Some of the most creative and courageous in creative and technological solutions of representatives of expert and cultural environments of Prykarpattya visited Biloberezka on November, 15th.
Why?
Biloberyzska OTG combines three mountain villages – Biloberyzka, Usteriky and Horotsevo, with magnificent landscapes, interesting history, great cultural potential, and most importantly – active and enlightened leaders-like-minded people. This is a rather compact mountain community – about 43 square meters. km of area. For comparison, the Kosmac OTG of the neighboring Kosiv district has an average surface of 100 square meters. km At the same time, Biloberyzka and neighboring villages are rarely populated – 64 people. per 1 sq. km For comparison – on average, about 194 people live in Kosmatch OTG. per 1 sq. km Unlike other mountain settlements of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, which extend along the river, Biloberyzska community extends far into the mountains. This very complexity of settlements among the forests and valleys makes the community fantastically interesting, prompts to know it, open new uncharted places in it. Accordingly, the community is interested in the development of sustainable tourism, based on its own cultural and natural heritage.
Integrating experts into the OTG environment was one of the objectives of the Agency for the Development of Private Initiative “Democracy and Community Building through Understanding and Development of Local Heritage”. The personal acquaintance of experts with residents, natural and cultural objects of OTG Biloberyzka and Pechenezin (the visit of experts to Pechenezin is scheduled for the end of November this year) should increase interest to communities by experienced creative specialists capable of joining at any time their strategic goals. Also, the vision and recommendations of experts will be “firsthand” to help local leaders adopt the most interesting, non-trivial and optimal solutions for development.
What happened?
At the same time, there were six recognized experts in their business, for which the representatives of the OTG prepared their own vision of their potential in terms of culture and economy, and organized an excursion to the most interesting places of the OTG.
The experts, accompanied by the village chairman and the deputies of the OTG, went on a mountain road to the Sacred Stone (1221 m.), One of the most interesting places in the Carpathians, inspected the surrounding landscapes, saw the potential for the creation of new infrastructure for the development of tourism.
In the second half of the day summed up the thoughts, impressions, new ideas. Such a format of meetings, when diversified creators, whose activities are in diametrically opposed areas, are simultaneously immersed in the community – first organized by the Agency team and was from the beginning to the end of the experiment. In any case, we relied on the positive effect of direct dating between the community and diverse experts. But by the end of the dizzying excursions and hard brainstorming, we received a very clear picture of the possible tourist future of Biloberyzka. In the dialogs, dozens of ideas and thoughts about what, with what and with whom to do, were heard and filtered. These thoughts and ideas have been rooted in the heads of local leaders for several years. It was worth hearing another person who has a different vision, knowledge and practice of incarnation of crazy dreams. Workshop-catalyst development – so you can briefly define this format.
“The key to development is the creation of conditions and opportunities for people to make their own flourishing territory as well as to change their own lives better. Therefore, the role of local self-government is to clearly identify strategic directions, attract investment or invest in development projects themselves.” We are talking about heritage. in this case, we use the term – the heritage economy, which is both material and immaterial. We consider the heritage as something that is not only necessary to preserve, but also open to the world, to interpret and motivate We are talking about creating magnets of attracting and delaying people, creating for them a necessity and an insurmountable desire to spend money while enriching … impressions and a new, unexperienced experience, and the experience of this person can only be obtained here. I know examples of when such magnets in other countries have been created and made territories successful literally from the air. So, in a decentralized environment, we, as experts, see our mission to teach the leaders of the OTG to manage properly, including the potential of the heritage so that they can create magnets for their territories, then the business will engage itself – will develop the scope of services and new experiences around the magnets. Such is the way of successful communities around the world. “, Oksana Fedorovich, chairman of the Travel Association of Ivano-Frankivsk region
What can be next?
Each of the villages has its own identity, which can not be lost as a result of administrative reform. And thanks to the created magnets and successful promotion, you can retain the recognition of the names of villages that have been around for hundreds of years. For example, Usterik is a unique place where Black and White Cheremosh merge. So, it’s important to keep what is there, creating and promoting something new in parallel. This is the local plein airman, started by the owners of the manor house “Hata rasbjaar” (the first plenum took place in September 2017 in Biloberyzka).
“The promotion should be noticeable, it’s important to photograph all the lively, dynamic, giving the territory, to find those who do it best and to make a contest for the best photo for the fact that they will live in this beauty. Carving is a way to glorify the locality.”, Rostislav Shpuk
The courage of plans and their visualization – from this begins the movement towards the result. This idea united each of the talents in a separate field of experts who gathered to make recommendations on the assets of the village of Biloberyzko within their limits of light on their future. Workshop catalyst was not far in the hall for a round table – the school desks (in the OTG, at the moment, there is a meeting-room). However, this first pancake, did not curl into a frying pan, but even turned out to be a culinary delicious. Each of the experts confirmed his readiness to continue working with the community in transforming the potential of the local heritage into the foundation for the economic prosperity of this small OTG.
