Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe is one of the
major lakes of the Baltic Sea water
basin. The lake (3555 km2) is the
fifth largest lake of Europe.
Lake Peipsi is situated on the
Estonian-Russian border.
The Lake Peipsi is unique in its
natural amenities – shallow,
eutrophic and very biologically
productive. Wetland areas of the
Lake Peipsi have been recognised
as wetlands of international
importance. The lake region is
rich in its historic and cultural
heritage. The population of the
areas along the coast of Lake
Peipsi is rather diverse in its
origin and culture. Villages inhabited
by the Setu, a national minority,
are situated in the southern part of
the lake’s watershed. Russians
descendants of the Old-Believers who
escaped in the 16th century from
persecution by the Russian Christian
Orthodox church are settled on the
Peipsi coast, and live in villages on the
Estonian shore of the lake.
Lake Peipsi is the largest international lake in Europe, shared by Estonia and Russia. In the lake, the border between Estonia and Russia was reconstructed in 1992. Re-established border regime has cut economic, information and management ties that existed between Estonia and Russia
Before the border was re-established between Russia and Estonia, the rural populations of the village along the coast of Lake Peipsi earned a living by fishing and farming and by selling their agricultural products in Tartu, Pskov and St. Petersburg. Now the farmers cannot cross the border easily. Commercial fishing is not so profitable any more.
In the Soviet time the tourism industry was quite developed in the lake area. There were lot of state owned children summer camps and rest homes. In the end of 80s and early 90s a lot of these big companies bankrupted and the buildings used by tourism were left without owner. Nowadays the tourism sector has new quality standards. The existing tourism facilities are not appropriate for the current standards. Some people are offering bed and breakfast facilities and there are some motels in the region but the information about these possibilities is not gathered together and disseminated. The Lake Peipsi region is not competitive tourism region at the moment because of lack of facilities although it has many assumptions to be attractive recreation region.
Various social and economic problems are encountered in the area. Lots of people living in the Lake Peipsi region have lost their sources of income. Dramatic social problems in the Estonian and Russian border area have resulted in rapid rural depopulation. In some places the percentage of unemployment is up to 30%. The loss of markets for produced goods and general deterioration of lifestyle have resulted in a desperate social situation for local communities.
There are several NGOs and other organisations what are dealing with the sustainable development of the Lake Peipsi region. There are some training programs available for the local businessman and local municipality employees. Unfortunately the information is not gathered together and local people don’t have overview of the possibilities they have.
Peipsi Center_for_Transboundary_Cooperation (Lake Peipsi Project) has organised brainstorming sessions of development plans of local communities and tourism development plan in1998. Through the discussions it became evident that local municipalities see the priority of the region developing tourism. The biggest obstacles of developing tourism are: lack of skills in local people to establish their own tourism services; absence of investment in the region; poorly developed infrastructure.
Local municipality employees and entrepreneurs in the area therefore need several training programs and increased communication between local and international professionals and other lake regions. It is needed to develop communication between different sectors (state, business and non-profit sector) as well between culture, nature and tourism professionals in the region. It is necessary to accumulate knowledge about cultural and ecological values that lake represents, about tourism services in the region and spread this knowledge to the publicity.