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Landsforeningen
Levende Hav (abbreviated "LLH")
(The Danish Society For A
Living Sea)
LLH
is a non-profit non-governmental organisation based on Djursland,
Denmark, and working to forward the following aims:
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To work for the conservation of the maritime landscape and
ensure the diversity of species in the associated flora and fauna.
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To work for the future generations and their fisheries
based on ecological principles that are sustainable both
economically and socially and that ensure the employment in the
different units of the trade.
These
aims are sought accomplished through national and international
co-operation in projects, workshops, discussions, and exchanges of
knowledge, etc.
The
society is organised in a general assembly with supreme authority,
a board of directors, a secretariat, and a number of working and
project groups. At present day, the society counts 200 members
paying subscription. The project and working groups have high
priorities in the society, since its objective is to gather
experts on subjects concerning the sea around concrete work,
rather than to represent general political opinions.
One
of the working groups in the LLH is the "NGO
Aral Sea Working Group Denmark" that has been engaged in
international co-operation in and about the Aral Sea since 1995.
This working group is responsible for the implementation of the
running fishery project "From
Kattegat to Aral Sea", which since 1995 has worked to
improve the conditions of fishermen and their communities near the
Aral Sea. The history and accomplishments of the fishery project
are described below with reference to the relevant sectors, marked
in the CCR registration form. The Danish Foreign Ministry, Danida
and Demokratifonden, and a number of private funds have
financially supported the work in the fishery project.
A
brief chronological summary of the history of the fishery project:
1991:
First contact between Denmark and Kazakstan is established.
1994:
One Danish delegation visits Aral, and the idea emerges (on behalf
of local fishermen) to exploit Danish traditions and resources in
the efforts to re-establish fishery on the Aral Sea.
1995:
Aral fishery community leaders visit Denmark and sign a "Protocol
of our common aims".
1996:
19 Kazak fishermen, specialists and interpreters visit Denmark one
month to study Danish traditions in fisheries and sales,
especially concerning flat fish.
1996:
A one month trial fishery is carried out on the Small Aral Sea
near village Tastubek, supervised by four Danish specialists. The
results prove the Aral Sea to contain valuable unexploited natural
resources.
1997:
Agreements are made with local fishermen to further the
establishing of small-scale private co-operatives.
1998:
8 Danish specialists, during five months, study and support the
newly established co-operatives in catching, treating and selling
flounder. NGO Aral Tenizi is founded.
1999:
NGO Aral Tenizi and LLH plan their common efforts for years
2000-2004.
Since
December 1998, LLH has developed the fishery project in close
co-operation with the newly founded NGO
Aral Tenizi in Aral City, Kazakstan. NGO Aral Tenizi counts
ca. 400 members at present, approximately 200 of which are paying
subscription. The overall aim of the NGO Aral Tenizi is to work
for the rehabilitation of the Aral Sea, and this aim is furthered
through supporting local fishermen and their families, and through
participation in international projects and exchanges of knowledge
with partners that support the same aim.
Address
and contact person of Aral Tenizi:
Aral
Tenizi
Makataev
Street 10-14
Aral
City
Kzyl-Orda
Oblast
Kazakstan
Ph./fax:
007 32 433 22256
Att.
MAKHAMBETOVA Zhannat
Mail
aralsea@korda.kz
A
number of members in the Danish working group have visited and
worked in the Aral region, Kazakstan, and have accumulated a
capital of experience and knowledge that relate to the sectors
marked in the CCR registration form. LLH can provide expertise and
experts as follows (alphabetically):
ANDERSEN,
Knud
Fisherman.
Has been working in Aralsk twice in the fields of fishing,
transportation, treating and storing of fish, improving sales and
organising of NGO work in supporting fishermen in these activities.
Has worked with environmental issues since 1988, mainly in
international projects including Poland, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Russia, Kazakstan.
BJERRE,
Henrik Jøker
BA
of Philosophy. Has been working in Aralsk five times (one of these
a five month stay) in the fishery project with guiding,
translation, co-ordination, photography, statistics.
CHRISTENSEN,
Kurt Bertelsen
Project
co-ordinator and initiator of the contact between Danish and Kazak
fishermen. Former fisherman. Has been working in Aralsk eight
times. Has worked with environmental issues since 1988, mainly in
international projects including Poland, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Russia, Kazakstan.
DEKKER,
Ruud
Laboratory
technician and maritime nature guide. Participated in the 1996
trial fishery on the Small Aral, by supporting and organising
practical fisheries, assisting the local ichthyological expertise,
and collecting samples of Platichtys flesus for analysis in
Denmark.
HANSEN,
Jesper
Fisherman
and boat constructor. Worked in Aralsk in 1998 and investigated
the problems and perspectives of local boats and boat construction.
HENRIKSEN,
Ole
Fisherman.
Supported Aral fishermen in catching and treating flat fish from
Tastubek fishery camp in October 1998.
JESPERSEN,
Erik
Electrician
with significant experience from development projects. Has worked
(1998) with the problems of practical food distribution procedures
and quality control in Aralsk.
LARSEN,
Jan Christian Gruwier
Biologist.
Was in 1998 in charge of a bilateral biological test fishery on
Small and Big Aral Sea, in co-operation with the Kazak
Ichthyological Institute, Aral branch. Has at his disposal
detailed information about the history and present situation of
the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea, and has ongoing relations
with Kazak biologists and fishery experts.
OLSEN,
Erik Bjørn
M.A.
and bookkeeper. 1998 he supported the organisation and structure
of NGO Aral Tenizi, first of all in introducing and monitoring
methods of accounting.
SVENNEVIG,
Ingeborg
Ethnographer.
1998 she carried out an analysis, based on interviews, of the
situation and perspectives of the women working in fishery related
industry in Aral region.
References of each of
the declarations in the CCR registration form:
LLH
has been host and performed training programs for two employees at
the Kazak Ichtyological Institute in Aralsk: Zaoulkhan Ermakhanov
(September 1996) and Nurtai Ibraimov (August 1998). Furthermore, a
biological trial fishery was performed in October-November 1998 on
Small and Big Aral, under the auspices of LLH biologist Jan C.G.
Larsen. This investigation concerned size and population structure,
distribution and production of Platichtys flesus in the Aral Sea,
as well as composition and biomass of bentos community and
composition and biomass of planktons. Moreover, the eco-toxicology
of the sea was examined.
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LLH is the only international organisation that has been directly
involved in working with the natural resources of the Aral Sea -
the fish.
In
developing the co-operation between Danish and Kazak fishery
related organisations and communities, LLH has succeeded in
encouraging local forces to establish an independent NGO (Aral
Tenizi) that has as its primary aim to further and protect
environmental interests. This work also aims to secure valid
biological monitoring of the sea resources and to encourage local
fishermen in developing common criteria and objectives in resource
management.
In
September 1996, 15 Aral fishermen and specialists visited LLH in
Djursland, Denmark, in order to study the Danish traditions in
catching, treating and selling especially flat fish. In the work
in Kazakstan since 1997, the LLH has focused on the development of
Small Enterprises, organising local fishermen in independent
co-operatives that are economically and organisationally capable
of self-management. This new structure in business management is
supported by Kazakstani law, through the law of Small Scale
Business Enterprise from 1997. In supporting the establishing and
function of NGO Aral Tenizi, LLH has sought - and is seeking - to
improve the conditions of local fishermen in organising
individually in private co-operatives.
1995
in Denmark and 1996 and 1998 in Denmark and Kazakstan, LLH has
introduced Kazakstani NGO workers, fishermen, specialists and
interpreters to Danish traditions in local and international
co-operation. The establishing of NGO Aral Tenizi in Aral City is
the culmination of this work. The NGO is inextricably connected to
on going social dialogue, since its members and partners are
fishermen and fish factory owners as well as biologists, workers
in the fishery industry, and common people with an interest in
environmental issues. The focus of Aral Tenizi as well as of LLH
is the sea, and in order to protect the common interests of all
parties living from and by the sea, conflicting interests must be
accorded. NGO Aral Tenizi is aiming to be an independent and
democratic organisation with numerous national and international
contacts and projects. LLH will support it financially until 2004.
In
working to re-establish the fishery on the Aral Sea, LLH has build
up significant experience in developing of local communities. The
Aral fishermen have been forced to abandon their sea since 1975,
and have travelled several thousand kilometres each year in order
to maintain their professional occupation. Only since 1996 have
Aral fishermen again been able to catch valuable amounts of fish
on the Aral Sea, and the continuing improvement of these
possibilities has meant significant development in the villages
and former kolkhozes around the sea.
In
1996 the woman in the fishery industry took part in the project
with making filet and other product of the fladfish. A team where
constructed to handle the fish in one month under Danish
leadership. In 1998 an ethnographer carried out an analysis, based
on interviews, of the situation and perspectives of the women
working in fishery related industry in Aral region.
In
1996 during one month, 15 Aral fishermen and specialists were
introduced to the Danish systems of cold food chain, packaging and
food safety, and these three subjects have had the highest
priorities in the work of LLH in Kazakstan. Apart from the actual
fishing tackle, the major need in the Aral region is an effective
system to treat the fish caught, from water to table. Cooling
facilities, transportation and storing/packing facilities need
much development, and much effort has been put from LLH in
stressing the importance of these factors. In October-November
1998, LLH supported Aral fishermen in producing a high quality
product from flounder, cooled, treated, stored and packed
according to European standards and sold on the market of Almaty.
In
the work proceeding from the trial fishery in 1996, the LLH has
continuously supported and encouraged Aral fishermen and fish
treating plants to maintain high standards in food treatment and
distribution. This work continues since 1998 via the NGO Aral
Tenizi that counts among its staff experienced specialists from
the once highly productive fish treating plant "Aralrybprom".
During ten years (1995-2004) LLH supports and emphasises the
importance of this monitoring, and works to improve the physical
conditions for this work.
Aral
business men, fishermen and administrators have, on behalf of LLH,
visited Denmark in 1995, 1996 and 1998 to study Danish traditions
in fish distribution, product development and market principles.
In October-November 1998, LLH supported Aral fishermen in
producing a high quality product form flounder, cooled, treated,
stored and packed according to European standards and sold on the
market of Almaty. Being a new product to the local fishermen and
fish treating plants, the flounder required techniques and
principles of treatment that were to some extent alien to the Aral
fishery trades (flat fish require a quite different treatment than
round fish). Furthermore, the proceeding assimilation of
Kazakstani economy to market terms has left the fishermen in a
somewhat peculiar situation: On the one hand juridically enabled
to enter the private market in small co-operative units, on the
other hand traditionally bound to the existing larger (former
state-) companies. The transmission of the sovkhoz structure into
a number of self-managing co-operatives, with the accompanying
difficulties in navigating between potential buyers and increased
individual responsibilities in especially the cold food chain, has
confronted the fishermen and fish treatment industries with new
and challenging problems. This transition stage of the fishery
trade in the Aral region again emphasises the necessity of a
common dialogue between fishermen internally and between fishermen
and biologists, factories, etc. The effort to establish the NGO
Aral Tenizi has therefore proved valuable (see above, p. 1).
The
fishery project, "From Kattegat to Aral Sea", has
implemented simple fishery technology in the Aral region.
Techniques and equipment that are relatively easily adopted by the
Aral fishermen have been introduced in order to improve the
catches of flounder from the Aral Sea on an economically and
biologically sustainable basis.
Working
in the fishery project "From Kattegat to Aral Sea", one
of the major tasks of the "NGO Aral Sea Working Group
Denmark" has been to inform and advocate about the Aral Sea
and its environmental problems, as well as potential. To meet this
need, conferences and seminars have been arranged in Denmark as
well as in Kazakstan, constantly emphasising the importance of
activating the actual users of the sea, the fishermen, in the
efforts to make clear and give liability to the necessity of
environmental work. Fishermen have come to tell the story about
the Aral Sea, which has been one of the major targets in the LLH
work since 1994: Only they can give real and credible substance to
the world debate about the fishery related environmental problems
in the Aral Sea Basin. Newspaper articles and TV programs have
focused on the Aral Sea, and in this process, the NGO Aral Tenizi
has obtained valuable experience in Public Relations.
Since
1996, the fishery project, "From Kattegat to Aral Sea",
has engaged local interpreters in Aral City. In order to obtain
the highest possible access to local tradition and culture, and in
order to give an opportunity to local school teachers (mainly of
English) to improve their abilities and broaden their knowledge
about English speaking countries. This work has included visits
and training in Denmark for 8 Kazak interpreters.
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