Participation in international forestry exhibition Interles, Part I

Hello everyone,

Summer is here already in Petrozavodsk, since I am not in Joensuu this week and participating in International Forestry Exhibition in the capital of Republic of Karelia in Petrozavodsk. Temperature is just fine, however it is even too hot in here, Monday and Tuesday it was close to 30 degrees, and almost no wind at all.

 Let's come back to the agenda of the exhibition, here are some points which were covered during the plenary session and round table:

-          Use of forest resources in the development of bioenergy  as factor increasing the role of forestry  complex:

o   Tendencies towards wood utilization in energy sector

o   Recycling of wood wastes

o   Use of low-quality wood and wood wastes in bioenergy development as a tool to solve social problems

-          Transportation infrastructure in forest sector: effective technologies and mechanisms of state and public partnership in wood roads construction and exploitation.

-          Major tasks of reforestation: forest selection, forest genetics, improvement of technologies for production of planting materials

o   Infrastructure, problems of haulage roads, “going deeper in the wood, but how?”

o   Introduction of new technologies and modern equipment/machinery as a necessary requirement for a breakthrough

-          New clauses in the EU and the US laws and regulations on timber trade. Are Russian enterprises ready to meet the requirements of external market?

o   Voluntary certification as an important prerequisite for competitiveness

There were many speakers from different organizations: A.P. Hudilainen – Head of the Republic of Karelia (however we did not hear his speech), N.S. Krotov – Deputy Director of Federal Forestry Agency, V.F. Chikalyuk – Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of Karelia, Pasi Poikonen – Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), A.I. Karpilovich – Head of Forestry Department of the North-western Federal District, A.I. Soroka – Director of FSUE Roslesinforg branch, Karellesproekt, N.V. Senko – General Director, Ladenso JSC, B.D. Romanyuk – Chief of SPFRI Laboratory, I.V. Verveyko – Deputy Forest Strategy Director, Ilim Group, N. Shmatkov –WWF Russia Forest Programme.

The most hot topic in Russian forestry based on plenary session speakers are forest fires, its prevention and monitoring; intensification of forest management, approaches to forest inventory; national forest inventory and other topics.

Spring semester is over

Hello everyone,

As you probably noticed the coridors of university buildings are almost empty. this is an indication that that all the courses are ended. As you have observed the weather is pretty good these days and  summer is heading towards.

Except Vappu in May is Morther's Day (12th). Mother’s Day is a day for many people to show their appreciation towards mothers and mother figures worldwide. It is an annual event but is held at different dates in the calendar, depending on the country. It is a day of many expectation, and you can prepare something special for your Mother. As a tradition the Mothers are invited to restaurant, that is the way how many family members pay respect to them.

And Snellman's Day is also celebrated, he is one of the early builders of what would later become the independent  Finnish state. He was very active in 1850s and 1860s in Finland, when Snellman was active in the cabinet of Senate in Finland. As a result  the introduction of a separate Finnish currency, the "markka", in 1865, that came to be of the utmost value for Finland. More information about Morther's and Snellman's Day could be found from wiki.

Have a nice summer!

Soon May and snow is gone

Hello everyone,

 

Probably you have noticed that this year the spring started rather lately, the snow during last 2 week started to melt extremely fast. Accroding to information provided by Mr. Markku Ropo on western coast where the land is flat and there are big rivers (but not big lakes that would act as reservoirs) things did not go as smoothly. The snow melting started raising the water level when the rivers were still frozen, which broke up the ice and started the ice mass moving downriver to the sea. 

Vappu is on its way, in one day  the spring celebration is coming. This celebration is strongly associated with labor in the last century  and political left: marches, speeches and lots of red flags. Estecially in post-Soviet countries. In Finland  Vappu is associated with students. Students wearing traditional dresses and  white student hats. You can find more about Vappu on wiki source. Tomorrow shops will be closed earlier, so please make sure that that you have all you need!!!  

International Women's Day

Hello everyone,

Last Friday on 8th of March was International Women's Day. On the 8th of March 1975, the UN (United Nations) officially declared the 8th of March as a day of women's rights and world peace. This year this day is under the flag of "Time for Action to End Violence Against Women".

Glance at history of this celebration: On 8 March 1857, women working in clothing and textile factories (called 'garment workers') in New York City, in the United States, staged a protest. They were fighting against inhumane working conditions and low wages. The police attacked the protestors and dispersed them. Two years later, again in March, these women formed their first labour union to try and protect themselves and gain some basic rights in the workplace. On 8 March 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights and an end to child labour. They adopted the slogan "Bread and Roses", with bread symbolizing economic security and roses a better quality of life. In May, the Socialist Party of America designated the last Sunday in February for the observance of National Women's Day.

As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters. With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February 1917 to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway.

The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macedonia (for women only), Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Chile, the day is not a public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless. On this day it is customary for men to give the women in their lives – mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues, etc. – flowers and small gifts. In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother's Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

In Finland this day is not official holiday, however women are actively discussing their rights and positions in the society.

News of February

Hello everybody,

Some of you have had a skiing holiday last week, some of you on skiing holiday and some of you including me will go for skiing holiday next week. So, have a nice skiing holiday!!! I used to be very addicted to skiing some 12-15 years ago during junior age, when I was doing about 2000-2500 km in a season. Nowadays it is about 150-400 km in last years per season.

But let’s come back to the news of February. From CBU Forestry and Environmental Engineering the official call for Master programme has finished on 15^th of February. On 18th February 2013 the official call for applications for CBU FEE at the University of Eastern Finland was now over. All applicants will be informed about the selection results by the end of April 2013. This year as previous year there are 5 scholarship in amount 500€ per student available for 2 years period. Good to all of you, who have applied to the study period 2013-2015.

On 5^th of February it was 209 year birthday of Finnish national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Many of his poems deal with life in rural Finland. The best known of these is Bonden Paavo, (Farmer Paavo, Saarijärven Paavo in Finnish), about a smallholding peasant farmer in the poor parish of Saarijärvi and his determination, "sisu" (guts) and unwavering faith in providence in the face of a harsh climate and years of bad harvests. Three times, a frosty night destroys his crops. Every time, he mixes double the amount of bark into his bread to stave off starvation and works ever harder to dry off marsh into dryer land that would not be as exposed to the night frost. After the fourth year, Paavo finally gets a rich crop. As his wife exults, thanks God and tells Paavo to enjoy full bread made entirely out of grain, Paavo instructs his wife to mix bark into grain once more, because their neighbour's crop has been lost in a frost and he gives half of his crop to the needy neighbour. So it was a little bit about Reneberg’s poetry!!!

And finally coming back to Forestry topics!!! Today Mr. Markku Ropo who is International Student Advisor and also teacher of forest pathology at School of Forest Sciences posted the news about “Day of Torsti”. So today the table in the lobby of School of Forest Sciences was full of tea, coffee and blueberry pies. It is exactly connected to the fact that today  27^th of February is in calendar the name day of Torsti. It is also the term of first year forestry students here in Joensuu and the tradition is that these freshmen celebrate this day with appropriate offerings to staff and older students.

Winter activities

Hello everybody,

The first month of spring semester has passed. For those who just arrived to Finland you probably have noticed what a huge amount of snow in here. Eastern Finland is considered to be the region with most of the snow in the country, except Northern Finland and Lapland. So winter season is rather long and is about 5 months, it creates a lot of opportunities for winter activities. Traditionally skiing (cross-country and downhill), lake skating, hockey, biathlon and other types of sports well-presented here. As a matter of fact Finland has a good level of infrastructure development.

Joensuu has lot facilities for winter activities, I am not aware of statistics in terms of kilometers, however if you are doing cross-country skier you can actually start almost in every direction from city center. In addition to that there are at leasttwo downhill centers in Eastern Finland, Koli National Park which is 70 km to north from Joensuu, and Mustavaara, which is about 30 km away from Joensuu.

During winter many hockey grounds are iced in different districts of Joensuu, and central ice hall where local hockey club Joki Pojat are playing on a regular base. When it comes to lake skating you have to find a special places where ice surface is cleaned by special service.        

There are still almost three months of snow cover in Joensuu region, so use the opportunities to explore the winter activities!!!

CBU participated in International Educational Exhibition in St. Petersburg

So here we are again, CBU continued after International Educational Exhibition in Moscow to St. Petersburg. The exhibition their traditionally took place in LENEXPO which is located in Vasiljevskiy island which comprise the most historical part of the city. The main event of 8th Educational exhibition was held on 23-24 of November.

Once again we had a chance to give a live presentation to the audience, likely there were many potential applicants around in the main hall. I was mainly responsible for running around with big pot full of candies and screaming that soon Cross-Border University will start its presentation. Besides that kind lady was announcing our presentation several times before it, however this time compare to Moscow announcement it was a little bit messy.

 

Traditionally presentation started with general overview of CBU history and programmes available for applicants, requirement for potential applicants, and after that continued with some practical matters for students and survival basics. The audience was quite active and presentation was followed by discussion and questions. However this time last part was much shorter compare to Moscow exhibition. 

When we have finnished with everything we made a round among other educational institutions discussing their study programmes, and then continued in another hall with so many good stuff from INDIA!!!

The information about CBU later appeared in internet, the link is here:

http://znanie.info/_publications/KATALOG_Spb_8/#/1/

 It was successful marketing and recruiting event for CBU!!! Have a nice Christmas and Happy New Year!