The village of Vyatskoye: an oasis of “living heritage”

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to visit the hospitable Yaroslavl land and this wonderful object of absolutely living heritage, to meet the enthusiasts who have created this historical and cultural oasis, to get acquainted with representatives of both regional and district administrations who are participating in our workshop,” Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, said in his opening speech at the conference “Prospects for using heritage for developing rural tourism in the Yaroslavl Region”.

The forum was held on the territory of “the Historical and Cultural Complex "Vyatskoe" named after E.A. Ankudinova” under the patronage of Alexander Merzlov, President of the Association of the most beautiful villages of Russia (ASKDR). The headquarters of ASKDR is located in the Vyatskoye village, Nekrasov district, Yaroslavl Region.

“The creative work to preserve the heritage and transform the village of Vyatskoye, that is quite successfully scaled up in the region, is consistent with the FAO mandate,” said Oleg Kobiakov. “Previously, the task was to “keep” valuable personnel and young people in the countryside. Currently, our goal is to raise the prestige of rural professions, to show that work in the agricultural sector is intellectually intensive, connected not so much with manure, pitchforks and shovel, as with modern means of production, with high technologies.”

“One of the ways to achieve this goal is through agricultural, ecological, and ethno-cultural tourism. As a rule, such unique objects as Vyatskoye have all these dimensions.”

The head of the FAO Moscow Office spoke about the initiatives of the FAO Director-General Dr Qu Dongyu, which are organically projected on the historical and cultural complex “Vyatskoye” and the village of Vyatskoye itself. For example, FAO is implementing the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Programme (GIAHS).

For such a huge country as Russia, FAO’s “1 000 Digital Villages Initiative” looks promising. For Russia, Oleg Kobiakov emphasized, “this is very important: the support of government agencies and businesses, of local communities make it possible to “be connected” (using digital technologies), and this is important not only for Siberia or Chukotka, but also for the Russian hinterland.”

“The FAO Moscow Office could provide assistance in your big, necessary work, the significance of which goes far beyond the borders of the rural settlement, of the district, and of the region,” Oleg Kobiakov said in conclusion.

The goals and achievements of the GIAHS programme, the procedure for applying for participation in it became the subject of the report presentation by Aghasi Harutyunyan, Deputy Director of the Office. “Why is dynamic conservation of agricultural heritage necessary? Traditional agricultural systems are still the source of food for about 2 billion people. Moreover, they contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, livelihoods, practices, and culture.”

“The world’s agricultural heritage needs recognition and support that would allow it to continue to develop and provide goods and services to current and future generations,” Aghasi Harutyunyan stressed.

Additionally, FAO has set itself the goal to establish “1 000 Digital Villages” all around the world and to turn them into hubs that will contribute to the formation and smooth functioning of agrifood systems, stimulate agricultural knowledge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” the Deputy Director of the FAO Moscow Office said.

This initiative has three components. The first one includes e-agriculture, in other words, increased productivity through information and communication technologies, digital solutions, climate-smart methods, “precision” farming, etc. The second one regards digital services for farmers, including financial ones. The third one is about digital services to transform rural areas in general, which affects the health care, education, employment, welfare, eco- and agritourism sectors.

“The main goal of the initiative is very clear,” Aghasi Harutyunyan explained, “namely, to reduce the digital gap between rural and urban areas, to help farmers improve digital literacy for agriculture and their daily tasks”.

In turn, Eduard Porvatov, Office Consultant, highlighted that “One of the GIAHS criteria is to preserve disappearing or dying traditional agriculture systems. Within the GIAHS framework, we do not imply the concept “extinction” of such systems in a narrow sense, where this process is considered in terms of deforestation or mass extermination of animals, but quite on the contrary”.

“The reason may be the natural development of urban centres for human activities. In other words, if this is about the development of a city that swallows up the territory of any rural activity, this will be considered as a destructive process,” Eduard Porvatov continued. “The programme aims at avoiding and limiting this process, while not interfering with traditional agriculture on the site”.

The conference was moderated by Aleksandr Merzlov, President of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Russia, who had managed, before the forum started, to make a presentation for the “walkers” of the representatives of the Yaroslavl Region villages, who strive to include their native settlements in the list of the most beautiful villages of Russia.

The conference participants recognized the exchange of views as very useful, and agreed to cooperate in this auspicious direction, including in identifying promising nominees for the GIAHS status.

The conference was also attended by Elena Shakhova, General Director of LLC “Historical and Cultural Complex "Vyatskoye" named after E.A. Ankudinova”, Ivan Nuzhdin, Advisor to the Governor of the Yaroslavl Region, Pavel Kulakov, Head of the Nekrasov district of the Yaroslavl Region, members of the Yaroslavl Region Government – Vladimir Lysenko, Deputy Director of Tourism Department, Maria Lebedeva, Head of International Relations Division, Elena Perminova, Head of the Division for Development and Management of Specially Protected Natural Areas, Department for Environmental Protection and Nature Management, Lyubov Gaysenyukova, Consultant of the Division for Trade Development and Services Sector, Committee of the Consumer Market, Food and Processing Industry.