Jasper to take park advice

A group from Russia working to develop a nature park in their homeland visited Jasper over the weekend to take tips on balance from our national park.

Developers of Ergaki Nature Park, located over 800,000 square km in the Krasnoyarsk region in south-central Russia, came to Banff and Jasper National Parks last week in an attempt to try to learn from what works here. 

Alexander Bondarev is project manager for Biodiversity Conservation in the Russian Portion of Altai-Sayan Ecoregion, an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility. 

“We wanted to bring the guys from our new nature park to borrow experiences from Jasper because we have very similar programs that Canada maybe had 40 to 50 years ago,” Bondarev said. Two priorities for Ergaki are to conserve the environment in a way that allows visitors to experience wilderness, and also to build an Olympic sports facility.

“Now we’re here to identify, to understand the balance between conservation and development.”

The morning of Nov. 15, the group met with Parks Canada Superintendent Greg Fenton, Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland and Chamber of Commerce president Todd Noble in the lower boardroom of the train station. 

Members of the visiting group include park director Vladimir Ryzhenkov, vice-director Tatiana Kondratenko, project supervisor Pavel Rostovtsev, Barbara Mertin of the Austrian Park System, and Bondarev. They visited Banff, Kananaskis Country and the Nordic Centre in Canmore before coming to Jasper for the weekend.

The Russian group presented a short film, which showcased the stunning mountain landscapes of their nature park, before driving up to the ski hill, whose relationship with Parks Canada interested them. “Now we are going to visit the ski resort, Marmot Basin, and it’s really important to our understanding because in our country sometimes it’s a contradiction, a great battle,” Bondarev said.

“I’m not sure everybody in your country, in your town agrees with the balance (between Marmot Basin’s development and Parks Canada’s conservation), but I think it works well. Here we see they make a really good partnership, which is extremely important.”

Once plans are complete, development of Ergaki Nature Park will take place over three years. 

“There are two viewpoints, to push everyone from the territory to conserve nature, or develop because you can’t conserve nature,” Bondarev said. “[Our goal is] to develop a really good infrastructure, really comfortable, really friendly for the visitor.”

Bondarev added his desire to take what was learned in Jasper and apply it at home. “I hope we will use such an experience in our nature park .”