Transboundary European Regionalisation in Russia and Eastern Partnership: European Dimension and Environmental Drivers

TERRA
ERASMUS+, JEAN MONNET PROJECT
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    Project name: Transboundary European Regionalisation in Russia and Eastern Partnership: European Dimension and Environmental Drivers / TERRA (611949-EPP-1-2019-1-RU-EPPJMO-PROJECT)

    Project duration: 01.09.2019 – 31.08.2021

    Project financing:     Erasmus+, Jean Monnet project

    Project budget: 79 979,0 EURO
    Название проекта: Трансграничная Европейская регионализация в России и странах Восточного партнерства: европейское измерение и экологические драйверы

    Даты реализации проекта: 01.09.2019 – 31.08.2021

    Финансирование проекта: Erasmus+, Jean Monnet project

    Бюджет проекта: 79 979,0 Евро
    Project description
    Activities:

    The EU attaches a lot of importance to transborder cooperation initiatives, with transboundary regions seen as a key policy instrument for supporting sustainable development along the EU frontier. As such, transboundary regions entail a lot more than just a policy tool. Policies may act as an important driver of regionalisation, however the regions itself result from longer historical processes and from top-down dynamics. Fit and interplays between these drivers and EU policies & governance frameworks have been greatly unexplored as yet, although they represent an important dimension of the success of EU neighbourhood policy going much beyond routinely performed impact studies. To address this gap in EU studies, this cross-fertilisation project explores various types and scales of environmental and nature recourse-based regionalisation on the interface with Belarus and North-West Russia (also partners countries - PCs), with a focus on institutions of multilevel governance & legacies in governance & socio-ecological systems. We recognise that PCs are the only EU neighbours on the East without any ambitions for EU integration and, therefore, EU policy instruments are weaker there than elsewhere along the border. At the same time, Baltic and Nordic cooperation are prioritised by the EU, as underpinned by a range of institutions created to foster them, including the Northern Dimension, and the EU Baltic Sea Region and Arctic strategies.
    The following case studies will be explored to understand, what is the role of EU institutions (including ones endorsed by the EU) in regionalisation dynamics, and how EU objectives are visible and persistent:

    1. "Urban Arctic": most of population in Arctic NW RU and Northern Calotte dwells in cities, and regionalisation processes there are essentially urban-centric. An additional research focus will be on the transferability of policy, management and technology innovation (e.g. on the development of "smart cities") from Northern Calotte to Russian cities, and the role of EU-driven institutions.
    2. "Great Bielaveža Forest": this is an example of bioregionalisation that emerged building on a conservation agenda; an additional focus will be on the objectives of EU biodiversity governance.
    3. "Great Setomaa": this region located in EE and RU was historically inhabited by Seto people recognised as an ethnic minority in both countries; we also recognise that Russia has its own neighbourhood policy as well as the EU; its interference with EU-promoted mechanisms (also recognising that Russia negotiated a specific arrangement, which is different from a standard offer.
    In its broader set of objectives, building on the outcomes of previously implemented EU projects, TERRA will:
    • Consolidate research & praxis expertise in EU studies at PSU, other partner institutions, and broader PC academic and praxis communities;
    • Promote the PSU group as a centre of excellence in EU studies;
    • Create knowledge co-production opportunities for stakeholder groups in the region to encourage their involvement in curriculum development & research;
    • Enhance the teaching & research portfolio of TERRA members by developing courses for MSc programs; develop & strengthen their networks.
    The project activities will include 3 academia-praxis workshops, one for each case study. An International summer school will bring together the outcomes of the workshops (with a focus on the Arctic one) and integrate them to a curriculum that will be further used for teaching in partner HEIs and disseminated further (total 2 ECTS of contents). The e-learning platform will be created. It will be Moodle based, and it will include a password-free section, with all the open-access project materials published and project-relevant information posted, a section accessible with guest credentials, and a section with restrained access limited only to the students and faculty (http://do.pskgu.ru/). The workshops will be accompanied by roundtable talks bringing together practitioners from PCs & the EU & NO. To ensure international dissemination, the workshops will aim at producing one peer-reviewed publication each.

    Another deliverables will include a project brief targeting PC practitioners. All the project outputs will be made available as open educational resources from PSU e-learning system.

    Мероприятия

    Цель проекта – изучение роли ЕС в процессах трансграничной регионализации в России и Беларуси, с учетом экологических драйверов данного процесса.

    Чтобы понять движущие силы и результаты процессов регионализации, проект будет направлен на изучение следующих случаев, которые существенно отличаются по масштабам (от локального до глобального), наличию измерения ЕС (от непосредственного присутствия в третьем случае до того, чтобы быть источником хороших практик во втором и активного стремления к определенному присутствию в первом), а также ключевым движущим силам или источникам процесса регионализации:

    • "Urban Arctic / Города в Арктике". Большая часть населения арктической части Cеверо-запада РФ и Cеверного сегмента проживают в городах, и процессы регионализации в значительной мере являются городо-центричными. Исследовательский фокус будет сделан на применимость политических, управленческих и технологических инноваций Северного сегмента в городах РФ и роли европейских институтов в этом процессе.
    • "Great Bielaveža Forest / Великий Беловежский лес", пример биорегионализации, который связан с взаимодействием в области охраны природы, дополнительный фокус – на цели европейского управления биоразнообразием.
    • "Great Setomaa / Земля Сету", регион, расположенный на границе Эстонии и РФ и исторически населенный народом Сету, который признан этническим меньшинством в обеих странах. Исследовательский фокус - политики соседства РФ и ЕС.

    Более широкий спектр целей проекта TERRA, основанный на результатах ранее реализованных мероприятий и проектов, будет направлен на:

    • консолидацию исследовательской и практической экспертизы в европеистике, имеющейся в ПсковГУ, других вузах-партнерах и более широкой академической и практической среде;
    • создание условий для обмена мнениями, опытом и знаниями между различными группами заинтересованных лиц, способствование их вовлечению в разработку образовательных программ и проведение исследований;
    • усиление образовательного и исследовательского портфолио сотрудников вузов-партнеров – исполнителей проекта путем разработки совместных магистерских дисциплин и проведения совместных исследований.

    Учебные материалы

    Проектные мероприятия будут включать 3 научно-практических семинара (по каждой из предложенных тем) и летнюю школу. Материалы семинаров будут использованы при разработке образовательного контента для студентов вузов-партнеров. Разработанные в рамках проекта учебные материалы будут апробированы в качестве модулей учебных дисциплин, реализуемых вузами-партнерами и на летней школе. Все учебные материалы будут размещены на on-line платформе ПсковГУ (http://do.pskgu.ru/).

    Научные исследования

    Проект предполагает проведение совместных научных исследований по изучению процессов трансграничной регионализации и публикацию их результатов в международных и национальных научных журналах.
    Events
    TERRA Summer school

    START! SusTAinability tRansiTion of borderlands
    The ACT! summer university will be a vibrant mixture of interactive sessions, lectures and engagement with top experts and practitioners on Arctic sustainability. It offers hands-on project and research experience on the science, technology, management and policy of the Arctic environment, as well as the transferability of these learnings to the context of Russia. As the Arctic capital of Russia and a global center with a wealth of research facilities, business units and policy platforms, St. Petersburg is a prime location for advanced Arctic education.
    TERRA workshop 1

    Green and Blue Urban Infrastructure Innovation for Northern Eurasia:
    Transfer, Regionalisation, Planning Strategies and Development Directions
    The workshop and roundtable are organized around two objectives.
    • One is to take stock of innovation related to green and blue infrastructure (GBI) in Russian cities, and to understand the factors of success and failures of such innovation projects given a variety of biophysical and socioeconomic contexts across the country.
    • The other one is to understand what other innovation projects successfully implemented in the EU have their chance in Russia, what kind of projects would be useful and relevant in terms of sustainability transition in Russia, and what barriers need to be considered to ensure their success.
    To achieve the first objective, we are inviting speakers representing academic and non-academic institutions from across Russia, who have relevant GBI experience and reflections to share. Moderated discussions will follow.
    The second objective will be achieved through an exercise where specific GBI innovation recently implemented in the EU will be presented to the audience by our EU partners involved in these innovative projects. The audience will be asked to give a short structured feedback reflecting on their academic, professional or regional experience.
    Workshop and roundtable conclusions will be summarised in a report that will be published online. We also hope for several high profile publication projects to emerge as a result of this event.
    TERRA workshop 2

    Environmental governance systems in transboundary contexts
    Borderlands are normally associated with socio-economic marginality. The reasons vary from security concerns (present or historical) and related access and economic constraints, to the presence of major topographical dividers often coinciding with borders, and to the sensation of the "end of all the roads" whereas many local and regional significance routes do not reach beyond borders. When acting in a concerted manner and reinforcing in each other, these forces produce a freezing effect on socio-economic activities even if each individual factor is not strongly pronounced. On the other hand, borders may be splitting a region historically bound by intensive economic ties and busy routes. While, in particular if the split was quick and sharp, this further adds to marginalization forces, such a situation also represents an opportunity for reviving socio-economic life, if a way would be found to mitigate negative impacts and restore the ties. Another commonly occurring instance is when nations are split by borders. Likewise, family and other social and cultural ties existing within the nations may generate intensive cross-border interactions. However e.g. highly secured borders, especially in the context of small nations, undermine such advantages and compromise nations wellbeing.
    TERRA workshop 3

    Transborder Multilevel Governance of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
    The aim of our research workshop and roundtable discussion in Pskov is to discuss the transborder bio regionalization in the context of biodiversity conservation and management of ecosystem services, in particular referring to management and policy tools, instruments and practices advancing transborder cooperation over these issues, as well as advancing our understanding of borderland socio-ecological systems.

    Workshop and roundtable conclusions will be summarised in a report that will be published online. We also hope for several high profile publication projects to emerge as a result of this event.
    Teaching materials
    Modules and Key topics

    Piloted at Pskov State University (Pskov, Russia), July - August, 2021, by Nikolai Bobylev, Aleksandr Sergunin (St. Petersburg State University, Russia), Anton Shkaruba, Viktar Kireyeu (Erda Research, Technology, Education, The Netherlands), Olga Likhacheva, Tatiana Vasileva (Pskov State University, Russia), and Sergey Nikonorov (Lomonosov Moscow State Univeisity, Russia), Kalev Sepp (Estonian Univeristy of Life Sciences, Estonia)

    Used for curricula at Pskov State University and St. Petersburg State University in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years
    Module 1. Transborder cooperation
    - Formats and contents of transborder cooperation: Challenges for sustainable development
    Introduction to the research topic "Green financing and investment for the development of a borderland":
    - Green financing and investment for the development of a borderland
    - Green financing and investment for the development of a borderland: Selection of business projects for investment
    ____
    Topics were included into the "Actual problems of the diversity of biological systems" course at Pskov State University.

    Module 2. Marginalisation: Barrire or Opportunity
    Introduction to the research topic "Marginalisation as a problem and an opportunity"
    - Part 1
    - Part 2
    Module 3. Sustainable development
    - Sustainable development goals in envorinmental urban planning
    - Ecosystem and geosystem services in urban planning
    - Voluntary local rewies for urban areas
    - Three-dimentional cities and urban underground space
    ____
    Topics were also included into the "Sustainable urbanization" course at St. Petersburg State University.

    Module 4. Setomaa and Seto
    - Seto in the context of transboundary nature resourse management
    ____
    Topics were included into the "Etnology" course at Pskov State University.

    Module 5. Instruments and tools for data analysis
    - Skill training session "Problem formulation and academic writing"
    - Sustainability indicators
    Introduction to the research topic "Governance of a transboundary lake":
    - Scenario development
    _____
    Topics were included into the "Project management in the field of natural science" and "Organization of research and project activities" courses at Pskov State University.

    See also e-learning module. Link is here (choose guest access, password "terra")
    The core team
    RESEARCH
    Niedziałkowski, K., Sidorovich, A., Kireyeu, V. & A. Shkaruba. (2022). Stimuli and barriers to innovation in wildlife policy – long-term institutional analysis of wolf management in Belarus. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. Vol. 35. Issue 3: Special Issue: People and Nature of Innovation. P. 460-480. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2021.1995336
    Following democratisation, many post-socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe adjusted their wolf policies to accommodate a more positive discourse on the species and the need to sustain and expand its populations. However, Belarus continues an approach informed by a discourse on wolf as a dangerous pest that should be reduced to the most possible extent through unrestricted hunting. Based on data from desk research covering the last 150 years and from semi-structured interviews we explored the reasons for the long-term stability of the policy path and identified potential sources of policy innovations. We argue that the persistence of potentially unsustainable practices has been connected with a strong dominance of hunters in the policy field and the lack of actors representing alternative discourses and policy options. This has changed recently when wildlife biologists and environmental activists proposed policy adjustments modelled on the approaches used in the EU. However, these have not translated into meaningful changes because of hierarchical, top-down governance, dominance of the ministry responsible for hunting, and the lack of external stimuli for policy innovation. We propose activities to strengthen the co-ordination of wolf policy between Belarus and its EU neighbours and to ensure sustainable wolf management.
    Manakov A.G., Danilkina N., Terenina N.K. The role of the border in the development and modern realities of the Setos ethnic community. Bulletin of Ugric Studies. Vol. 11, Issue 4. 2021. Pp. 731-740. DOI: 10.30624/2220-4156-2021-11-4-731-740
    Introduction: the study is devoted to the small Finno-Ugric people of the Setos, which is linguistically close to Estonians, but adopted the Orthodox religion. The historical territory of residence of the Setos is Setomaa, which covers Pechora
    District of Pskov Oblast (Russia) and Setomaa parish of Võrumaacounty (Estonia).
    Objective: to reveal the features of the cultural development and economic activity of the Setos, caused by the borderline factor, from the end of the XIX century to the present.
    Research materials: the work is based on the results of a series of expeditionary studies in Pechora District of Pskov Oblast (from 1999 to 2021), content analysis of media materials, literature analysis, and expert assessments.
    Results and novelty of the research: in the study, the border role in the socio-economic and cultural life of the Setos is considered from the position of the postmodern geopolitical paradigm, where the central place is given to the phenomenon of the cross-border. The novelty of the research is determined by the emphasis on the cross-border socio-economic and cultural contacts of a small ethnic community. Until the revolution, the Setos actively participated in cross-border economic trade, acting as intermediaries between Russian and Baltic provinces. Special attention is paid to the development of the Setos ethnic community after the separation of their settlement area in 1945 by the republican border, which since 1991 has got the status of a state border. As a positive trend in recent decades, the resumption of a number of traditional Seto crafts has been noted in the context of tourist specialization development in the Russian and Estonian border areas. In addition, the specifics of cross-border cultural contacts between Russian and Estonian Setos during the COVID-19 pandemic (in 2020 and the first half of 2021), when there were restrictions on crossing the state border of Russia and Estonia, were considered.
    Key words: Finno-Ugric people, cultural contacts, border territories, cross-border, ethnographic tourism.
    Manakov A., Bocharnikova A., Terenina N. Factors of Population Dynamics of Small-Numbered Vepsi and Setus (Setos) Peoples Separated by Borders. Etnografia. 2022. 3 (17): 49–69. (In Russ.). doi 10.31250/2618-8600-2022-3 (17)-49-69
    The article aims to identify the factors influencing the population dynamics of indigenous small-numbered Baltic-Finnish peoples of Russia separated by political and administrative borders – the Vepsians and the Setos. The study assessed the long-term population dynamics of four groups of Veps living in Karelia, Leningrad Oblast (Oyat and Southern regions), and Vologda Oblast, as well as two groups of Seto residing in Estonia and Russia. It has been determined that the most significant demographic stability is demonstrated by those ethnic groups which have long lived on the territory of states and republics where the related Baltic-Finnish peoples (Estonians and Karelians) are the titular nations. The least demographically stable were the Seto people living in the Pechora district of the Pskov region and the Southern Veps in the Leningrad region. The Vepsians of the Vologda region suffered somewhat fewer demographic losses. The average level of depopulation characterizes the territory inhabited by the Oyat Vepsians (Leningrad region). The analysis focused on assessing the factors of the population dynamics not directly related to the national policy of the state. The study considered the following factors: natural landscapes, peripheral location, transport connectivity of the territory, the duration of existence and permeability of administrative and state borders, the compactness of the ethnic massif, the nature of the settlement, etc. It was revealed that the low transport connectivity of the territory contributes to the increasing depopulation of Veps' marginal lands. The prospects for developing Russian Setos in the Pskov region largely depend on the degree of "transparency" of the state border between Russia and Estonia.
    Теренина Н.К., Васильева Т.В. Политико-правовые аспекты сохранения и взаимодействия малочисленных разделённых коренных этносов Северо-Запада России // Историко-географический подход в изучении культурных ландшафтов региона: Материалы Всероссийской научно-практической конференции, 18 марта 2021 г. Псков: ПсковГУ, 2021. С. 158-167.
    Приграничные территории Ленинградской и Псковской областей, наряду с прилегающими частями Эстонии и Финляндии, составляют трансграничные ареалы традиционного расселения коренных финно-угорских этносов — сето и вепсов. В статье представлен анализ механизмов правового обеспечения взаимодействия разделённых государственными и административными границами этнических общностей сето и вепсов, способствующие сохранению культурного наследия коренных малочисленных этносов. Исследование, наряду с общими методами научного познания, опирается на сравнительный анализ отечественной и зарубежной правовой терминологии, изучение положений законодательства, международных правовых актов, обобщение имеющегося опыта организации коммуникации разобщённых этнических общностей.
    Манаков А.Г., Клиимаск Я. Изменение соотношения русского и эстонско-сетоского населения в трансграничном микрорегионе Сетомаа (Печорском крае) с 1922 по 2011 гг. // Историко-географический подход в изучении культурных ландшафтов региона: Материалы Всероссийской научно-практической конференции, 18 марта 2021 г. Псков: ПсковГУ, 2021. С. 168-178.
    Историческая область Сетомаа, являющаяся родиной православного финно-угорского народа сето, в 1944 г. была разделена между Эстонией и Россией. Центром российской части Сетомаа является г. Печоры в Псковской области. Уникальная сетоская культура ныне часто рассматривается как туристский ресурс, стимулирующий развитие трансграничного туристско-рекреационного микрорегиона «Сетомаа». Целью исследования является отслеживание русского, эстонского и сетоского компонентов в этнической структуре населения микрорегиона в период между переписями 1922 г. и 2010/2011 гг. В этот исторический интервал в пределах всей области Сетомаа заметно повысилась доля русского населения — с 63,8 до 80,2 %, уменьшилась доля эстонцев и сето — в сумме с 32 до 14,6 %. Численность сето в пределах трансграничного микрорегиона в 2010/2011 гг. составляла 1,9 тыс. чел., или 7,5 % от всего населения, в т. ч. 52 % в его эстонской части и 0,5 % — в российской части (Печорском районе).
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