Implementation of research tasks, methods and schedule



Task 1. Analysis and comparisons of the concept of social sustainability in Russian, Finnish and international discussion with fo-cus on relationships to economic and ecological dimen-sions of sustainabili-ty.

A historical analysis is needed to determine the development of the social dimensions in forestry sector in Russia and Finland . This is closely related to the conceptual analysis of social suxtainability where comparative analysis is needed to identify the differences and similarities of the approaches developed in different social conditions.

Major working method is a joint seminar, during the first half of the first year and the report on the results of the seminar.

Research group: all researchers in project 2 will participate.

Task 2. A study on the socio-economic conditions of the popula-tion and the communities near to the model area.

The condition of the population, living on local territory, is described from the positions of general demographic factors and social conditions.

Important part of the socio-economic data is collected by doing household inter-views in the village of Matroza. The structured questionnaires are used to gather information on personal life-histories, age, marital status, national and professional structure of population, housing conditions, services, utilisation of natural products, structure of income, self-production of food, and other ele-ments of household production of local population. The interviews will be based on methods used by the members of the research team in earlier village studies in Russian Karelia and in Finland. In order to outline the historical development of the relationship of the village and the forest, also personal interviews of the key persons and specialists will be carried out (for example of teachers, admini-strators, pensioners, political activists). The interview data will be con-nected with historical and background material from various sources, such as local and Karelian Republic statistics, archives, maps, pho-tos, newspaper articles and earlier studies.

The interview data will be transformed into computer databases, which can be analyzed with statistical and interpretative methods. Together with the background material the results and possible conclusions will discussed in seminars of the Taiga Experimental Forest Area project and they will be made available also in published articles or reports.

The interviews will be organised by the Russian-coordinator, the interview forms will be designed together by social scientists and forest economists. The Finnish social scientists will participate in the training of interviewers and in the field-work.

Time table: Task 3. An assessment of the employment situation and past develop-ment of the communities especially in relation to forestry and forest industries including the fuel-wood utilization.

This task is fulfilled by the forest economists and the social scientists together, using the available official and industrial data and the information of the household survey. Task 4. An inventory of the use and potential of non-wood forest products including recreational and cultural functions of the forests.

The problem of social sustainability as such is the consequence of the forest resources exhaustion. For years the forest enterprises' efforts were aimed at getting cubic metres of coniferous species throughout the whole technological chain from reforestation to wood processing. Resources of coniferous forests have been exhausted and wood processing enterprises suffer from lack of raw materials also because of their low flexibility and difficulties with raw materials transportation, especially the broadleaved ones. Therefore, specific concern should be given to investigate the possibilities to diversify forest based production and this include non-wood fprest products and tourism resources of the area.

This task is proposed to be a theme of post-graduate student (either Russian or Finnish), who will work together with other researchers. He or she is using the data of the household interviews which will include a special section on non-wood forest product utilisation.

Time table: Task 5. An analysis of the socio-economic impacts of alternative log-ging and silvicultural activi-ties.

This task is a joint effort with the sub-project 3 for experimenting and demonstrating different forest logging and transport technologies.

Time table: Task 6. Financial and socio-economic profitability analysis of alter-natives of local small-scale processing of wood and non-wood products

Perhaps the most important parctical part the present subproject is aimed analyse the resource potential of the area and the alternative ways of its development.

The first step of this work is to single out all the available resources and to elaborate the Tree of Resources: On the bases of these inventories it is possible discuss the problems of extending the variety of available resources, establishing new small businesses to process small-sized and broadleaf wood, non-wood products, and developing the local services. In fact, only establishing of viable enterprises (or new localized forms of forest use) may create employment for local population.

This task is proposed to be a theme of a Finnish or Russian post-graduate student, who will make the financial and socio-economic analyses together with other forest economists and task 5 of this sub-project. Conceptual organisation of enterprises will be done together with Vasilyev S.V., Associate Professor of the Department of Forest Complex Technology and Equipment of the Petrozavodsk State University.

Time table: Task 7. Social responsibility and social costs of forest sector firms in the period of transition economy

When considering interrelations in " man - enterprise" - subsystem, one specific feature comes up, which is characteristic for the forest complex of Russia in general and for Karelia in particular. It manifests itself most clearly in such floating depot camps as Matrosy used to be.

Both production and non-productive fixed assets were included into the balance of logging enterprises. The share of the latter in the total volume of the fixed assets rose up to 45%. At present, the process of transfering the social sphere (pre-school institutions, some schools, hospitals, bath-houses) over to the district administration is under way. The district authorities and administration of forest enterprises have no means to support them. Privatization of housing is almost unrealistic because the families do not have resources to buy them. In general, the objects (institutions and fixed assets) of non-productive funds are being deteriorated and this fact makes the solution of social problems more complicated. Therefore the redistribution of social property and social expenditures between the bodies of local and district government and forest enterprises is the among the most important issues in social sustainability.

The changes and problems of reorganising the social services and social safety networks are analyzed jointly by a group of Russian and Finnish social scientists.

Time table: Task 8. Evaluation and proposal of the criteria and indica-tors of social sustainability applicable in the context of local com-munities and whole Russian Karelia.

This task is the conclusive task of the whole research group in collaboration with the other subprojects and include

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