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Eurasia Foundation
Grantee Profiles

A Eurasia Foundation Grantee Profile

Arkhangelsk, Russia

Carolina San Martin, Eurasia Foundation Moscow Office

One of the greatest challenges facing regional leaders in Russia in the post-Soviet period has been to develop sound land management policy. More than ever, technically skilled specialists are needed to help administrators regulate land use and ensure that much-needed property tax revenues are properly assessed for regional budgets. Unfortunately, these specialists are rare. Throughout Russia, regional leaders have struggled without the technical expertise and fresh ideas needed to improve land-use management.

In 1996, one employee of the Arkhangelsk Oblast Land Resources and Land Use Committee proved that she had the vision to improve the situation in her area. "Our region is vast," says Natalia Konovalova, GIS Consultant at the committee, "and we have few tools with which to make decisions and properly manage the land." Before 1994, all maps of the region’s cities, towns, and uninhabited areas were hand-drawn and, for the most part, outdated. Many local residents had lost the maps of their uchastki, or small plots of land, and disputes over boundaries were commonplace. New roads were needed, but without reliable maps the administration could neither decide where to build them nor estimate their costs.

Having completed a Ph.D. in geographical science in St. Petersburg, where she learned to use state-of-the-art digital map software and equipment, Natalia Konovalova understood that education was the first step toward developing effective local land policy. And she understood that the second was improved communication to help put newly acquired knowledge to use throughout the vast 600,000 square kilometer region. Although the committee received a few computers in 1994 through a federal program, there were no plans to teach its staff how to use them for the region’s benefit. And the local administration could not be convinced that a training project was high enough priority to warrant scarce funds from the oblast’s modest budget. Finally, Konovalova was able to put her plan into action by joining her vision with financial support from the Eurasia Foundation.

Thanks to an initial 1996 grant of $19,806 from the Eurasia Foundation, Konovalova and her staff were able to begin a training program for employees of the Land Resources Committee from throughout the region in both property and land management and the use of computer technologies. Students with no previous computer experience learned the basics; others began training in digital map-making software. A second grant of $12,420, awarded in 1998, supported Internet connections and training for the committee’s offices throughout the region. The installation of this data transmission infrastructure and the training required to use it allowed the committee to format data collected in remote areas of the region and send it to the capital, Arkhangelsk, for inclusion in the oblast committee’s digital map of the region.

The biggest barrier to making this program work, says Konovalova, was psychological. "It took a year for our staff even to use e-mail confidently," she explains. But employees since have been able to overcome this psychological barrier. The speed with which the committee’s offices now communicate with one another has enabled them to consolidate large amounts of information. And the results of the committee's efforts and Konovalova’s vision are beginning to show.

Over the past two years, using its new digital map system, committee staff have conducted an in-depth investigation of 500,000 hectares of land located within the Arkhangelsk city limits—about four per cent of the city’s land. Results of the analysis, released at the end of 1999, showed that land users owed the city administration one million rubles (over $35,000 at the current exchange rate) in unpaid property taxes, which the local government had been unable to collect due to a lack of effective monitoring procedures. "When the mayor saw these data," explains Konovalova proudly, "he saw right away that our work is important. And the local tax inspector is now working to collect this money for the city’s budget, where it’s desperately needed."

Long after the end of grant funding, the committee continues its work, educating staff in the region to better collect information and enter it into the digital map system. Thanks to the results of the 1999 analysis, Konovalova and her staff are confident that they will be able to continue and conduct similar work in other parts of the region. Moreover, they will be able to do so with the support of local leaders. The oblast administration is as impressed as the mayor, and it has granted a significant increase in funding to the Land Resources Committee. "The grant from the Eurasia Foundation gave us the push we needed," says Konovalova. "Thanks to the project, we were able to prove to our administration that our work could greatly improve conditions in the Arkhangelsk region in the long run."

May 2000

This document (c) 2001, The Eurasia Foundation.
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