european geographer 2

Magazine from the European Geography Association for students and young geographers

the EuropeanGeographer Second issue June 2008

EGEA magazine - 2 - june 2008

03 Aleš Oven Editorial

03 Maren Gleisberg Further east is impossible! In the eye of the tiger on Arseniev’s tracks

08 Marin Cvitanovic Hagerstrand’s got nothing on me

10 Gábor Hegedűs Of that dear plain, from Danube’s waters spread unto the Tisza’s distant shore. A short introduction to Kiskunság

12 Claudia Iordache Feeling at home in Zagreb

14 Tuukka Mäkitie The Green Mountain at the old Teri-river

16 Jelte Sikkema Nature for sale: the struggle between environment and economic growth. A report of the WRC 2007

18 Folkert de Jong Stakeholders and Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Wadden Sea

19 Janne Riehunkangas Studying happiness: EGEA EuroMed Congress 2007 in Vilafranca- Morella, Spain by EGEA Barcelona & Valencia

20 Irina Strashnenko Eastern European Countries’ Identity: The Modern Choice. Report of the EGEA X Eastern Regional Congress

22 Alois Humer and Laura Garagnani Exchanges in EGEA – case study triple exchange “BMW”, Bologna, Muenchen, Wien. The start-up of EGEA in Italy

25 Anastasia Kazakova EGEA Baikal Lake Expedition

ColophonThe EGEA Magazine is a publication from the European Geography Association for Geography students and young Geographers. The EGEA Magazine is published twice a year. The magazine is meant for the EGEA community, EGEA partners and all others interested in EGEA, Geography and Europe.

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E-mail EGEA magazine: [email protected]

Website: www.egea.eu

Editors of the second issue:Vlad Dumitrescu

Gert Ruepert

Martin Barthel

Maren Gleisberg

Marin Cvitanovic

Graphic Design:Gérard van Betlehem – GeoMedia

Authors:Ales Oven, Maren Gleisberg, Marin Cvitanovic, Jelte Sikkema,

Alois Humer and Laura Garagnani, Tuukka Mäkitie, Irina

Strashnenko, Janne Riehunkangas, Gábor Hegedűs, Claudia

Iordache, Folkert de Jong, Anastasia Kazakova

Photos:Maren Gleisberg, Petteri Niemi, Janne Riehunkangas,

Claudia Iordache, Jelte Sikkema.

Coverphoto:Petteri Niemi

The editors would like to thank:Gérard van Betlehem – GeoMedia

Margot Stoete – GeoMedia,

Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

All authors

EGEA is supported byESRI

Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

The European Commission

Discovering ones favorite place is among the most interesting and important things people do in their lives. Reasons why a certain place is the best one, depend on individuals, ways how to find one are rather simi-lar: traveling and discovering. Both go hand in hand together. While we travel, we also discover – some more, others less. However, geographers have a tendency to discover more in number and in details. Simple journey is not enough. We like to know where we are and what is go-ing on in this/that place. For feeding our desire to know a simple idea was born: Creation of an Association which would enable young people to travel around, meet youth from different environments, learn about active and past processes, which take/took place and understand the whole picture. The idea was realized and here we are – under the auspices of EGEA.The network of entities throughout Europe is giving us a chance to ex-plore our continent. Inside, everyone can find his/her special place. Of course, when searching THE place, we are limited to Europe, but it is a start, from which we can go on.As simple as it may seem, there is a whole structure developed, enabling us a cosier life. Many people are working daily for the Association. There are still many things to be done, so that EGEA will have higher standards and broader influence. New people are joining and new entities will arise. Further develop-ment will give us a chance to explore more places in number and quality. Who knows, maybe the next event will bring a new favorite place for one or more people.So, let’s give ourselves more chances to discover and let’s all keep search-ing for our favorite place!

Aleš Oven, BoE 2007/08 Chairman

Maren GleisbergEGEA Alumni/[email protected]

I have to admit when the question “what is your favourite place?” came up in the editors team, I had to think a few seconds…on the one hand, my favour-ite place is my home region “Sauerland”, a rural hilly area in the heart of Germany, where I spent most of the first 21 years of my life. Hmm or maybe my city of studies Muenster/Westphalia? Just by the way and anyhow Muenster received the LivCom-Award for beeing the most liveable community in the world in 2004. Both places have their very special value and are still very important for me. But my absolute favourite place is on the other side of the Eurasian continent.

How come? It is close connected to my personal “falling in love with geogra-phy”, which started a longer time ago, when I was in danger to repeat the class just because of my own laziness in the subjects geography and politics. I must

admit in all honesty. In that school year the topic of our geography-lessons was the “Trans-Siberian railway system and geography of Siberia”. So, no question I had to get deep into geographical mat-ters to save myself from an extra-round in school. At that time I did not imagine studying geography one day. I did not even imagine to study at an university itself. In those times the iron curtain was almost open, but still present. AND: at that time I was infected by the interest in a far and somehow unknown coun-try – Russia. I started dreaming about going there once… with the longest railway ever… 9.288 km from Moscow to Vladivostok. Especially the sound of the name “Vladivostok” was already so full of miracles – at least for me it was. Going there once became a strong wish of mine.

Go east!In September 2003, more than 10 years later and a long time after I managed to finalize school without detour and was already almost finished with my


Editorial Further east is impossible! – In the eye of the tiger on Arseniev’s tracks

Sikhote Alin Mountains at the Sea of Japan.


studies in landscape ecology…I stepped out of a plane into a time-zone some 7 hours earlier than MT (Moscow-time). I stepped into humidity as I would con-nect it with tropical Africa or rainfor-ests… but… Vladivostok – there we were! Twenty students and one profes-sor just arrived in the Russian Far East. I was taking part in the first students’ fieldwork-excursion to Ussuria, pro-vided by the department of Landscape Ecology at the Westphalian Wilhelms-University of Muenster.Ussuria, “the beautiful wild region known as the Russian Far East curves south along the Sea of Japan like a great claw of Siberia, from the vast delta of the Amur River to the North Korean border, and its coast range -the Sikhote-Alin- extending southward some 600 miles between the Ussuri River and the sea is the last redoubt of Panthera tigris altaica, the Siberian or Manchurian tiger, which ranged formerly throughout northeastern China (or Man-churia) and the Korean peninsula, and west as far as Mongolia and Lake Baikal.” (cf. M. Hornocker, introduction to “Tigers in the snow”).

So, to get a bit close to the core of the matter: my favourite place is located some 4.5 hours by minibus east from Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East. To be more precise, in the south of the Sikhote-Alin-Mountains and the Pri-morye region, located at the Japanese Sea. Here you find the town of Lazo (N43°22’52.8” E133°53’53.3”). In the early 13th century, during the mongolian lead-ership under the rule of Dschingis Khan the place was already known as Lazo. After that periode the whole region has become buried in oblivion and nature could develop without disturbance.

The Lazovski ZapovednikIn present time, since 1935 a nature preserve named “Lazovski Zapovednik” with its 176.000 hectares is located south east from Lazo between the river valleys of Kievka and Tchornaia. The first scien-tific researches in Primorskii Krai began in the early 20th century, when Vladimir K. Arsenjev explored the region. Accord-ing to L. G. Berg (1959) the area is part of the broad-leaved and mixed forest

of the Far East. Other sources describe it as part of the southern sub-zone of coniferous-broad-leaved mixed forests. Primorski Kraii – situated at the eastern border of the huge Asian continent next to the Pacific Ocean – is characterized by mountain landscape, and strong monsoon climate. The mountain ridge “Zapovedny” divides the reserve into a southern more maritime part and in a northern more continental part.“Zapovednik” is the basic unit in the Russian nature protection system. A Zapovednik is a totally protected area belonging to category I in the IUCN classification-system. Zapovednik is the most important, most traditional and most efficient form of nature preserva-tion in Russia. So usually the access to Zapovednik is prohibited and only allowed for scientific purposes. Never-theless about 1.500 visitors per year are allowed to enter the protected area of Lazovski Zapovednik. Most of them are joining the guided ecological daytrips to Petrova Island in the Sea of Japan, which is part of the Zapovednik as well. Our student group belonged to both types.

Go east – already in the Sikhote Alin, crossing Kievka River on our way towards Lazo.


On the one hand doing our own field-work – on the other hand being guided over Petrova Island and its unique Japa-nese yew (Taxus cuspidata)-forests by the director of the Zapovednik himself.The Lazovski Zapovednik State Reserve is financially supported by the Rus-sian Federation and also by beneficial organisations and foundations as well as by tourists or student excursions like ours. We had to pay an entrance fee for our time in the Zapovednik. For us it was quite unusual compared to e.g. German large scale sanctuarys, where the access is free. Beside guided tours the Zapo-vednik offers a small Natural History Museum and the library for use. Both are located in Lazo in the main adminis-tration building of the reserve.

The excursion to a beautiful middle of nowhereIn total we were accomodated in four different cottages, that were distributed all over the Zapovednik: “Petrova” and “Ta-tschinguosa” situated directly at the seaside, “Karpat” and “Amerika” (right, Amerika, and we are still in Russia) located in the mountains.Normally these huts are used by park-rangers and scientists from Russian Uni-versities. They can be reached only with the famous all terrain “Dural” minibuses. Their drivers do not fear any danger, so the high-speed-crossing of riverbeds was one of the biggest adventures for us when going by minibus. Our contact

to the staff of the Zapovednik, to the director as well as to the scientists, rang-ers and drivers was very very friendly. Especially despite our lack of knowledge of Russian language the communica-tion with those among them, that didn’t know English or German was quite of-ten successful- thanks to hands and feet.Our life during the excursion was more than basic. On our trip through this mid-dle of nowhere, close to the Japanese Sea, we were first inhabiting Petrova cottage. This is a wooden hut with 3 rooms: kitchen, living-and study room (35 m²), sleepingroom (40 m²). The latter shared by 20 people, therefore every-one had a private sphere of less than 2 squaremeters. 19 persons sleeping on inflating matrasses on the floor – our professor was one of the 19. And one person was sleeping on her inflating-matress in a old rusty iron bed, which was squeaking all night. Guess who slept next to that “bed”? – Right, me. I just love my earplugs! As there was no space for the backpacks in the sleeping-room, all stuff was stored in the com-mon dining/research room in a big mountain of equipment and shoes.We got traditional Russian food, every day fresh prepared by Julia, our Russian three stars cook. After our seven days at Petrova we all appreciated the Russian bania – not only because running water was not installed at all. But amazingly fast one gets used to the manual water pump. The “toilets” – simple latrines – were a bit harder to get adapted to. Furthermore we lived almost without electricity, that means cooking on wood and electric power was gained only for one hour in the evening by a genera-tor. This electricity was basically used for recharging the walkie-talkies of the rangers. Do I have to add, that there was no mobile phone connection, not even for the rangers?I am internet-addict and my mobile is always switched on. I am almost always available I admit. But somehow I was used to all these circumstances after just one day. Sometimes you do not need much to feel happy.In this beautiful middle of nowhere one expedition up a mountain-range was impressive in several aspects: the view over autumn-coloured Ussurian taiga, climbing along rocks that look like

dragon-teeth, tenting above the forest-boarder, sharing 2 inflating-matrasses with 3 people, cause we slept with 9 people in a 5 persons-tent. But the most funny situation was, that we, well equipped “western standard students” (Meindl, Saleva, Wolfskin & co. are our best friends) physically good in shape really had to fight to climb the last hundred meters to the top. The track was very steep, the ground slippery due to rain and moss, and the trees were so small, that we had to creep underneath them wig huge backpacks and tents on our backs. So, no wonder that on the line we were caught by a small group of Russian locals climbing up the moun-tain “Sestra” (1.671 m above sea level) for picking berries and they were wearing rubber boots or sandals. Amazing.

The rare speciesAmong the special protected animals in the Zapovednik you find for example the Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), Amur Goral, Sika Deer and Asian Black Bear. Ah, by the way, we have only seen fresh tiger-footprints … but no living tiger itself. Our focus was the research in spiders, grasshoppers, bats, the Us-surian Taiga, the annual vegetation, the soil-classification and – cause this area is very unique for migration of rare birds – the avifauna. The avifauna is represent-ed by 344 species in the Zapovednik, 140 of them reproduce there. All others are counted as temporary guests.So we got our sensation with the ap-pearance of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) on “our” sandy beach in front of Pertrova cot-tage. Eagerly running for food in the surge the sandpiper was not noticing that we were coming closer to see and picture him and his typical pecker, formed like a spoon. This species is one of the rarest breeding birds in the Arctic region, breeding exclusively in the Rus-sian Far East on Chukchi and Kamtchat-ka Peninsula. Only approximately 1000 of them still exist on our planet. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper migrates down the Pacific to its main wintering grounds in South and South-East Asia.Beside the animals in danger of extinc-tion an endangered flora exists in the region as well. Ginseng can be found for instance or the original Stone pine-

Logo on the official sign of L. Zapo-vednik (Source: M. Gleisberg)


broadleaved forests of Mandgurian type, that have covered large parts of Primorye not long ago.

Arseniev and Derzu Uzala

Vladimir K. Arseniev (1872 – 1930) was a Russian explorer, naturalist, and surveyor. In the early 1900s he became the first European to explore and to map the south-ern parts of Far East Russia. He discovered many hectares of Primorski Krai and Khabarovskii Krai primarily on foot, accompanied by native bearers and Cossack troops.

“Ussuria or Ussuri Land was rather unknown to the West until early in the twentieth century, when it was explored by Vladimir K. Arseniev, a young army lieutenant, ge-ographer, and naturalist who made three expeditions there between 1902 and 1908 in order to map the wild Primorski Krai, or Maritime Province. Arseniev was subsequently described as ‘the great explorer of Eastern Siberia’….” (cf. P. Matthiessen, Tigers in the Snow).

On several of Arseniev’s expeditions Dersu Uzala, who was a native trapper and hunter, guided the group. Over the years he became a very close friend of Arseniev. Later on Arseniev published his adventures in two fantastic books. The movie “Dersu Uzala” from 1961 bases on the most famous book “Dersu the Trapper”. The Natural History Musem in the heart of downtown Vladivostok is dedicated to this pioneer in Russian Far East field research with exhibits covering natural history, modern history, anthropology and more. One of the museum lobbies is dominated by a half-life-size wood carving in shades of rich red-brown. It shows Arseniev and Dersu while resting in a camp.

During our excursion we sometimes had some free time during the day (when doing nightly bat-reasearch, for exam-

ple). So we could walk around alone – always knowing that the tiger is some-where around – or in groups just in case. Really, some were afraid and hoped the tiger would first eat the other collegue and be done with him. In the evenings we often had lectures of V. K. Arseniev’s book “Derzu Uzala”, and especially dur-ing the time at the Amerika-hut we felt like being on traces of this great Russian explorer.

My favourite placeTo finally conclude, I will describe my favourite place as follows: quite often I went to a place, where the rocks of Sikhote Alin strike directly in the Japa-nese Sea. Here I was sitting on one of these rock-edges, surrounded by little, compact…almost munchkin-like Oak-trees. These trees were trying to grow high against a strong costal breeze. A place where you taste and smell the salty air. Where I was listening to the sound of the wind and the waves and watching the Japanese cormorants (Phalacrocorax capillatus) hunting for fish on the surface of the Japanese Sea… no traffic, no phone nor hurry

Fieldwork – students watching seasonal migration of birds in front of Petrova cottage.


around… this was a very unique experi-ence.Whenever you find such a place, keep it in mind as an anker-point. You can come back to that fantastic place for a moment in your imagination, when your everyday-life is too busy, too loud, too industrialized and too engineered… And I am sure it works out.After three amazing weeks our uni-versity-excursion was over. Full with impressions about the life in Ussuria we started another unforgettable journey. In a group of six people we travelled back the whole transsib on the original route. It took us 7 days and a few hours … and again living with only 2 square meters of private space in our rolling

livingroom. So the geographer’s dream of travelling through Sibiria, across big rivers, through neverending tiga-forests (in begin of October in a fantastic colour, wow) this dream came finally true. Stepping out in Moskov, spending time there and further travels by train to St. Petersburg and Helsinki allow us to say, “We’ve crossed the whole Russia by train”. One other result from this faraway trip was my diploma-thesis, written in cooperation with the Zapovednik – handed in 1.5 years after the impressive trip.

I have done quite a lot of journeys since then. Have seen very nice places and met wonderful people. But somehow

this experience in the Russian Far East is still very special and present. And from time to time, when I need a break from everyday chaos and I would like to be at a silent and peaceful place, then I close my eyes and think myself back to “my piece (and peace) of Russia” … some-where far far east.

BibliographyBerg, L. S. (1958): Die geographischen Zonen der Sowjetunion. Bd. I. Leipzig.Berg, L. S. (1959): Die geographischen Zonen der Sowjetunion. Bd. II. Leipzig.Chebakova, I.V. (1997): National Parks of Russia. A Guidebook – Biodiversity Conservation Center. Moscow.IUCN (1998):1997 United Nations List of Protected Areas. Prepared by WCMC and WCPA. Gland, Switzerland and Cam-bridge, UK.Khokhryakov, S. A. & W. P. Shokhrin (2002): Amphibien, Reptilien, Vögel und Säugetiere des Lasowski Sapowednik (Primorsky krai, Russland). Eine kom-mentierte Artenliste. Lazo. (Dt. Bearbei-tung: Hermann Mattes, Übersetzung Igor Edlich).Stökl, G. (1997): Russische Geschichte. Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. 6. Auflage. Stuttgart.

All photos by Maren Gleisberg

Interesting URLshttp://lazovzap.dvo.ru/pages/enshort.htmhttp://www.savethetigerfund.org/http://www.send.org/fer/history.htm#arsenievhttp://www.dersuuzala.info/http://www.ussurien.de/Ussurien-Home.htm

Recommended books“Tigers in The snow” by Peter Matthies-sen and Maurice Hornocker, North Point Press, 2000, paperback-ISBN: 0865475962“Dersu the Trapper” by V. K. Arseniev, McPherson & Co, 1996, paperback-ISBN: 0929701496

At the favourite place.


by Marin CvitanovicEGEA [email protected]

If you start looking for it on a map, you’ll probably come to conclusion that my fa-vourite place actually doesn’t exist. With only about a hundred people living in it, it’s not important enough to put on the majority of maps in Croatia. But in the atlas of my life it’s on the first page – it’s the place where everything started.The year was 1982 and Yugoslavia was in deep crisis – what a perfect time to

be born! Luckily for my Dad, he owned a car whose licence plates started with an odd number so he had no problem in taking Mum to hospital. At that time the “odd and even days” rule was in action due to a severe domestic petrol crisis. On certain days of the week only cars with first odd number on licence plates were allowed to drive and on other those with even. With my good sense of timing I have chosen the odd day. Otherwise my favourite place on earth could have easily been the backseat of our old Renault 4.

Soon I was brought back from hospital to our first-floor apartment where we had tenure rights. That was the socialis-tic way of having an apartment without actually owning it. You just owned the right to live in it, but were free to sell your rights to someone else. Above us lived a strange lady with cats (there has to be one in every story) and under us was the biggest shop in the region and the centre of all social life. It was the place to see and to be seen at, and the news there would spread from mouth to mouth faster then over the internet. Every time I entered the store I felt like a millionaire. Sometimes even a billion-aire, depending on the rate of inflation in Yugoslavia. On Monday you could buy a chewing gum for a few millions,

Hagerstrand’s got nothing on me


next week you would need at least a bil-lion; it was so easy to get lost amongst all those zeroes. But even with all that money I still don’t recall that we were rich at the time.On rainy days my geographic explora-tion was confined to our apartment and the window views. From the front side I could see the nearby river and the bridge over it. This is the place where Dinaric Alps are the narrowest in all of Croatia, and some important roads were built here back in the 18th century. Some still look that way. The stone bridge on the other hands is one of the nicest examples of bridge-construction in the country. It was built in 1775 but because of the depth of the river canyon, in1836 another bridge was built over it to decrease the amplitude of the road. The river springs from a 300 m deep cave under the Krpel hills. The cave almost became a sensation a few years ago when gorgeous drawings were discov-ered on its walls, only to be realised that they were made by some more recent local artist with a strange sense of humour. He also took the liberty to break and destroy the majority of the cave decorations which grew inside for thousands of years. Maybe the pictures were drawn by a Neanderthal after all. Still, the cave had its 15 minutes of glory thanks to a little sponge called Eunapius subterraneus. To this day it is the only discovered subterranean sweet water sponge in the world. It was found only in six other caves in the vicinity, one of which is located a few hundred meters from this one. It is called The Quarry cave and with its length of 8 487 m (so far explored) it is the third longest cave in Croatia. Apart from the little sponge, the cave has some world-unique cave ornaments such as meteoric phreatic speleothems, created during the ever-changing process of speleogenesis which is still very active in this area. Because of its importance the cave sys-tem was put in the list of top ten most endangered karst ecosystems in Croatia. The problem is the quarry which is situ-ated above the cave. Constant mining and material extraction with heavy ma-chinery already caused the destruction and collapse of large parts of the cave. Even the Karst Waters Institute from USA has placed this tiny region in the list of

ten most endangered karst eco-systems in the world. Yes, it’s so easy to be proud when you live in a place like this.But that’s not the only ‘famous’ thing about the village. A bit to the east from the caves there’s a tiny gothic church of St. John. The architect of the church was Herman Bolle, important Croato-Austri-an architect who designed the gothic cathedral of St. Stephen in Zagreb. Our priest would always say that the churches were similar as twin sisters, but to be honest, ours looked more as some illegitimate child. And except for the old women, not a lot of people went to the church. Not until 1991 when everybody discovered their Catholic background, and suddenly the body of Christ was more popular than bagels from the shop down the street.The 1991 brought other changes also. Some of my neighbours went away. Some said good-bye, others disap-peared during the night. I didn’t quite understand what was going on until the war started. Luckily I was a child and everything seemed like an exciting game. Air raids and blackouts would be spent in the shelter, but all of my friends would be there and it almost seemed as a big slumber party with added danger and excitement. Winter that followed the autumn outbreak of conflict was one of the snowiest ever. Usually the school would be closed for a day or two until the roads were cleared, but that year the school remained closed for more than two months. When it finally started, every now and then the danger of air raids would be announced again and we would be sent home. I can still remember the taste of ‘war Nutella’. It was made of water, sugar, powdered milk from humanitarian aid and a few spoons of cocoa. No Ferrero could ever beat that! For sure it was the longest summer of my life, and one of the most remembered ones.The following year we moved to Zagreb. My room never looked emptier than that day when all of our stuff was put on a truck which took us to our new home. Years later there was a documentary on Croatian TV called “They fought also” about the place we lived in. It was so strange to see everything through an older pair of eyes. The people were the same, the buildings and the mountains

also, but still I had an odd feeling that something was different. That’s why I am not sure anymore. My favourite place should still be there, all the maps and road-signs point in the same direction. But geography hasn’t helped me much this time, because every now and then I try and try, but to this day I haven’t man-aged to find that special place again.


Gábor Hegedűs EGEA [email protected]

„… there Is my own world, my home! My eagle soul Springs from its prison bonds, when I behold The bound’ry of the plain. And so, in thought, Upward to thee I fly, amid thy clouds, When smiles upon me then, the image fair Of that dear plain, from Danube’s waters spread Unto the Tisza’s distant shore. Tinkle Beneath the sky of the mirage, the bells Of Kis-Kúnság’s hundred fat herds, at noon; While by the well with the long windlass, waits…”(Sándor Petőfi: The Alföld, translated by William N. Loew)

I have many favourite places, areas. Among them I like Kiskunság maybe the most (In English: Little Cumania). I have been there many times with friends. I shall descript Kiskunság briefly in a qualitative and a subjective way, omit-ting references and some details.Kiskunság is the greatest sand land of Hungary. It is located between the riv-ers Danube and Tisza. It belongs to the Great Hungarian Plain (in Hungarian: Alföld) macro region and it represents the remains of an extended alluvial cone plain which was filled up by River Danube in the Pleistocene. The groups of sand hills are the most characteristic geomorphologic forms of Kiskun-ság

where we can find flatter areas as well. The soil is generally barren sand drift on which open sand grassland, white poplar and juniper groves are found.

Of that dear plain, from Danube’s waters spread unto the Tisza’s distant shore

A short introduction to Kiskunság


Kiskunság was inhabited by Cumanians (a nomadic Asian Turkic tribe) in the Middle Ages. Later, the whole are was named after them. During the Ottoman domination most of the settlements network was destroyed, and there were pasture lands evolving in the places of the demolished villages. From the late middle Ages tanyas appeared in the region. The detached little tanya is a special Hungarian settlement, a very small one, consisting usually only of one living and one working unit for a family in the Great Hungarian Plain.The expression “puszta” means arid, flat, “wild” grassland, steppe in the Hungar-ian sense. Sándor Petőfi, one of the most famous poets in Hungary, was also born here and he recorded this landscape (mainly the plain parts of Kiskunság, but also the hilly ones) in his verses. In fact, only the north-western and western parts of Kiskunság are flat enough to be able to equal the Hungarian’s and foreigner’s “puszta” notion.Kiskunság is also affected by recent global environmental changes. The danger of draught is growing suppos-edly because of global warming. The sinking of the underground water-level may proceed owing to the increasingly arid climate, the ever bigger area of the forests, and the intensive exploitation of groundwater. Many plans (e.g. the improvement of water management) were and are being made to stop these unfavourable processes.Many Hungarians and foreigners consider the Great Hungarian Plain, and Kiskunság as a boring, monoto-nous region. On the contrary I think that Kiskunság is a very interesting and diverse region with many natural, cultural and esthetical values. When I am there, I can always get to know a little bit of the other side of it. We make tours in the hilly, south-eastern Kiskun-ság. The population density of the area is relatively low; you can tour and stay for a long time without meeting anyone else. Kiskunság is extremely beautiful both during the daytime and in the evening. Tenting there under the open sky, far from civilization on a starry sum-mer night is amazing to me. When you fall asleep, only the lighting fireflies, the cracking of the camp-fire, little rustles of the night animals, and the swish-

ing of the groves and forests nearby give you an impression that you are in a very peaceful environment. I often stare at the sky during these nights because I am interested in Astronomy and the sky is not so light and polluted here as in my city. In the sweltering hot summer daytime you can sometimes meet herdsmen from the continually decreasing number of tanyas, while you walk across the interesting sand hills, pine and white poplar forests and wide low-grassed pastures. It is worth looking after your packet during these encoun-ters because the cows may attempt to eat your food, if the herdsman or you are not aware. We always take a spiked stick along to protect ourselves from the dogs running up to us from the herds or tanyas. Dogs are not so dangerous, but you should be cautious with them. If these robust guardian ones catch sight of the stick, they shrink immediately.Orientation is not easy if you are wan-dering in Kiskunság, especially if you are in the hilly parts. Juniper-covered sand hills, extended pine and poplar-trees, broad open woodlands vary by turns, so I use every time compass, and recently GPS, too. Many trails are very winding. A foreigner may lose oneself here after the first 500 m from the main road, I guess. Actually there are only older detailed maps about the region that is why I don’t use maps. Before our GPS-era sometimes we lost our way a bit but these occasions were not dangerous rather very funny and humorous. In fact, the road and settle-ment network of Hungary is not so rare even in Kiskunság, so you should just go ahead in a chosen direction, and in a short time you will arrive somewhere. Of course, we don’t play this “lost and found-game” in winter when we make no tours for safety’s sake in Kiskunság. Anyway, some of my tour mates are very keen on querying about the rightness of my orientation, especially at the end of the day, before arriving back to the cars or tents. But orientation tools are always right. People living in tanyas scattered in the area are usually friendly with us, they have a talk with us readily. We encounter many various domestic animals in these tanyas, and we indulge ourselves in playing stroking zoo for a while. But there are many tanyas which

are non-populated for a short or a longer time. The ruins of these former, abandoned tanyas are also interest-ing where nature have already begun to reconquer these places. Cultivated plants (fruit trees, flowers) survive this situation and run wild. The crops of the fruit trees are very delicious to eat dur-ing our tours.I propose a visit in Kiskunság to eve-ryone who like adventurous lowland tours, and want to get to know an ex-tremely multifaceted specific landscape located far away from the swarming of the big city.

Useful websites:http://www.bugacpuszta.info.hu/eng/index.htmlhttp://www.foek.hu/zsibongo/termve/np/angnp/knp.htm


by Claudia IordacheEGEA [email protected]

In a spur of a moment, my friends and I decided to go to Zagreb for the winter holidays. It took us almost 30 hours to get there and we decided that next time we should come by train, if not by plane, maybe this way the trip will be less exhausting.

Knowing that Croatia is an ex-com-munist country, I was expecting to see more grey and tall 10 stores apartment buildings. Well, the neighborhood we stayed in was modern and consisted of 4 stores blocks brightly colored and lots of green spaces around. Actually, the 10 stored blocks of flats were quite hard to find.

We were hosted by a Croatian family – it was the right place to take the pulse of how Croatians like to live, eat and spend their free time. That is how we found out that some of the words in Romanian mean exactly the same thing in Croatian. Also, we discovered that some of their traditional food dishes are similar or identical with those from home. Another surprising similarity was the wheat planted in cotton. Christmas tradition says that by planting wheat beans in a piece of cotton wool, one can see how fertile the next year will be.Only a few minutes away from our place there was the Jarun Lake. Amazing. The water is crystal clear. The lake is an old part of the Sava River, which in time due to sedimentation got separated from it. Jarun has a soft rocky beach and several nicely gardened islands. Our host told us

that Adriatic beaches are not sandy and golden as people are used to in other places. They have rocky sea side which is abraded by the sea water and that’s why it is not painful to walk on this kind of beach. It may even be something close to the best foot massage you ever had. The small beach on each side of the Jarun Lake was exactly like that. Too bad it was winter and cold, because I would have loved to give myself a foot massage! The landscape is completed after the swans and ducks are included. You could tell that they have been living among humans because they were not afraid to come close to us.Strolling around the city, one can not miss that Croatia’s Catholicism shows es-pecially in the architecture of its church-es. The most significant is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,

Feeling at home in Zagreb


located near the Ban Jelacic Square, in the center of the city. Its towers are over 100 m high and they can be seen from almost every part of the city. Sometimes when we didn’t know where we were, we’d just look for the towers. The inside of this amazing structure is decorated with statues that represent the Virgin Mary or the saints. Luckily, we were al-lowed to get behind the altar and take pictures of that incredible work of art. I am sure that, when is not full of tourists who want to capture every inch of it on their cameras, the Cathedral can be the place where one can find great peace. A little further we found the St Mark’s Church. The first thing you notice about it is the roof, where two coats of arms are represented. One of them stands for Zagreb and the other one for the king-

dom of Croatia-Dalmatia and Slavonia.Close to Zagreb there is a natural reserve and a ski resort up on the Medvednica Mountain. We took the tram till we reached the northern end of Zagreb and from there we were able to take the funicular which took us up to ski rinks. At first, we wanted to get to the Medvedgrad, a medieval castle build near the resort in the middle of the forest, but it was too difficult to get there during winter. Well, with all that, the trip to the mountains was a great opportunity for us to enjoy a fun snow fight and get in touch once again with the beautiful landscape of Croatia.

One thing I noticed about Croatians is that they’re very proud of their country most of all and proud of what they have

managed to make out of themselves so far. As tourists, in a country we didn’t know much about before we got here, we felt almost like home. We had a very friendly host and we were fortunate to stay with such great people who were so kind and welcoming.


Tuukka MäkitieEGEA [email protected]

The summer of 1939 was very beauti-ful and warm in north-eastern Europe. Finnish town of Terijoki (Teri-river in Finnish), also called as the Riviera of the North, in the Karelian Isthmus attracted great numbers of tourists, who were drawn there by the long and sandy beaches at the Finnish Gulf. The 8000 inhabitants of Terijoki were accompa-nied by a tenfold amount of tourists from nearby areas, especially from the city of Viipuri (Vyborg) just some 50 kilometers away. Also 19-year old young woman called Lea Kurki from the suburbs of Viipuri used to have summer holidays at Terijoki. The place was ideal to meet up with girlfriends and glance potential boyfriends, as she later have told me. Lea, my future grandmother, and her friends did not know back then, that it would be their last summer at the golden beaches of Terijoki. In the end of November war broke out between Finland and Soviet Union in the first months of a worldwide conflict, which would be maybe the greatest tragedy in the history of humankind this far, The Second World War.Terijoki made a permanent mark in the history books about Finland in the first days of the Winter War, the three and half month long conflict between Finland and Soviet Union. Terijoki laid just at the border between the nations, so it was the first town the Red Army troops reached. Third of January in 1939 news told about a new government in Finland, so called the Government of Terijoki which was led by a Finnish communist-in-exile, Otto Wille Ku-usinen, close advisor of Josef Stalin. This puppet-government was meant to lead Finland, when the Soviet troops would reach Helsinki, the capital of Finland,

and overthrow the legal government. This would change the image of Terijoki permanently in the Finnish minds: the beach resort became the lair of the

aggressor, which should be stopped to preserve the sovereignty and existence of Finnish people.Finland sustained its independence

The Green Mountain at the old Teri-river


in the Winter War and the Continua-tion War from 1941 to 1944, but cession of area were made, which included Viipuri and – Terijoki. This meant that my grandmother Lea with her family had to flee the Soviet troops to Helsinki, where she would meet with my future grandfather. Terijoki and Viipuri were inhabited by new people, which were brought there from the other regions of Soviet Union. Terijoki also got a new name, Zelenogorsk (the Green Moun-tain in Russian). It also became under jurisdiction of the city of Leningrad and later on St. Petersburg. But some things did not change: Zelenogorsk, or Terijoki, preserved its status as a holiday resort. At the nice sandy beaches many huts,

hotels and villas are constructed, which are very popular nowadays among the wealthy Peterburgers.When I heard, that EGEA St. Petersburg would organize the North & Baltic Regional Congress in Zelenogorsk, I de-cided that I must take part in that event. For me the location was ideal: as a history enthusiast I have always wanted to visit the place which I had heard so much of. As a member of the organizing crew of the N&BRC ´06 I also wanted to see how the tradition of congresses passed on, and the nearby location of Zelenogorsk was easy to reach.The April in 2007 in Zelenogorsk was chilly with a combination of rain show-ers and rays of sunshine. The congress

place among the tall pine trees was quiet and outside you could almost hear the splashes of the Finnish Gulf. But the nearby building was full of happy EGEA people, who were having the time of their life with their dear friends. I enter the building and I am faced with a warm breeze of laughter and smiles. Another great addition to the memoirs of this place.

Photos by Petteri Niemi


Jelte SikkemaChairman of organizing team WRC 2007EGEA [email protected]

In the northern part of the Netherlands one can find a very special tidal area named the Wadden Sea. The Wadden Sea (Wad is Dutch for mud flat) is a sea like no other in the world. During high tides the North Sea floods the whole area to leave it dry again dur-ing low tides. It is a delicate area with high values on nature. During low tides many birds find food in the rich soil of the Wadden Sea. Seals live in the water and find a place to rest and give birth on the dry parts. It is a very important place in the European and even world wide bird migration route. But nature in the area has to cope with a lot of human activities. Every year thousands of tour-ists visit the Wadden Sea to enjoy the beautiful landscape and the low pace of live on the islands. Due to the increasing demand for energy they recently started to exploit gas underneath the Wadden Sea leaving a lot of nature conservation-ist in fright of subsidence.It was on the island of Ameland were 96 geographers came together for the Western Regional Congress 2007 organized by EGEA Groningen. The island provided a perfect location for an insight view on “the struggle between environment and economic growth”

Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Serbia, Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Bel-gium and The Netherlands. EGEAns from all these countries succeeded in find-ing the boat to the beautiful island of Ameland. Monday evening everybody was there to start a beautiful week. On Tuesday the congress was officially

opened by the mayor of Ameland. In his speech it became clear that tourism is a vital part for the economy of the island. But it is also clear to the people of the island that they are living in a vital ecological area. The government of Ameland is involved in some important researches on finding new technologies which are contributing in a better mix between human activities and nature. An example was the introduction of green lights on oilrigs and ships which do not distract the bird migration routes as much as the usual white lights do.

An employee from the Common Wad-den Sea Secretariat (CWSS) followed the mayor’s speech. The CWSS is a organiza-tion who tries to improve the coordina-tion and cooperation between Den-mark, Germany and the Netherlands. The Wadden Sea is on territory of these three countries.On Wednesday there was a third lecture from the Dutch oil and gas company NAM. A biologist from this organization told us a lot about the policy of the oil company and the importance of gas and oil in today’s economies. But also

the NAM tries to harm nature as little as possible. An example was the oil platform on Ameland itself. The whole rig is hidden in the dunes to respect the skyline of the island.Like on every congress the days were largely filled with workshops. Two workshops focused on the issue of climate change and the effects on the Wadden Sea region. As the ecology of the Wadden Sea is very sensible, totally depending on the rise and descent of the sea water, climate change can have disastrous effects on the area, due to sea level rise. Another workshop was about tourism in the region and how these big numbers of people affects the area. Ameland is one of the most popular tourist locations in The Netherlands, but the island tries to avoid an overburden-ing of the local nature and culture. The PIN game is a land use planning simula-tion game. In this workshop, popula-tions groups, planners, government and industry tried to develop a city in their personally favored way. In another workshop EGEAns discussed the issue of Ecotourism. They visited several loca-tions on the island where ecotourism

Nature for sale: the struggle between environment and economic growth

A report of the WRC 2007

Lunch break at a bird watching house during the big excursion


is developed. The last workshop was about the effects of undeveloped areas on developed areas. The aim was to get a short overview of theories and ways to improve the connection between unde-

For years, we have experience on Ameland in the field of tension between tour-ism on the one site and gas exploitation on the other side. For 25 years gas is ex-tracted on and around Ameland from the second largest gas field of The Nether-lands. On Ameland also research has been done after the subsidence as a result of the exploitation of gas for already 25 years. These researches formed the base for making a concession for the extraction of Wadden-gas at “Paesens Moddergat”.Ameland gives much value to the combined action between sustainable energy use and energy transition on the one hand, and tourism on the other hand. That is why the municipality of Ameland established the covenant “Sustainable Ame-land” with the private energy suppliers, an example of public-private partnership.

In this covenant, the parties agreed to dedicate for cooperation at experiments with sustainable energy innovations on Ameland. For this purpose, projects were started that made the development of sustainable energy and the stimulation of energy reduction and transition possible.With all these projects, Ameland tries to give an impulse to a new kind of tourism (ecotourism), but also to the education on the island. Next to this, the municipal-ity of Ameland tries to make an important donation to the consciousness about energy of the community and the development of a modern energy transition.

With kind regards,Albert de HoopMayor of Ameland

veloped and developed areas. Most of the workshops took the bike and went for a little spin over the island to enjoy the perfect weather and get to know the island a little better.Wednesday was filled with a big ecological excursion. On the back of a tractor we took a ride to the other side of the island, were guides were waiting. They showed us the nature of the island

and the dynamics of the wildlife and the Wadden Sea area itself. Latest issue is the introduction of a new rabbit disease. Rabbits make sure the grass in the dunes will not grow that hard. Grass is the main source of food for rabbits. The population of rabbits is declining now and therefore the grass is not as short as it used to be. The effects of this disease are far reaching. Because the grass is longer now, the birds of prey can no longer see the mice underneath the long grass. They can not find enough food anymore. So the bird population is changing rapidly now because of a rabbit disease. This is just an example of how nature is totally interconnected.After one midweek on the island we had to say goodbye to Ameland on Friday. But worse was that everybody had to say goodbye to each other. The atmosphere was like on every EGEA event again so nice. Lots of friendships were made or intensified on Ameland.

The organization is looking back at very successful congress. Largely because of the nice weather, the great work of workshop leaders and the great people from the accommodation and speech men. But most of all because the warm atmosphere amongst the 96 EGEAns. EGEA Groningen likes to say thanks one more time to everybody present at the WRC for giving us so many nice memo-ries.

The lighthouse of Ameland, some 500 meters from the accommodation

On the back of a tractor to the other side of the island


Folkert de JongCommon Wadden Sea SecretariatWilhelmshaven, [email protected]

It is only three decades ago that nature and environmental protection entered the political agendas of west European nations. Environmental policies in the 1980s were characterized by their sectoral character. The disadvantages of sectoral policies for nature and environ-ment protection became increasingly criticized in the 1990s. Policies were frag-mented, limited in temporal and spatial coverage, ad-hoc, often controversial, and the legal regime, consequently, complex and ineffective. The scientific backing of policies was also questioned, due to an increasing awareness of the necessity to deal with uncertainty and values, and of involving stakeholders in decision-making and management.In the course of the 1990s, three types of improvement of nature and environ-mental policies were proposed and, to a certain extent, realized. It concerned:1. The integration pollution and nature policies;2. The shifting from species manage-ment to habitat management;3. The introduction of ecosystem management, including stakeholder participation and the integration with social and economic issues.The desire for more integrated policies, expressed in the 1990s, has not yet, or only to a very limited extent, become practical reality. Nature and environ-ment policies are still predominantly sectoral, and limited in spatial and temporal coverage (De Jong, 2006). Moreover, there has been an increas-ing opposition against “green” politics, which has manifested itself in the call for the inclusion of social and economic aspects in nature and environmental policies, in other words, a sustainable approach.Today’s question is whether the con-cepts of sustainable development and

integrated coastal zone management can provide solutions to these prob-lems.According to the EU ICZM recommen-dation (EU, 2002), ICZM is to be the instrument for achieving sustainable development in the coastal area. Much emphasis is put on protecting the natural environment of the coast, work-ing with natural features and involving stakeholders.This Wadden Sea area provides a host of examples of actual and potential problems, arising from the obligation to protect nature and the need to main-tain and create chances for economic development. On the one hand, there is the nature conservation area, with a size of more than 14,000 km2, protected by both national and international law. On the other hand, 75,000 people live within this area and some 3 million in the coastal zone, directly bordering the Wadden Sea.

Managing these seemingly controversial demands, and finding common support for both nature conservation and eco-nomic development, has been the focus of the political cooperation between Denmark, Germany and The Nether-lands on the protection of the Wadden Sea (the trilateral cooperation) over the past three decades (Enemark, 2005).In 2002 a trilateral platform for all stake-holders of the Wadden Sea region, the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF) was installed with the aim of developing sustainable perspective strategies (WSF, 2005).The experiences with WSF have made clear that there is a need for commu-

nication between stakeholders in the region, as well as direct contacts with responsible authorities, and also that it is possible for nature conservation and commercial sectors to find commonly supported objectives.Also the importance of involving all stakeholders in sustainable planning became manifest. Sustainable planning must take account of and integrate social, economic and ecological dimen-sions of development. This can only be done by developing a long-term vision supported by all parties involved.In Figure 1 the main elements of the process of ICZM are presented. The entries in grey relate to the input by stakeholders and represent the so-called „soft” aspects of ICZM, i.e. the non-legally binding aspects. If ICZM is to function in practice, it is essential that these soft aspects are being used in politics, spatial planning and legislation, necessary for the long-term manage-ment of the coastal zone. This is also a prerequisite for the sustained future involvement of stakeholders.

ReferencesDe Jong F. 2006. Marine eutrophication in perspective; On the relevance of ecol-ogy for environmental policy. Springer, Heidelberg, BerlinEnemark JA. 2005. The Wadden Sea protection and management scheme. Towards an integrated coastal man-agement approach? Ocean & Coastal Management 48: 996-1015EU. 2002. Recommendation of the Euro-pean Parliament and the Council of 30 May 2002 concerning the implementa-tion of Integrated Coastal Zone Manage-ment in Europe (2002/413/EC)WSF. 2005. Breaking the ice. WSF Final Report. WSF Secretariat, Wilhelmshaven, Germany www.waddensea-forum.org

Further readinghttp://www.rupprecht-consult.eu/iczm/

Stakeholders and Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Wadden Sea

Figure 1: the main elements of the process of Integrated Coastal Zone Management


Janne RiehunkangasEGEA [email protected]

What did I think about Spain while packing my backpack in the far north? Maybe about the sunny weather of the Mediterranean? Warm welcome, by temperate and nice people, of course. I could say that de-finitively there were many thoughts and maybe the biggest reason still was that I was going to take part in my first EGEA congress. How many things could that mean?

During my first year as an active EGEA-member I had heard at least dozens of stories about big meetings where Europe really meets itself. In that way it was easy to let your imagination fly when local train started to reach the city of Castelló. This time there would be people all the way from Netherlands to Italy and Russia. What could be more exciting?After finding out that there should be no room for the famous Finnish shyness, I was already on my way to the congress place with some people like old friends actually. Being never before in the main-land of Spain there was too much to see while the car climbed the serpentine-road, reaching finally altitude more

than 1000 meters. Dried streams, low vegetation and some lonely country houses welcomed us to the municipality of Vilafranca, the host of our Euromed congress.In that first evening I really understood how important this kind of happening actually was. When the high representa-tives of the area welcomed us in the cultural centre of Vilafranca, it was clear that the people were strongly behind these students who were about to discuss the problems of nowadays life and hopefully find some solutions for the future as well. During the time we

spent with workshop teams the idea of this important task became even clearer. It was great to see that the workshop leaders had prepared lot of information about the local problems and they were really concerned about the subjects.The problematic situation of the eastern parts of Spain, especially in inner land, is mainly caused as a sum of poor local resources, low density of population with long distances and the affection of vital and all time increasing tourism, es-pecially to the nature and to the need of energy. It is clear that all the cases have something to do with each others and that way it wasn’t a surprise that actually all the workshop teams were handling almost the same problems in their

final presentations. As in all the world, finding balance between the human activity and nature seems to be main question also in the areas of Valencia and Catalonia.The sad thing was that handling ques-tions this size in such a short time reminded a fight against the wind mills. In this way the general discussion of the scientific weight of EGEA congresses also gets more air. It is important to find the balance between the scientific side and the non-scientific side which proved to be at the same level of impor-tance, thinking both, friendships and knowledge.So, what actually happened with me and my expectations? On the third morning I gave up with the weather. There wouldn’t be a hot Mediterranean climate this time. Still, I did this while smiling. Or what else could I do in the middle of a beautiful countryside with dozens of new friends? As there were many stories before the trip, there would be them also after it. As I was ex-pecting, our Spanish hosts took so good care of us from the life-saving morning coffee to unbelievable meals and to the smile-making parties of Spanish night. And this wonderful circle just kept going on while only the themes of the days changed.After the last night it was obvious that there were more than 70 happy EGEAns who now, after five days of enjoying this great company, should say goodbye to each others. When sitting in the plane on my way home with all the memories in my mind, I realized that a piece of my heart stayed in Vilafranca and the other piece was traveling around the Europe towards all the many entities.Maybe that was the thing what con-gress actually meant. So, in that case, it’s for sure that there will be more than ‘one more time’ for me.

Studying happinessEGEA EuroMed Congress 2007 in Vilafranca-Morella, Spain by EGEA Barcelona & Valencia


Irina [email protected]

The 10th Eastern European Regional Congress was held due to the support of the Leonid Kuchma’s fund “Ukraine” in the picturesque North-West suburb of Kyiv called Pushcha-Voditsia. This place is a famous climatic health resort situ-ated not far from the edge of the city of Kyiv in the coniferous forest. The district Pushcha-Voditsia is now the part of Kyiv but in the beginning of the XXth century it was a well-known and popular coun-try place. People who were tired of the city noise and stony surrounds could buy or rent summer cottages there. Later the place was transformed into the health resort when the soviet scien-tists discovered the healing features of Pushcha-Voditsia climate. Actually they should have studied the history better – in this case they would have known that this area was very famous among the Kyiv Princes in the times of Kyiv Rus – in the XI-XIIth centuries they often hunted and had rest there.

In spring 2007 67 geographers from 12 European Countries (Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Russia, Switzer-land, Romania, Austria and Slovenia) came to this wonderful place to attend the Eastern European Regional Con-gress organized by EGEA-Kyiv and held in the sanatorium Slavutich. From the early morning on the 29th of April people started coming. Maybe the most interesting way to come to the Congress place was to take the tram and to go for about 20 minutes through the deep forest! For more than 100 years (from 1904) people from Kyiv are using this

way mean of transportation to come to Pushcha-Voditsia.

So, the sunny morning of the 29th of April was dedicated to the accommoda-tion. And the official opening ceremony started in the afternoon in the typical Ukrainian house made of wood, clay and covered with haulm. All the organiz-ers were wearing national closes which matched perfectly to the scenery. The honorable guests – the dean and the vice dean of the Geographical depart-ment of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and the President of the Ukrainian Geographical Society – were met according to the ancient Ukrain-ian tradition with the big and beautiful round loaf. The dean started the open-ing ceremony and was followed by the President of the Ukrainian Geographi-cal Society who told a bit about the origin of the geographical knowledge in Ukraine. The speeches of the official guests were followed by short presen-

tations of the sponsors – companies SOFTLINE and ESRI. In the end of the ceremony we had an opportunity to get the general information about 5 work-shops presented by the leaders.The evening after the dinner had brought new surprises – the par-ticipants of the Congress had got the unique possibility to get acquainted with the traditional Ukrainian music. The bandura-player and the only one in Ukraine(!) torban-player had given the one-hour concert singing the songs dat-ing back to the XVIII and even XVII cen-turies. The first day of the congress was finished as usual with the great disco.The next day, the 30th of April, was fully dedicated to the capital of Ukraine – the city of Kyiv. In the morning 3 thematic excursions took place – the congress participants according to their wish could choose an excursion to the Cher-nobyl museum, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (the National Kyiv-Pechersk historic-cultural preserve) or the World War II museum

Eastern European Countries’ Identity: The Modern Choice

Report of the EGEA X Eastern Regional Congress (Kyiv, 29.04-03.05.2007)


(State museum of Great Patriotic War). After the dinner the city tour had started. Three city-tours were guided by the members of EGEA-Kyiv and they had an aim to acquaint the European guests with the beautiful, ancient and modern Kyiv, its places of interest, cultural mas-terpieces and nature beauty.The entertainment program of the congress was laid on the shoulders of the rock-band “SAD” (the Garden in Ukrainian). They have given a concert representing their new album on the 1st of May and on the other days they were responsible for the disco-program.The scientific part of the congress con-sisted of 2 days and 5 workshops leaded by the students, teachers and post-grad-uate students of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”.

Tourism – business or the way of life?This workshop tried to answer the question what is the tourism for us? The practical part of workshop was fully dedicated to train surviving. Extreme tourism always includes its elements but main idea of practical surviving is to teach how to survive in harsh environmental conditions with the lack of equipment or under some unex-pected circumstances. The program of the workshop was designed in order to stress on psychological aspect indicat-ing the importance to have ability to self-control in any situation. During 2 days the experienced instructors were teaching the workshop participants the basic elements of practical surviving. Last but not least point was the role of team in practical surviving. That is why some psychological training in team-building was also included to workshop program

Environment and SustainabilityWorkshop was developed by the members of EcoClub “Green Wave” of National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”to cover different environ-mental problems and to present differ-ent approaches towards their under-standing. “Environmental Day” (May, 1st) was devoted to biological aspects of environmental sciences. Participants examined the level of water biodiver-sity outdoor by their own hands in the

local pond and saw its relatively poor state. The results where productively discussed indoor. Then the presenta-tion and overview of Ukrainian reserves was performed as well as the discus-sion of EcoNet concept and experience exchange. “Sustainability Day” (May, 2nd) covered methods and approaches of en-vironmental management. Short pres-entation of sustainable development concept was made, and participants received souvenir notebooks manu-ally made by EcoClub members from one-side-used paper. Then the compari-son of environment-friendly habits in participant-countries was made.

Geomorphology, landscape and cul-tural heritageGeomorphology is to be considered one of the main components of landscape changes. In this connection, the terri-tory of Kyiv region is one of the most representative places for understanding complicated geological structure and its reflection in geomorphologic structure, as well as other components of geo-graphical diversity, including ethnic and cultural phenomena. During the 2 days of workshop activity the participants took part in the exciting excursion in the area of Kyiv environs. Almost full-day tour along steep right original slope of the Dnieper valley, where east and west banks of the Dnieper were observed, tracing the place of joint of two physic-geographic zones: mixed forests and forest-steppe, and boundaries of three orograpic provinces of the Ukraine: the Dnieper upland, the Polessian and Dnieper lowlands. The theoretical part was represented by the interesting discussion of geomorphologic peculiari-ties not only of Kyiv and its environs, but geomorphologic features of European countries.

East European countries cultures. Globalization impact. Sui generis?The workshop aimed to reveal the matchless, unequalled features of East European countries cultures and the impact globalization has on them. First day was more theoretical: such topics as the theory of culture itself, the Ukrainian culture – both material and spiritual, the cultures of the guest countries (Germa-ny, the Netherlands, Poland and Serbia)

representatives were discussed. The second part of the workshop was more fascinating cause it was filled with the excursion to the ethnographic museum Pirogovo, where everyone had an op-portunity to get acquainted to elements of Ukrainian culture ‘in practice’.

Recent Developments and Changes: Are We Facing the New Splits?The workshop on economic and social geography has covered a wide variety of issues concerning economic devel-opments, social problems, as well as their cultural and political environment. Participant’s presentations focused on the outcomes of the last stage of the EU enlargement rising concerns about social inequality and incongruence of political and business cultures between new and old member states, gated communities in Eastern Europe, which also indicate social gap in the region, financial flows from western economies to Eastern Europe, geographical pat-terns of international production and marketing networks, and – last but not least – geography of energy supplies in Europe. Vigorous discussions following the presentations revealed some per-ceptional differences even among EGEA members within the workshop. In the outcome we managed to define new boundaries in Eastern Europe which separated new EU member states from older ones, distinguished former USSR republics stressing on the special role of Russia as the main oil and gas source for Europe.

On the 2nd of May it was time to say good-bye to the Congress. After the din-ner the President of EGEA-Kyiv Oksana Shyian and the Congress-Coordinator Nataly Maiboroda gave to everybody the diplomas that confirm the participa-tion in the ERC2007. After that every-body was invited to the yard to taste the wonderful barbeque and to burn the fire.We want to thank EVERYBODY who took part in this Congress – it was a great time this spring in Kyiv!


Alois Humer (EGEA Vienna) and Laura Garagnani (EGEA Bologna)[email protected]@gmail.com

Besides congresses, the main EGEA instruments to foster ties between geography students in Europe are exchanges. This type of events is an evergreen in EGEA and always helped to strengthen the network of the or-ganisation. Today, exchanges are still very popular – which is proven by the figures of about 40 return-exchanges per year – but first and foremost a mean to face the growing demand on EGEA activities in recent times. Additionally, exchanges can help to introduce a new group of geography students into the organization as described later in this article.

Exchanges as an instrument to strengthen the EGEA networkDuring congresses the multilateral com-munication in workshop groups and the exploration of a special region through lectures and excursions together with people from all over Europe are main features. During exchanges other objec-tives are of primary importance.Here the first characteristic is the bilateral contact between two EGEA entities in the regular case. The hosting entity shows the city/country, university and also private life to its visitors. Last-ing mostly three to seven days, an ex-change provides the possibility to really get to know each other better and build up ties for future contact. Comparisons between cities, geography and culture can be drawn correctly after visiting both locations.The quality of exchanges varies strongly depending on the exchange-partner-entities as well as on the purpose and number of participants. It is obvious that a long lasting exchange between

far away located entities needs more preparation and financial means compared to a neighbour-exchange for a weekend. The way how to exert an exchange is fully up to the participat-ing entities. Important is the unwritten rule of cost sharing. The host entity provides sleeping places, expenses for meals, transportation and other costs for their visitors. Taking this rule into account exchanges between entities coming from countries with different living standards and level of prices can be realized reasonable.So there is the standard version of an exchange: 2 organizing entities, 8-10 participants per entity, duration 5 days per part, location at the University cities, time frame one year of study. Of course exchanges in practise vary from this

structure in one ore more points men-tioned before.

Alternative versions of exchanges are the normal case.In reality, every exchange shows some special features, is it mobility (exchange organized as an excursion), duration, geographical focus or other. To get a better impression how exchanges work out in practise, a case study is following, describing the triple exchange between EGEA Bologna, EGEA Muenchen and EGEA Wien in 2007.First the facts: 14 participants (seven from Bologna, four from Muenchen, three from Wien). Part I in Bologna from 22nd to 25th of March, part II in Muenchen from 10th to 12th of May and part III in Wien from 12th to 15th of May.

Exchanges in EGEA – case study triple exchange “BMW”, Bologna, Muenchen, Wien

The start-up of EGEA in Italy

Excursion in Bolognas old town


After upcoming interest in those three entities for having exchange, three co-ordinators were set in charge to realize the event. Already existing contacts especially between Muenchen and Wien helped to keep up good communica-tion in the planning process. For EGEA Bologna this event was a challenge in two respects. It was the first EGEA event in which this entity was involved and EGEA Bologna also had to host the first part of the exchange.

BMW exchange TransalpineOne of the characteristics of the BMW exchange was about the cost sharing, different compared to ‘regular’ exchang-es, because of the unequal number of participants per entity and also of the different periods of stay at the hosting-parts.Bologna hosted both Muenchen and Wien at the same time, providing a three-day program focused on city sightseeing, nightlife and a farewell party set 60 km outside the town in the countryside.Having at least one night where the full exchange group is together in one location can be recommended for every exchange. “Team building” and cross-entity conversation can happen easily in this setting. In general, it was quite a challenge for EGEA Bologna to make the program work properly and the entity gained a lot of experience in organizing an EGEA event. Still, part I covered all interesting and important features of an EGEA exchange and the triple-ex-change-group got to know each other quickly. One couldn’t expect in advance that EGEA Bologna is providing such a successful exchange-part.However for the re-exchange Muenchen and Wien could use their EGEA experi-ence and made up a well balanced schedule between geographical-cultur-al aspects and free time.City tours with special focus were arranged, for example at the Olym-pic Village in Muenchen or at the UN headquarter in Wien and Viennese Forest, always with relaxing breaks in a “Biergarten” or clubs.After all, for Bologna the BMW – Project has been a valuable opportunity to experience how an exchange and its organisation work, but also to get an

BMW exchange – part I (Bologna) from THU, 22nd to SUN, 25th of March 2007Day1evening: Arriving by cars at Laura’s place, dinner with traditional Italian food and later going out at a students’ club.

Day2morning: at Universityafternoon: sightseeing first partevening: group A: pizza and pub; group B: going to Ravenna

Day3morning: sightseeing second partafternoon: resting and San Luca hillevening: Excursion to Fontanelice, a wine village one hour south of Bologna, close to Imola. Staying overnight at Nicola’s place in a classic villa and having farewell party

Day4morning: departure to Bologna and further to Muenchen and Wien

BMW exchange – part II (Muenchen) from THU, 10th to SAT, 12th of May 2007Day1:morning: Arriving by night-train; inner city tourafternoon: English Gardenevening: Chinese Tour including Biergarten visit

Day2morning: Traditional Bavarian breakfast; Olympic Village and Park tourafternoon: at University and visit Nymphenburg Castleevening: excursion to Grosshausen at the countryside. Staying overnight at Thomas’ place and having farewell party

Day3morning: restafternoon: excursion to Aichachevening: back to Muenchen and departure by train to Wien

BMW exchange – part III (Wien) from SAT, 12th to TUE 15th of May 2007Day1evening: Arriving by train; bbq at Lole’s terrace

Day2:morning: picnic in Schlosspark Schoenbrunnafternoon: hiking in the Viennese Forrest including a break in a traditional wine innevening: dinner in the Biergarten of the University Brewery

Day3:morning: at University; lecture about Austria and Wienafternoon: inner city tour including coffee breakevening: dinner at a Turkish market and later going out at the Danube channel

Day4:morning: visiting the UNO Cityafternoon: individual programevening: departure by train to Bologna

For further details about exchanges in general please see the new “Exchange Manual” from Ana Popović and Filip Vujasinović (EGEA Zagreb) in the download-section of the EGEA forum (www.egea.eu).


impression of what studying Geography in other European universities means. Besides personal experiences abroad (for example with Erasmus or Over-seas exchange program), it should be pointed out one more time the role of EGEA in promoting this kind of activi-ties that make us think everyday about the important duty that members of our organization have. Referring to the Italian situation this means in the first

instance spreading EGEA also around other departments in Italy, where Geog-raphy is living a period of transition and structural changes.

Geography in ItalySince not long ago, Geography in Italy was considered only as an interdisci-plinary subject and it hadn’t the right to exist by itself. Therefore Geography was only taught in the departments of

Political Science, Natural Science, Geol-ogy, Philosophy etc. and specialisations were covered by other disciplines like Urbanistic. There weren’t autonomous courses to study Geography. Only more recently – thanks to the general Italian University Reform planned during the 90s – the situation has changed, both in terms of organisation and of academic contents, in order to give some answers to new needs. So, little by little, depart-ments of Geography have been opened and, nowadays, in Italy there are more than 10 universities with at least one course of Geography. Finally Geogra-phy has found its acknowledgment and dignity, with new courses and new specialisations that give a glance to the new geographical-related technologies and issues. Now it should be of EGEA’s interest to involve a high number of Ital-ian students, departments and universi-ties into the network of EGEA in order to make Europe smaller – right in line with the organization’s slogan: While EGEA is getting bigger, Europe is coming closer.

Having a break in “Englischer Garten” in Muenchen

Group picture in front of the UN Headquarter in Vienna


Anastasia KazakovaEGEA [email protected]

PrefaceThe vast territory of Russian Federation, spreading from the Baltic Sea on the West to the Japanese Sea on the East, contains a huge number of unexplored natural ecosystems, varying from the Karelia tundra, the old Urals, Altai and Caucasus mountains to Siberian swaps, taiga, the Valley of Geysers, several world largest rivers and lakes flourishing with a variety of fish etc. However, the lake Baikal is ranked as one of the most popular destination among visitors from all over the world.The primitive kayak and as ancient as the world paddle – that is everything

one needs for strengthening the body and calming the soul. Once people find themselves at the Baikal Lake, they temporarily forget about existence of drowning in the grey mist cities, about urgent matters and eternal fuss. They are coming back there, where they came from and where they always should be – they will return to the Nature. It will surround them by the way of marvel-lous mountains, meadows, taiga and air flavouring like sea, rocks and flowers. One will find nature underneath in the form of pure water, above – by means of bottomless blue sky, dazzling white clouds and hot sun, giving place to the insane accumulation of starts at night.

Nature of the Baikal LakeThe Baikal Lake has got the form of

nascent crescent and is located at the South of East Siberia. The length of the lake is 636 km, with the maximum width of 81 km in its central part, and the mini-mum of 27 km opposite the delta of the Selenga River. The lake is situated at the height of 455 m above the sea level. The length of the coastline is 1850 km, and the maximum depth of the lake reaches 1637 m. It is the deepest freshwater lake on the earth and the largest reservoir of fresh surface water. Baikal is famous for the unique purity of its water and diversity of flora and fauna. So “Baikal” originally means “wealthy lake”. And, no doubt, it IS wealthy. The lake contains 20% of the world surface fresh water while the flora and fauna of the lake are mostly endemic.There are around 340 constant rivers

EGEA Baikal Lake Expedition


flowing into the Baikal Lake, provided that half of the volume of water is brought by the Selenga River. There is only one river flowing out of the lake – the Angara River.It is supposed that the Baikal Lake appeared as a result of action of the tectonic plates 25 – 30 million years ago. Tectonic processes take place currently as well.More than 2600 kinds of fauna and more than 1000 species of flora popu-late the water of the lake. There are reasons to believe that nowadays sci-ence is aware only about 70-80% of life forms found in the Baikal. Among them around 40% of plants and 85% of ani-mals inhabiting the lake are indigenous, and are spread from the surface to the maximum depths.Theree are around 60 types of fish populating the lake; the most famous are omul, grayling, vendace, taimen, sturgeon, goldilocks and Baikal oilfish. The most extraordinary mammal living in the Baikal Lake is nerpa, the Baikal seal. It is supposed that it got into the Baikal from the Artic Ocean during the ice age through the Enisey and then the Angara River.On 5th of December 1996 UNESCO included the Baikal Lake in the list of the World Heritage.

Origin of the NameNumerous scientific researches are devoted to the problem of the origin of the word ‘Baikal’.Most likely, the name takes its origin from the Turkic language, where ‘Bai Kul’ means – a rich lake. There are also two more versions where the name could come from: from the Mongolian word ‘Baigal’ – a rich fire, and ‘Baigal Dalai’ – a big lake. People living at the coast of the Baikal Lake called it in their own way. For instance, Evenki called it ‘Lamu’, Buryats – ‘Baigal-Nuur’, and even Chineese had its own name for the Baikal – ‘Beikhei’ – the Northern Sea.Very often both Russians and small minorities of the region, as buryaty, call Baikal ‘the sea’, just simply out of respect, for stroppy temper, or by the reason that the distant opposite cost is often hidden somewhere in haze… This “sea” is rapidly growing with the average speed of 2 cm (0.8 in) per year. Baikal is considered to be a future ocean; it is likely that in several million years there will be a new big ocean covering all Asia and Baikal is a starting point of this process.This remarkable lake is one of Asia’s holy places. Throughout several centuries people has worshiped and idolized the lake and believed in its power. In the

region, one can still see the unique carv-ings and parts of the ritual buildings of the tribes that disappeared thousands years ago.Baikal serves as a boundary for two Russian provinces – Buryatia Republic (south-east shore) and Irkutskaya oblast (north-west shore). The south-western part of Baikal is densely populated and attracts a lot of tourists from different countries each year, while the north-eastern part is almost uninhabited.

The Baikal Lake ExpeditionFrom 28th June till 8th of July 2007 EGEA Moscow organized an unforgettable trip to the pearl of the Siberia – the Baikal Lake.The trip of EGEAns started on Thursday, 28th of June, where we all met at Yaro-slavsky railway station in Moscow and took the train. It was an incredible op-portunity to experience all the truth and anxiety of the most important trans-portation route of Asia – Transsiberian Railway. During 3.5 days the train took EGEAns through deep woods, sparsely spread towns and true Siberian taiga vil-lages, swaps, steppes etc., making stops in the largest cities of Russia, serving as main cities of numerous Russian federal regions.On July 2nd the train group was met by


the rest of Moscovites who flew from Moscow to Irkutsk and then took a local train to Slyudyanka to meet the rest of the group which experienced not an easy life in the train during 3.5 days.When leaving the train, people looked really tired… of tasting local Russian al-coholic drinks, of course! But very happy at the same time!Slyudyanka is a small town on the bank of the Baikal Lake which is the first stop at the Transsiberian railway from where you may see Baikal in all its beauty. It is also famous with the unique, the only in the world railway station made fully of marble. It is also the starting point of the “Round Baikal Railway” which used to be the part of the Transsiberian railway in older times.From Slyudyanka we took the train to the port Baikal, and experienced hundreds of tunnels and aqueducts on our way there, all the time along Baikal’s cost.Our final point for this day is the house-hotel “Nadezhda” at the top of the mountain on the bank of the Angara River and with the view on the Baikal Lake, where we had a tasty home-made dinner!On July 3rd we took a high-speed ferry

“Kometa” to the Olkhon Island, where we were met by 4 mini-buses, called UAZik, which is considered to be a true Russian off roadster and which became the main means of transportation for the rest days for us – at the island with no asphalted roads. Upon arrival to Khuzhir – the largest town on the island – we went to the beach and enjoyed really hot weather (over 30 degrees) and bathed in the refreshing Baikal water (around 14 degrees). In the evening, as each evening afterwards, we enjoyed Russian banya and delicious home-made dinner.On the following days we traveled to the North Cape of the Island – Khoboi Cape – and to the Shara-Nur Lake with mineralized mud! All he time during excursions we had a lunch cooked on fire – a tasty UKHA – fish soup, or a soup made of a stew!One evening we met a true six-fingered Buryat shaman who told us about the history o his people, and read beautiful poems. The meeting was finished by the raw of national songs originated by the people from different countries who were present there.When having free time, we went to a horse riding, or to fish, or to ride a bicy-

cle in sandy dunes. And in the evenings by tradition we all met in the café at the base called “Omul” where we had a nice warm gluhwein with local barriers, a tasty pastry and endless conversations.Everyone got tanned during these days, started to look fresher due to the magic air of the Baikal, and seemed to be really happy! No doubt people will return to the Baikal Lake one day, as it remains in hearts forever.


www.spatial.uni.lu [email protected] T. +352 / 46 66 44-6327 / -6625 / -6765

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Agenda EGEA Activities

EGEA North and Baltic Regional Congress„Sustainability – Key to the future”Date: March 5th – 9th 2008Place: Kääriku, EstoniaOrganized by: EGEA TartuWebsite: http://www.egea.ee/nrc08/

EGEA BenDeLux WeekendDate: March 14th – 16th 2008Place: Hulshorst, The NetherlandsOrganized by: EGEA AmsterdamWebsite: http://www.egea.eu/congress-es/bwe08/index.php

EGEA Western Regional Congress„United States of Europe?”Date: April 7th – 11th 2008Place: Mozet, BelgiumOrganized by EGEA Leuven and EGEA BrusselesWebsite: http://www.egea.eu/congress-es/wrc08

EGEA Eastern Regional Congress“Social and Environmental Directions in the European Dimension”Date: April 18th – 22nd 2008Place: Sinaia, RomaniaOrganized by: EGEA BucharestWebsite: http://www.egea.eu/congress-es/erc08

EGEA EuroMed Regional CongressDate: April 25th – May 2nd 2008Place: Korte, SloveniaOrganized by: EGEA KoperWebsite: http://emrc08.soup.si

EGEA Sailing WeekDate: May 12th – 17th 2008Place: Masurian Lake District, PolandOrganized by: EGEA Warszawa

EGEA Italian Weekend„The water, the earth, the stone”Date: May 30th – June 2nd 2008Place: Norcia, Umbria, ItalyOrganized by: EGEA Bologna and EGEA RomaWebsite: http://www.egea.eu/congress-es/iw08/index.php

Changing Climate – Changing Peo-ple?The impact of Global Environmental Change on the European SocietyDate: June 9th – 13th 2008Place: Rohren, GermanyOrganized by: EGEA Bonn and AEGEE AachenWebsite: http://www.karl.aegee.org/calendar.nsf/ID/AAC0806CHA-

EGEA XXth Annual CongressDate: September 14th – 19th 2008Place: Pushkinskie Gory, Pskov region, RussiaOrganized by: EGEA Moscow and EGEA St. Petersburg

More information about EGEA and its activities can be found on the website:www.egea.eu

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