Anastasia Tsvetkova, CEO of Lake Baikal Foundation, takes part in the Competition Commission of the all-Russian competition to identify pilot territories for the development of ecotourism in terms of creating tourist and recreational clusters within the framework of the integrated development of specially protected natural territories.
The competition is aimed at developing projects for the development of protected areas throughout Russia, as well as at developing new professional competencies among the participants of the program.
115 applications were submitted for participation in the competition from almost 70 regions of Russia. At the end of July the Competition Commission selected 33 best applications and another winner of the selection stage was chosen by popular vote.
«The competition gives a strong boost to combine the efforts of specially protected natural territories, government authorities, the non-profit sector and business in the development of ecotourism. Even now we can see formed teams from different regions of Russia that are ready to act to open their territories to responsible tourists. I am happy to see that a number of regions are represented by several teams, and the applications have really valuable ideas for organizing the tourist flow with care for nature», commented Anastasia Tsvetkova.
In early August an acceleration program of methodological support and training was launched for the finalists of the competition. It includes a series of training events and consultations with experts. Within the framework of this program, the contest participants will develop comprehensive ecotourism development projects: a master plan for their project, a roadmap, various development directions and strategic goals for the successful implementation of the idea.
On October 16 the Commission will select the ten best projects that will implement the mechanism for the integrated development of ecotourism in the protected areas.
The competition is organized by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic and the federal Agency for Tourism. The operator of the competition is the Agency of strategic development «Center».