Teletskaya school of youth ecotourism – Forest Robinsons Project
The history of the Forest Robinsons Project dates back to 2000 when the Altaiskiy Reserve hosted the Altai Republic’s first integrated summer recreation camps and expeditions on Lake Teletskoye for children with varying degrees of disability and teenagers registered in the Commission on Juvenile Affairs.
The project was initiated by the Altai Republic’s NGOs - Society for Disabled Children “Vozrozhdeniye” (“Renaissance”) and “Guardians of the Lake”. Experience gained in the course of project implementation proved very useful and effective, significantly expanding territories involved in it. Thus, over the next 10 years, apart from the Altaiskiy Reserve, similar summer camps and expeditions were organized in other districts of the Altai Republic. Inspired by this experience, Integrated Social Service Center of the municipal unit “Maiminskiy District” and Society for Disabled Children “Vozrozhdeniye” launched the Forest Robinsons Project in 2009 with the support from the Ecocenter of Gorno-Altaisk State University and NGO “Guardians of the Lake”. Administration of the Altaiskiy Reserve allotted a plot of land in the utility zone of Yailu settlement, the central manor of the Altaiskiy Reserve, to be used for summer camps and expeditions for children and youth from socially vulnerable families.
More detailed information about the Forest Robinsons Project can be found in the article “Forest Robinsons – past, present and future” in the collection of materials of the Teletskaya school of youth ecotourism (pp. 62-73).
In 2011 the Forest Robinsons Project significantly expanded, involving parents with children from socially vulnerable groups from Maiminskiy and Shebalinskiy Districts of the Altai Republic and from Novosibirsk Region.
Yevgeniy Veselovskiy
staff member of the Altaiskiy Biosphere Reserve,
coordinator for the Teletskaya school of youth ecotourism “Guardians of the Lake”,
Forest Robinsons Project consultant.