There has been working complex expedition on studying the Pechora River in the Komi Republic, having been organized with the grant support of the Russian Geographical Society. The explorers started the 6th of June and surveyed the river from its source to the lower reaches, having collected the material about the social statement of the towns and villages, consisting on Pechora, about their history, and studied meadows.
The structure of the team of the travelers was not the same, the were divided into several groups. The main group of six people was headed by the expedition leader - deputy chairman of the republican branch of the Russian Geographical Society, a senior fellow at the Institute of Geology, Komi of the Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Petr Uykhtanov. Besides him there were economist, biologist, anthropologist and two «tourists» in the main detachment. One of them was entrepreneur who had evaluated the touristic potential of the river, the other was the experienced trainer of the whole expedition.
There was working the team of archeologists in parallel with the main group in the Middle and Lower Pechora. The biologists, hydrobiologists and soil scientists started their research in the delta river in August. The special group began exploring the floodplain meadows.
The river rafting of the main group started in the Ust-Unya village in Trinity-Pechora region of the republic. «We have passed along the river to Ust-Tsilma for this month, - Petr Uykhtanov tells. – We reached those places up to the Petrovshina and Gorka holidays, that is why we took part in the events, dedicated to those fiestas, and at the same time we traveled to nearby villages and dwellings, and on the tributaries of Pechora. And after another 150 km down the river and just below the village Medvezhka, on the border of the Arctic Circle, established a banner of the Russian Geographical Society. Further it is planned to set major mark in order to let the tourists, hunters and fishermen, who had managed to reach those places, know that the Arctic Circle begins right here».
After that the main expedition group dropped to Syktyvkar, from that place some days later they went to the source of Pechora by helicopter. Then they went down the river to Ust-Unye, where they finished their route.
- I was impressed by the significant scale of latent tourism on Pechora, - one of the participants of the campaign, senior researcher of the Institute of Socio-Economic and Energy Problems of the North Vitaliy Shenyavsky tells. – This, for instance, is about the hunting and fishing tourism. But even this latent tourism is good from an economic point of view, because that is additional income for the population.
According to the economist, the lack of infrastructure and just a good business organization on the Pechora River hinders the development of tourism. For instance, just half of companies, dealing with the tourism in Komi, have the websites, - the participant of the expedition noted.
- There is, first of all, the lack of money, - Petr Uykhtanov adds. – Besides, there are needed interesting historical, natural sites. And if we all more or less with the natural sites, many historical sites are completely lost, or they need to be restored.
Village schools may become the cells of development, the enthusiasts have already established good museums in some of them (for example, in Ust-Usa, Schelyayur). However, as the explorers note, the schools are often closed, that leads to the degradation of villages and towns.
- We have seen empty settlements without people, including standing on a beautiful location, - Uykhtanov notes. – That is the result of closing of core enterprises, first of all, of forest industry. People start thinking that there are no perspectives with their native village, and are packing suitcases.
The participants attended the public hearings for district development program in Ust-Tsilma. The travelers told about the expedition and made a number of proposals.
The Expedition – is the first complex research of Pechora. The first results of the expedition are planned to be to summarize by the beginning of October of this year.