community Development to Improve the Quality of Life and  Environment – supported by the Ford Foundation in 2006-2007.

Methods

Program goals were achieved by using the following approaches:

Core Principles

Program activities were based on the following core principles:

  1. Ensuring environmental and economic sustainability and safety of projects  and providing them with independent expert assistance (during the projects and after their completion as well) in support of rational utilization of savings;
  2. Partial project funding from local sources (this guaranteed that in the future a community would be able to raise resources independently);
  3. Maximum transparency of plans and activities; interaction among stakeholders and citizen groups with professional auditors; readiness to share results with neighbors;
  4. Project results must clearly demonstrate the sustainability and potential for development after the end of Program funding (dissemination of skills and knowledge obtained at trainings funded under the Program).

Implementation

The Program consisted of two phases. During the first, projects were carried out on two model sites: in Varnavinsky raion, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, and Terneisky raion, Primorsky krai, which were selected in a contest held among over 20 municipalities. Despite the abundant forest resources, well-developed timber processing industry and large amounts of wood waste, the administrations of both municipalities were spending up to one-fourth of their budgets for purchasing coal or diesel fuel and delivering it from locations many hundred and even thousands of kilometers away (at times the cost of delivery exceeded that of the fuel by several times).

Project activities involved converting boiler plants to the use of local renewable energy resources (wood waste, simply put). This made it possible to get rid of waste occupying large areas, decrease hazardous emissions, save sizeable funds for the local budgets and create new jobs. Simultaneously, not only the workers of the boiler plants, but other community members as well were trained in the basics of energy saving, rational use of local resources and creation of partnerships. Thus, the students of the Technology and Economics College in Varnavino underwent a course Small Business Creation and received official certificates.

      The second phase was devoted to disseminating best practices to neighboring municipalities and other regions of the country through seminars, trainings, meetings and the mass media. A mobile exposition Povetluzhye devoted to the social/economic and environmental/cultural potential of the raion was created in Varnavinsky raion. It was displayed in five regions of the Russian Federation.

      The Program attracted a vivid interest in many locations. Its team received requests for participation in seminars and conferences and information about the Program from 50 municipalities. Thus, it was decided to extend the second phase for another three months.

The Program consisted of two phases. During the first, projects were carried out on two model sites: in Varnavinsky raion, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, and Terneisky raion, Primorsky krai, which were selected in a contest held among over 20 municipalities. Despite the abundant forest resources, well-developed timber processing industry and large amounts of wood waste, the administrations of both municipalities were spending up to one-fourth of their budgets for purchasing coal or diesel fuel and delivering it from locations many hundred and even thousands of kilometers away (at times the cost of delivery exceeded that of the fuel by several times).

Project activities involved converting boiler plants to the use of local renewable energy resources (wood waste, simply put). This made it possible to get rid of waste occupying large areas, decrease hazardous emissions save sizeable funds for the local budgets and create new jobs. Simultaneously, not only the workers of the boiler plants, but other community members as well were trained in the basics of energy saving, rational use of local resources and creation of partnerships. Thus, the students of the Technology and Economics College in Varnavino underwent a course Small Business Creation and received official certificates.

      The second phase was devoted to disseminating best practices to neighboring municipalities and other regions of the country through seminars, trainings, meetings and the mass media. A mobile exposition Povetluzhye devoted to the social/economic and environmental/cultural potential of the raion was created in Varnavinsky raion. It was displayed in five regions of the Russian Federation.

      The Program attracted a vivid interest in many locations. Its team received requests for participation in seminars and conferences and information about the Program from 50 municipalities. Thus, it was decided to extend the second phase for another three months.

Key Results

A total of 5 projects were carried out in the above municipalities. The results of project activities were presented at seminars joined by local officials, entrepreneurs and citizen of more than 40 municipalities from ten regions of the country. Grants for projects were provided on the condition of co-financing from local or regional budgets. Thus, in Primorsky krai the regional government granted over 4.5 million rubles (three times more than the initial grant) and, in addition, after becoming acquainted with the concept of the project had recommended all municipalities to utilize this experience. Similar recommendations were given by the head of Varnavinsky Raion Administration to his colleagues at the Povetluzhye Association that unites 25 municipalities from five regions of the country.

   As a result, in two municipalities 8 new jobs were created, inlcuding 2 in the government sector (at the cost of municipal budget savings). Such changes have a long-term positive effect on communities such as in Plastun settlement, where savings were used for hiring an urologist and a nurse for the local hospital and acquiring equipment for crushing kidney stones, which is the only one in the region outside of its capital, Vladivostok. Today, in Plastun, residents of four raions undergo complex surgery (this not only enhanced the prestige of the raion, but also helped it to receive additional funding for the local budget and considerably decrease expenses for treating hundreds of patients who live on an area equal to that of Slovakia).

  After the end of the projects, heating costs in Varnavinsky raion decreased by over 2 million rubles a year and in Terneisky raion by 5 million rubles.

As soon as wood waste began to be used as fuel instead of coal and diesel fuel, the environmental situation improved significantly – greenhouse gas emissions decreased by almost half. The issue of fuel stealing (almost 15% of the delivered fuel was stolen) was also solved.

            Local and interregional NGOs took an active part in project implementation (Povetluzhye Association in the Volga Region and Uragus Conservation Society and Northern Primorye Development Support Fund in Terneisky raion), thus demonstrating to the local authorities that conservation activists cannot only be critics and troublemakers, but reliable partners as well. NGOs were the first to act as a key connecting link between government, business and communities. They also ensured utmost openness of project activities and a broad dissemination of project results, which, in the end, helped raise additional funding from businesses and regional budgets.

            Obviously, after the end of FSD funding, the new partnerships not only did not disintegrate, but began to more actively address critical issues related to local development, environmental protection and rational use of resources: in Varnavinsky raion increasing numbers of timber processing plants are becoming engaged in supplying fuel to boiler plants, and in Terneisky raion negotiations are under way between Terneiles LLC and the local administration on the further development of the local energy efficiency program.

Dissemination of Experience

            In November 2008, these issues were discussed at a seminar Innovative Technologies and New Jobs for Rural Communities organized by FSD, Varnavinsky Raion Administration and Povetluzhye Association. The seminar was attended by officials from 12 municipal administrations from the Republic of Mari El, Vologda, Kirovskaya and Nizhny Novgorod oblasts, the staff of the Nature Saving Technology Center, an NGO from Nizhny Novgorod, representatives of business firms, energy efficiency experts from Dzerzhinsk Polytechnic University and lawyers and environmentalists from Moscow. The seminar participants visited a boiler plant in Mikhalenino, where a special boiler was installed that works on wood waste. The materials of the seminar were used for preparing the mobile exhibition Povetluzhye.

            In August 2009, in Plastun, a seminar Energy Efficiency and Jobs in Remote Rural Areas in the Russian Far East was organized by FSD and the Northern Primorye Development Support Fund. The participants in the seminar from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Buryatia, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod and Sakhalin oblasts and Primorsky and Khabarovsk krais  discussed new jobs creation in their regions and shared experience in this sphere.

            Much attention at the seminar was focused on the creation of new jobs in such sectors as tourism and the collection and processing of non-timber forest products for which funding from various sources may be used. It was noted that when using integrated approaches that involve creating new jobs in several places simultaneously, communities benefit by increased economic efficiency due to less dependence on seasonal factors and the macroeconomic situation.

            The participants in the seminar became acquainted with the work of the new boilers in the local hospital, technical information related to the Program and plans for the nearest future.

Lessons Learned

In the course of implementing the Program its participants and organizers learned many valuable lessons. Following are just a few of them.

            There is an obvious need to manage risks related to the possible shortage of wood waste. They may be mitigated by signing long-term contracts for the supply of wood waste from various locations (as has been done in Varnavinsky and Terneisky raions) and expanding the range of waste suitable for burning, in particular, by processing it with inexpensive shredders.

            At the same time, the problem of unemployment among young professional community members may also be addressed if the new jobs are filled, in the first place, by local youth studying in large cities. For this, they should be engaged in community development and job creation projects (including jobs for themselves) at the phase of term papers and graduation papers. This could become a strong insensitive for their return home after receiving an education.

Project development and implementation should be preceded by a thorough “inventory” of local resources, an identification of local priorities, a study of community opinions and local features and possibilities for creating new jobs (for example, in the sphere of tourism, collection and processing of forest products and rational agricultural methods).

Key to success is the establishment of productive interaction among government, citizens, businesses and NGOs and the promotion of multi-stakeholder participation.

Of special significance is the creation of an integrated results monitoring and assessment methodology.

There is a whole range of possibilities for creating jobs, including with the use of funds from the Federal Budget and a variety of government business support programs, but to translate them into reality requires closer cooperation with regional and local governments, businesses and NGOs.

A.E.Volkov, A.S.Zaytsev, Y.N.Yeldyshev "Sawdust Instead of Coal and Diesel Oil or Energy from Waste" ECOLGY and LIFE · 2(99) 2010

About the Fund | Contact Information | ©2005 Fund for Sustainable Development