RESOLUTION
of International Research and Training Conference
«Geological and Mining-and-Industrial Heritage
in Regions’ Economy Development»
September 12 - 15, 2016

International Research and Training Conference «Geological and Mining-and-Industrial Heritage in Regions’ Economy Development» was held in Federal state budget institution of science the Institute of Geology of Karelian Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, as part of the Republic of Karelia’s activities devoted to the world Day of tourism on September 12 – 15, 2016. The conference was organized by the Institute of Geology of Karelian Research Centre, RAS, with the support of Petrozavodsk State University, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Karelia, the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia and Geological survey of Finland. 
The conference was attended by over 80 specialists and experts, including heads of state, scientific, educational, cultural institutions, teachers, students, graduate students and undergraduates, guides, NGO activists, entrepreneurs who share the concern about the preservation of cultural and natural heritage of Karelia and interested in these sites to be included into tourist routes. Contacts were made via videoconference with the specialists from Sverdlovsk region and Yekaterinburg. Those who deal with similar problems in foreign countries –Finland, Latvia and Poland – studying the monuments of geological and mining-and-industrial heritage or using such monuments also took part in the conference. Viva-voce reports and printed materials presented by the participants of the conference during the plenary meeting and the section meetings as well as the works of the remote participants that are being prepared for publishing insist on the importance to continue, extend and intensify international cooperation related to the realization of the Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage, 2003 - The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage, TICCIH.

The conference participants discussed a wide range of theoretical, methodological, philosophical, organizational and managerial issues of organization of measures for the study, identification and preservation of geological monuments and mining and industrial heritage. The presented reports reflected the problems of critical assessment of the economic potential of mining monuments, their preparation for the introduction into tourist turnover and further exploitation. 
The conference participants got acquainted with practical experience in the use of geological, mining and industrial sites on the example of Ruskeala Mining Park (the village of Ruskeala, Sortavala district, the Republic of Karelia), Tulmozerye Mining Park (the village of Kolatselga, Pryazha district, the Republic of Karelia), Park Girvas (Girvas, Kondopoga district of the Republic of Karelia), “Gora Filina” (“Eagle-Owl’s Mountain) Museum (Pitkäranta in the Republic of Karelia), the Natural Monument of Sablino (the village of Ulyanovka, Tosno district of Leningrad region), “Russkoe Zoloto” (“Russian Gold”) Museum (Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk region), Outokumpu Mining Museum (Finland), Daugavpils shot factory (Latvia). There were excursions to the sites currently in use in Karelia – Girvas Park, Tulmozerye Mining Park, Ruskeala Mining Park, promising sites – Kitela garnets (Pitkarantsky district of the Republic of Karelia), Nigozerskoe deposit of schungite schists (Kondopoga of the Republic of Karelia). 

The participants of the conference noted:
- The complex nature of problems of preservation and use of cultural and natural heritage in tourism industry, the need to consolidate efforts to transform it into an economic resource. Along with the detected positive trends in increasing of the tourist attractiveness of geological, mining and industrial heritage monuments to mass tourism, changes in the assessment of the prospects of such sites of tourist business, participants noted negative trends caused by the increased touristic interest for the monuments (contamination of the adjacent territory, vandalism, poor security, etc.). At the same time, the potential of the monuments of geology and mining is often ignored locally, it also damages economic development of the regions.
- The timeliness and urgency of strengthening the participation of state and local governments, professional communities, employees of tourism and related industries (geologists, historians, ecologists, engineers mining, pedagogues, psychologists and journalists), to the problem of development and integration of interesting geological monuments and mining monuments of nature in tourism. 
- The presence of features of development of tourist facilities established on the basis of geological, mining and industrial heritage of the region, which is conditioned by both objective economic reality, and the existing mining and geological law poorly developed in this area
- Tendency to travel in small groups (family tourism) requires a separate approach to information support of cultural facilities based on the use of modern information technologies
- Local population’s poor awareness of the monuments of geology and the history of development of industry in the Republic of Karelia 
The conference approved the works carried out by the Institute of Geology, Karelian Research Centre, RAS, for the development of scientific research in the field of geology, mining and industrial tourism.

The conference participants agreed on a common scientific-conceptual and practice-oriented position in the understanding of the main directions of practical implementation of the tasks of the development of geological and mining-and-industrial cultural heritage when using them in the sphere of tourism and have developed the following SUGGESTIONS for its further development.

For the Government of the Republic of Karelia
- When elaborating long-range plans of socio-economic development for the Republic’s districts to consider the location of geological and mining-industrial heritage sites of the Republic of Karelia, plan money resources to ensure access of population to monuments, the sites registered legally by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia. To provide for the laying of major roads to these sites of tourism at the expense of the budgets of the Republic and the Russian Federation.
 
For the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia:
- To establish a public council with participation of specialists in the sphere of natural and mining and industrial heritage, including economists, geologists, historians, architects, ecologists and other specialists for the assessment of the necessity and possibility to involve this cultural heritage into the economic cycle.
- To work through the offer to increase equalization transfers to the municipalities on the territories of which the monuments of geology and mining-and-industrial history are situated in order to ensure the conditions of protection and maintenance of such monuments by efforts of local authorities (Kondopozhsky, Pitkaranstsky, Prionezhsky and other districts of the Republic of Karelia where the sites of geological and mining-and-industrial heritage are revealed and registered).
- To work out original, attractive and informative signs and logos taking into account territorial identity, history and climate-and-geographic features of the region in general and every municipal district in particular in order to strengthen the key characteristics of the Karelian brand and increase the effectiveness of tourist communication.
- To plan the budget spending in support of newly created small enterprises in the sphere of maintenance of monuments of mining and industrial heritage and to distribute these funds on a competitive parity basis
- To draw attention to the facts of careless keep of natural, cultural, mining and industrial heritage monuments by their private owners/ landholders (the most spectacular example is Konchezero copper-smelting and iron works), to motivate the owners to perform their duties or to return such sites to state ownership
 - To promote the information work associated with the popularization of research results, forums, conferences, seminars and schools relating to the topic of use of geological, mining and industrial heritage monuments in tourism industry.
- Together with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Karelia to plan a system of training of certified guides for the routes including the subject of geological and mining-and-industrial heritage.

For the Ministry for the Environment and Ecology of the Republic of Karelia:
- To organize work on the development of regulations concerning the use of geological, mining and industrial heritage, including mining as tourist attractions.

For the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Karelia:
- Provide for the identification, study and dissemination – on a regular basis – of the existing positive experience of the education system and the tourism departments for professional orientation in training for tourism industry
- Wider use of the experience of the Republican center for youth tourism to attract students of the Republic to work on the maintenance of monuments of geological, mining and industrial and other cultural heritage on the territory of the Republic.
- To draw attention to the lack of at least optional lessons on the fundamentals of geology and the history of the development of mining in the education program for high school students in the presence of guidance papers worked out within the frameworks of young geologists’ club “Arkhey” of the Institute of Geology of Karelian research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

For Municipal Authorities: 
- To draw attention to the lack of basic amenities (toilets, bins to collect garbage) in recreational places and location areas of cultural heritage monuments (parking, places to visit by organized and unorganized tourists), and where it is organized – timely maintenance of these places.
- To carry out organizational, financial and informational support for the development of sites on the basis of geological, mining and industrial heritage, as a valuable tourist potential of the area, ensuring the creation of small enterprises and expand the initiatives of individual entrepreneurs for servicing tourists

For Petrozavodsk State University:
- Provide training, retraining and advanced training of specialists, bachelors, masters, engaged in designing of the sites of geological and mining-and-industrial profile

For the Institute of Geology, Karelian Research Centre of RAS:
- To continue work on studying prospects of using objects of geological, mining and industrial heritage in tourism industry.
- To work out the mechanism of identification and registration of mining-and-industrial heritage monuments based on economic criteria taking as a point of departure the assessment of the commercial perspectives for this or that monument to turn into a tourist sites. 
- Actively cooperate with public organizations on the issues of studying prospective sites of geological and mining-industrial heritage.

For Public Organizations:
- To participate actively in decision-making in the work of expert councils and working groups with state institutions dealing with training of the use of geological, mining and industrial heritage
- Initiate a public campaign to support the development of eco-efficient tourism based on geological and mining-and-industrial heritage

	The participants of the conference expressed deep gratitude to the organizers for high level of preparation and holding of the event, vivid and memorable field trips.