What is a Forest?
Olga Dobrovidova, TASS News Agency
The Dvinsky forest in the northwest of Russia covers an area of about 1 million hectares, and it’s Europe’s largest pristine productive forest area. Authorities and local businesses view the forest solely as a source of timber, while environmentalists argue for a protected area for its intact part and sustainable management for sites already used for logging. Efforts to create this reserve started more than 10 years ago but have had limited success so far.
Olga Dobrovidova’s 360 video explores the significance of a forest, not merely as a ‘wood deposit’ but as a driving force for local climate and a major carbon sink. Two people behind the push for protection, a WWF activist and a timber company manager, discuss their reasons for fighting for the forest and offer a vision of a sustainable forestry sector in the region.
The story wil be published and showcased here soon.
Olga Dobrovidova is a senior science correspondent at TASS, a leading Russian newswire service. She is also Russia’s first Knight Science Journalism Fellow (class of 2014–15). She has spent eight years covering science and environment, with a focus on climate change and sustainable development, in Russian and English. Her freelance work has also appeared in GEO, N+1, Climate Home and Nature. Olga teaches science journalism for graduate students at ITMO University in Saint Petersburg as well as a number of science communication bootcamps. In 2017, she launched Peremennaya, a first of its kind climate change media project supported by the British Embassy in Moscow.
Lookout360° will be her organisation’s first experiment with immersive science journalism and climate change reporting. Her editorial team plans to build a multimedia feature story around Olga’s videography and continue to use 360-degree video in other projects.