Leverhulme International Network
Exploring Russia’s Environmental History and Natural Resources
Field Trip and Academic Workshops in Ulan-Ude, Lake Baikal, and Irkutsk, Siberia, 25 July – 4 August 2015: Summary report
The first workshop, 25 July, Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, was hosted by Dr Nikolay Tsyrempilov, Head of Dept of Buryat History, and co-organised and co-convened with Nicholas Breyfogle. David Moon outlined the project and aims of the field trip. Network members presented summaries of their research and then listened to presentations by leading local scientists on the environment of Lake Baikal and by environmental activists and journalists on the environmental movement and development of tourism. This was a fascinating and insightful start to our trip. Among many interesting presentations was a talk by Sergei Shapkaev, Director of the Buryat Regional Organization on Baikal, a local environmental group, on the history of the environmental movement at Baikal. An informal gathering over dinner at the Baikal Plaza hotel allowed network members to exchange ideas, deepen existing contacts and make new ones.
The next stage was a three-day visit to the Barguzinskii zapovednik (scientific nature reserve) on the remote NE shore of lake Baikal. About 400 km north of Ulan-Ude, the reserve is accessible only by boat. The Barguzinskii zapovednik is of historical and environmental importance. Founded in 1916, it was the first of the renowned Russian/Soviet network of state-run scientific nature reserves, in which examples of different ecosystems have been set aside solely for scientific research. The network was greatly privileged to be granted permission to visit. Our visit was arranged by two scientists from Irkutsk, Arkadii and Tat’yana Kalikhman, who were our expert guides. Together with the reserve’s scientific director, Aleksandr Ananin, they acquainted us with the reserve’s history and ecology. Ananin delivered lectures, on location and in the reserve museum, and led guided hikes along the lake shore and into the primeval taiga forest. We explored areas of forest which had seen no human visitors for several years, but Ananin pointed to evidence of recent presence of bears and the sable.
We held a further two workshops at the Barguzinskii zapovednik. Arkadii and Tat’yana Kalikhman presented their research on Baikal and nature conservation, followed by papers by Bryce Beukers-Stewart Stewart and Hazel Long, natural scientists whose primary expertise is on other parts of the world, who applied their knowledge of fisheries management and carbon cycling to environmental issues facing the Baikal region. Beukers-Stewart explained the distribution of different fish populations in the lake. Nicholas Breyfogle and Alan Roe presented their research on the development of scientific reserves and national parks in the Baikal region, offering contrasts between differing motives for nature protection. Elena Kochetkova compared pulp and paper plants in Karelia and on Lake Baikal in a paper on water pollution and environmental protection in the Soviet Union. Alexandra Bekasova and Ekaterina Kalemeneva offered insights into the development of tourism and travel infrastructure in Siberia in late-tsarist Russia through an analysis of guidebooks. Julia Lajus provided wider context with a presentation on research by Russian scholars on Russian environmental history. Voicu Sucala made available a slide show of photographs from the first part of the trip.
During our stay, Hazel Long collected water samples from inlet streams and the lake to analyse levels of organic and inorganic carbon to prepare for possible collaboration with Russian scientists for her research on aquatic carbon cycling. Whether water is absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or releasing it has implications for climate change. Throughout our visit, Long explained the consequences of global warming in the Baikal region, including forest fires, which we witnessed as the lake was shrouded by smoke for much of our stay. She also explained the likely results if the permafrost melts, which would release very large volumes of CO2 into the atmosphere, further speeding up climate change.
From the Barguzinskii zapovednik we sailed overnight to the Uskanyi islands, part of the Transbaikal national park. Accompanied by a park ranger, we saw at close hand a colony of nerpas, Baikal’s unique freshwater seals. Forest fires limited our stay on the Ushkanyi islands.
On board our boats while crossing Baikal, we held our 4th workshop. We continued discussion of Alexandra Bekasova and Ekaterina Kalemeneva’s paper on tourism in Siberia in late-tsarist Russia. David Moon talked about Western research on Russian environmental history, complementing Julia Lajus’s paper on Russian research. Catherine Evtuhov spoke about her new research on natural resources and the environment during industrial development in mid-eighteenth century Russia. Mark Sokolsky presented on his research on the conservation of deer, sable and tigers in Russia’s far east, which offered parallels to the experience on Baikal’s shores . Andy Bruno rounded off our workshops with an original ‘aqua-biography’ of Llake Imandra in northern Russia, which was suggestive for our location on Lake Baikal.
On the western side of the lake, we explored sites of historical, cultural and ecological significance on Olkhon Island, part of the Baikal National Park, which offered contrasts with other areas we had visited as the climate was more arid and supported far less tree cover.
Our trip concluded in Irkutsk, where we explored the city, its history, location on the Angara Rriver, and environment led by Arkadii Kalikhman. On the final evening over dinner in the Europe Hotel we held a preliminary discussion of what we had learned from the trip.
David Moon, 26 August 2015