<Title language-id="en_US">A working meeting between young researchers from FEFU and Tohoku University took place in Vladivostok

Future scholars from Russia and Japan discussed the issues of effective natural resource management in North East Asia.

From September 29 to October 2, 2012, FEFU hosted a delegation of young postgraduate students and teachers from Tohoku University (Japan), headed by professors Tohru Nakashizuka and Jotaro Urabe of the Graduate School of Life Sciences, as well as professor Noriko Takemoto of the Ecosystem Adaptability Global COE.

The main event of this visit was a working meeting of young researchers and teachers from both universities on problems related to the effective management of natural resources within North-East Asia. The event was organized by the Information Analysis Center of the FEFU International Programs and Projects Department, and executed in cooperation with the Department of International Education within the Office of the Vice-President for International Affairs, and with the active support of the Office of the Vice-President for Science and Innovation.

The participants of this working meeting included FEFU undergraduate, postgraduate and master’s degree students, as well as Tohoku University postgraduate students and teaching staff. On September 29, there was a plenary meeting at the FEFU Research Library, where Russian and Japanese researchers attended a presentation with reports from Professor O.L. Shcheka, FEFU Deputy Vice-President for Science and Innovations, L.A. Mayorova, research fellow of the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and V.A. Ogneva, a FEFU postgraduate student.

The reports explored promising areas of academic research at FEFU, development trends of Russian Far East forests, and major trends in the ecological tourism of Primorsky Territory. Dr. Tohru Nakashizuka, Tohoku University professor, also presented on the progress of international ecological project implementation in Krasny Yar village in the Khabarovsky Territory, which aims at forest protection within the Bikin river basin.

On the second day, September 30, the working meeting began with a report from A.V. Lebedev, Head of Regional Public Companies Bureau (RPCB), with the theme “25 years of struggling to preserve the virgin forests of the Bikin River – the Far Eastern Amazon.”

As the meetings continued, the Russian and Japanese researchers organized themselves into the following 4 working groups:

Working group №1 “Entitlement issues in natural resources management;”

Working group №2 “Energy saving technologies. Energy supply in Krasny Yar village and the possibility of hydro-electric power plant construction;”

Working group №3 “Ecological tourism development within the context of taiga forest protection;”

Working group №4 “Addressing issues of garbage or human waste disposal. Disposal methods suitable to the local climate and environmental conditions.”

There were 7-10 Russian or Japanese participants per each group. Notably, English and Japanese were the official languages for discussions in the working groups, as well as for the presentation of reports on issue resolution that took place in the end of the event.

Members of the working groups who actively participated in the discussions included FEFU undergraduate, postgraduate and master’s degree students, as well as young teachers from the School of Natural Sciences, the School of Engineering, the School of Regional and International Studies and the School of Law.

After the joint academic activities had been completed, the interactions between representatives of both universities continued in an informal environment, and Russian and Japanese undergraduate and postgraduate students managed to learn more about each other’s academic activities, as well as about culture and daily life in both countries. Additionally, on October 1, representatives of Tohoku University attended the opening ceremony for the new FEFU campus on Russky Island.

This working meeting marks the continuation of cooperation between FEFU and Tohoku University that started in spring 2012, when a group of leading FEFU research fellows visited the Japanese university. Given the high global rank of Tohoku University among scientific and research institutions, this cooperation is of extremely high importance for the expansion and strengthening of Far Eastern Federal University’s international relations, as well as for student exchange promotion between Russia and Japan and for the deepening of mutual understanding between both countries’ citizens.