It’s rare when something that sounds cool actually lives up to the hype, so I was trying to keep my expectations low for Siberian eco-tourism. It seems so exotic and awesome, how could it be anything but downright boring and cold? Right?
Well, I’m happy to report that your optimistic correspondent was wrong: Siberian eco-tourism is incredible, even if it’s not as balmy as Costa Rica.
See, there’s this giant lake in Siberia, Lake Baikal, sometimes called “the Pearl of Siberia.” It holds 20 percent of the planet’s fresh water, and its held sacred by the local indigenous tribes, the largest of which is the Buryat. Lake Baikal has been endangered at various points in the past several decades by the encroachment of development, mainly paper mills that dump waste into the lake. Back in the 1960s a group of local and international environmentalists petitioned UNESCO to add it to its list of World Heritage Sites, thinking that would be a good way to help protect the lake.
And it was. But four years ago there was a proposal to route an oil pipeline along the lake (great idea, obviously), and Putin held out out against outcries from all sorts of groups. Then UNESCO sent him a letter asking him to move the pipeline or they’d put Baikal on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. Lush then changed his tune.
Putin directed that the pipeline be moved, saying, “If there is even the smallest, the tiniest chance of polluting Baikal, then we must think of future generations and we must do everything to make sure this danger is not just minimized, but eliminated.”
Problem is that the lake is in danger again. The Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill, one of the most notoriously polluting mills in the region, was closed in 2008, much to the excitement of locals, but it has recently re-opened, thanks to a loan and pat on the back from Putin. In addition to helping the plant to re-open, Putin is letting it out of legislation requiring updates on their machinery and a directive to use waste-reducing technologies. When the plant closed the small town of Baikalsk lost most of its jobs, so Putin is framing the mill re-opening as a sort of “stimulus package” for the town. The thing is, Russia has an economic development policy that helps out towns with only one source of income, so if the mill were allowed to remain shut, the town would likely benefit from government support of education and the creation of new potential industries.
The locals are taking matters into their own hands and aiming for a different development strategy. Namely: eco-tourism. Working in partnership with nonprofits like Center for Safe Energy, Baikal Watch and Baikal Environmental Wave, environmentalists in the area are building a 2,000-mile trail around the lake, called The Great Baikal Trail. So far 500 miles have been built with the help of 4,000 local volunteers and 2,000 international volunteers. The trail goes around the lake and through the forests that run alongside it, some of which include volcanic hot springs and waterfalls.
What makes it sort of an ideal ecotourism spot is that it’s not all just about nature. There are two main cities near Baikal — Irkutsk and the Buryat capital of Ulan-Ude — and back when the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union, Irkutsk was an open city but Ulan-Ude was closed. Consequently, Irkutsk has a European look and is sometimes called “the Paris of Siberia,” while Ulan-Ude remained a traditional Buryat city and thus looks Asian. Point being, the culture of the Buryat was preserved — so a visit to that region introduces a world most people (or Americans, at least) lack knowledge about. A world including unusual architecture (Buddhist temples plus the yurts the Buryat call home); music (their traditional string instrument looks like a mandolin with a giant neck and sounds like Pete Seeger wailing on the banjo); the people (they are friendly and warm, dress in vivid colors, and have a centuries’ old shamanic tradition); and language (the Buryat have their own tongue, and it’s in the same family as Mongolian, so it sounds more Asian than Russian).
To give you an idea of the scene, here’s a shot of local Buryat people:
Above and beyond that here’s a place that fulfills the great dream of eco-tourism: the more people that go there, the better chance there is of protecting all the things that make it wonderful. On that count, Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund are planning to ask UNESCO in July to send another letter to Putin. Hopefully it will work, but it’s not likely to be a permanent solution.
A few thousand visitors per year, though? Pumping money into the local economy and supporting businesses and groups that protect the area? It’s not that unreasonable of a plan; despite its reputation as a frozen hinterland, Siberia actually has warm summers (temperatures get up to the 90s) during which you can swim in the lake, hike through taiga forests, or take a boat ride to the islands of Lake Baikal to check out the area’s nerpa seals–the only freshwater seals in the world. That plus all of the attributes listed above could make it a prime ecotourism destination … not to mention a great vacation destination for hipsters to name-drop in coffeeshops.
