Eco camp on Mudyug Island
What will you do on a remote and almost uninhabited island in the White Sea? You will be surprised how diverse the answer may be. On July 3rd to 8th 37 young people from Russia and Norway took part in ecological camp organized on Mudyug island by youth ecological organization “Aetas” together with Natur og Ungdom.
During 5 days participants discussed issues on waste sorting, recycling, climate changes, development of eco-tourism and finally cleaned the part of island. Despite the fact that island territory is about 3,000 ha and there are only a dozen of people permanently leaving there in summer period, it is an example of global pollution which can be solved only by complex effort: tons of garbage are washed ashore from the sea and the Northern Dvina delta. The most dangerous is plastic. Participants took collected garbage with them from the island to hand it over to Arkhangelsk recycling plant.
“The camp is well organized, Mudyug itself is a unique place. We are very glad that we managed to make at least small contribution to island’s nature, of course we won’t stop our activity” – said Anni Roth Hjermann, coordinator of Russian-Norwegian from NU.
Why precisely Mudyug?
This island is attractive both as historical site – there is settlement of early Bronze age “Mudyug-1”, monuments complex of Civil War and intervention 1918-1919, railroad and households of World War I 1914-1918 and of World War II 1941-1945, “White Tower” lighthouse built in 1837 and leading beacon “Black Tower” built in 1904 – and biological reserve.
Now 2,000 ha of island are occupied by Mudyug State nature reserve protecting rare bird species and Red List plants as well as landscape. Together with Center of environmental use and nature protection Aetas and NU activists developed the project of ecological trail. As the result participants presented the ready route which aims at ecological education and eco-tourism development. Moreover, outfitting and arrangement of the route and launch as a tourist product is planned for the nearest year already.
This camp is one event among many in frames of cooperation between environmental organizations. Under the motto “Think global, act local” the activists organize ecological actions, discussion and educational events in terms of “Forest and Climate” project. Natur og Ungdom unites more than 7,000 people in Norway, its main partners in Russia are “Nature and Youth” in Murmansk and “Aetas” in Arkhangelsk.
Written by: Anna Petrova