Sustainable Development of the Lake Baikal Region

Two years have passed since the International Conference on Environment Protection and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro and which was an important milestone in the history of mankind. This meeting of heads of countries and governments that took place under the aegis of the United Nations stated that nature protection is an indispensable component of sustainable development. So it is only natural that we are now considering this particular meeting as the next stage of implementation of the decisions taken in Rio de Janeiro. Of course, the practical implementation of those recommendations has to be tried on some concrete object. And we are grateful for the fact that the Lake Baikal Region has been recognised as a potential model territory for sustainable development. We believe that the recommendations of the Symposium that is being inaugurated today will allow us, the Republic of Buryatia, and neighbouring regions of the Lake Baikal Region to find the right balance between the solution of our socioeconomic problems and environmental protection. It is especially important for us who live in the Republic of Buryatia because all our economic activities take place in the water-catchment area of Lake Baikal.

On behalf of the Central Buddhist Board of the Russian Federation I greet you, the participants of the International Symposium, on the sacred Lake Baikal land. At the present time it is obvious that the environmental situation has become a general global problem. The solving of this problem requires mutual efforts of the whole human community. I am sure it is necessary to achieve the unification and harmonization of East and West. Traditionally, the West is distinguished by developed technology and the East has achieved much in developing moral sciences and the science of the mind. These two directions of perfecting human nature ought to be united. Without such a combination it is hard to imagine that the sustainable development of the society will ever be possible.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in June, 1992 in Rio de Janeiro on the level of Heads of States or Governments, declared a new paradigm of socio-economic development for the 21st century, the concept of sustainable development. The paper discusses the basic reasons for unsustainability of the present development of the world, and also the main criteria and requirements of the future model.

Water has always been at the centre of many myths, beliefs, magic and conflicts. Like the sun and earth, water is a cosmic element. According to Greek philosophy, water, air, earth and fire were the four elements of which all substances in the world were made; in today’s terms that means water, air, soil and energy.

The paper deals with the description of the progress that was made at the Rio summit, particularly the UN’s foundation of a Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD). Furthermore the implementation of the Rio Conventions and the Rio Declaration are discussed. Finally, the paper points out the challenge facing the international community to formulate a new philosophy of the relationship between society and environment.

The paper summarises the moral values accepted by Buddhism and complying with the ideas of the sustainable development of human society.

Sustainable development is a long-term goal for which there should be broad and growing consensus. Establishment of this goal is fundamentally a social decision about the desirability of a survivable ecological economic system. It entails maintenance of (1) a sustainable scale of the economy relative to its ecological life-support system; (2) a fair distribution of resources and opportunities, not only between the current generation of humans, but also between present and future generations and between humans and other species; and (3) an efficient allocation of resources that adequately accounts for natural capital. Conventional economics (including environmental economics—defined as the application of conventional economics to problems of the environment) has concentrated on the third of these problems (efficient allocation) and therefore has not fully addressed the issue of sustainable development. Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary effort to extend the conventional approach by integrating the natural sciences (especially ecology) and the social sciences (especially economics but also sociology, psychology, political science and others) in order to address the interrelated issues of sustainable scale, fair distribution and efficient allocation in an integrated way.

Nature conservation is a collection of measures produced by society to provide lasting security for its life basis. The aims of these measures are to protect, care for and develop both nature and landscape in both populated and unpopulated areas in order that: the capacity of the landscape to perform its essential functions,the usefulness of the natural resources,the wildlife and,the variety, individuality and beauty of both nature and landscape are lastingly secured both as a life basis for man and as the prerequisite for his recreation within both nature and the landscape.

The concept of sustainable development was accepted unanimously by the global community of nations (cf. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, UNCED 1992).

The article focusses on three components of sustainable development: economic (scale of production and efficiency of resource use); environmental (environmental protection and attitude towards it); social (extent to which the population’s interests are satisfied). This three-fold approach is regarded as an economic approximation of sustainable development. The Lake Baikal Region is taken as a model territory, and the intention is to work out mechanisms of integration of: interests and means; different forms of property; intraregional management functions; organizational and managerial forms of productive activity, e.g., major enterprises as well as small businesses.

In the report, data on the environmental contamination of the Lake Baikal Region, including the state of water resources, and on the aggravation of the population’s health in this region are presented.

The paper considers main priorities of the program until the year 2000, its economic mechanism is suggested, and expenses planned. An important condition for completing this program may be all possible development of international cooperation.

The paper describes specific features of the Lake Baikal Region, in view of its sustainable development, its strategy, first steps made by the Irkutsk region, and large projects of national significance.

In this paper the compliance of the structure of the economy of the Republic of Buryatia with eco-ecological requirements (standards) of sustainable development is considered. The basic aspects of the economic and social concept of future development of the Republic of Buryatia are presented.

The Selenga river basin in the territory of Mongolia is an important region for the economic development of the country. In this basin, which occupies over 20% of the whole Mongolian territory, about 50% of the population and 70% of the agriculture is located. Here are also the main industrial sites. I think that in the very near future exploitation of the Hubsugul phosphorite deposit will begin. Plans for construction of an electric power station on the Eghiingol River have been announced. It is believed that the Darkhan Integrated Iron-and-Steel Works, which recently began operations, will be enlarged in the very near future. The expected intensification of land utilization, of exploitation of water, mineral and other resources in the Selenga River basin in the territory of Mongolia will undoubtedly be connected with the problem of sustainable development of the Lake Baikal Region and will require the coördinated activity of both countries. On the initiative of the Mongolian and Russian Governments, agreements on the regulation of questions concerning water resources in the frontier area between Mongolia and Russia have been concluded.

We consider several features of the sustainable-development model for the outlying part of the Lake Baikal basin. The comprehensive system of environmental and economic management is discussed. This system should be oriented to the “individual” approach to priorities of areas and creation of “fine” tools of management of natural resources.

The paper reveals a dual role of energy in the problems of life support and sustainable development. It presents a brief characteristic of the main problems in the development of the fuel and energy complex of Russia compared with world trends. The possibilities for energy development in the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia are evaluated. The problems of nature-protecting energy supply of the Lake Baikal zone are considered. Specific tasks of the regional policy for Siberia which will make it possible to overcome the crisis and achieve the transition to sustainable-energy development are formulated.

The Lake Baikal Region possesses great reserves of mineral and energy resources. However, their development is unsatisfactory. In addition, departmental separateness hinders the complex utilisaton of resources. Provisions are made for priority exploitation of gold and platinum group deposits. To decrease the burden on the environment, methods of working some deposits are proposed. Changes are suggested in the taxation policy to achieve efficient management of resources.

The Principle of Precaution is a successful strategy to minimize or to eliminate harmful or hazardous substances as a result of industrial production. In order to prevent or to eliminate pollution from industrial production, the application of the use of Best Environmental Practice (BEP) for all sources and Available Technology (BAT) for point sources shall be promoted. To control whether the strategy is sufficient for the environment, Environmental Quality Objectives (EQO) should be defined. If the application of BEP and BAT does not lead to environmental acceptable results, e.g., if the EQO are exceeded, additional measures shall be applied. To support this strategy, the introduction of an Eco-Management scheme is highly recommended.

One of the most difficult problems in the core of the future World Natural Heritage Site, the Baikal Region, is the problem of reprofiling the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Plant (BPPP), with a capacity 160,000 tons per year. In 1990, the Selenginsk Pulp and Cardboard Plant (SPCP) sealed off the cycle of water consumption and ceased to discharge waste water into the Selenga River, the major tributary of Lake Baikal.

The state of the agricultural complex of the Lake Baikal Region is examined and a number of anticrisis measures contributing to its transfer to the regime of sustainable development are given. Recommendations for an ecologization of agriculture are developed based on ecologically optimum land use.

This paper presents a general strategy for the planning and implementation of an environmentally compatible agriculture that should be adapted to the unique situation of each country and region. Agricultural policy has to be adapted to environmental demands as a precondition for the implementation on the regional and local scale. Nevertheless, in areas with high-priority problems there will always be a demand for area-specific regulations or incentives for agriculture. Two examples from Germany illustrate how a concept for a regional transition process might be developed. Some proposals for the Baikal region are made.

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be here today with my distinguished colleagues from around the world. This workshop is potentially the most important international gathering since the 1992 UNCED Conference in Rio. I say that because we are gathered not just to talk about the Rio Conference and how to implement its many recommendations, but to review, evaluate, and determine how to refine a program that actually implements the most important recommendation from Rio: developing and implementing ecologically sustainable economic development programs that preserve our global environment and biodiversity while improving the quality of life of the region’s people.

Reasons and ecological impacts of damaged forests are analyzed. The main aspects of ecological stabilization and steady development of the forest complex are discussed. Alternatives for change of forest utilization structure as well as a reasonable course for improving logging technologies and wood processing are considered. The decision to adopt an ecosystem forest management will promote forest-complex stability.

The paper analyzes the achievements of thematic cartography and geo-information in solving the problems of natural-resources management and environmental protection in the Baikal Region. A plan of cartographic support is suggested for sustainable regional-development management on the basis of specialized information systems containing the data on natural resources and the state of the environment. The unique nature and efficiency of such information systems are achieved by a cartographic form of information and efficient opportunities of up-to-date information technologies. Thematic maps in these systems are the main means of geographical data interpretation and organization. The necessity of establishing a regional cartographic geo-information center is recognized.

Within the frames of problems of sustainable development more particular mathematical models for the scenario analysis of variants of the Lake Bailal Region’s development are proposed.Results of the scenario analysis of evolution of the region’s nature-economic criteria and, also, results of solving problems of rational nature management (resouce consumption), including examples with wood resources and with resources of the unique population of omul (Baikal salmon), are given. A constructive solution for the problem of harmonizing interests of an enterprise and the region is suggested with examples of payments for the environment impact (pollution).

Sustainable development has become a popular catchword in the international development debate. Criticised as ambiguous and open to a wide range of interpretations, the meaning of the term was specified in Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and in successive proceedings. Although tourism is hardly mentioned in Agenda 21, it is closely related to sustainable development at least in two ways: first, as one of the most important economic sectors worldwide, and second as a tool to actively support sustainable development by raising public awareness of environmental matters.

What part does the international sector have to play in the sustainable development of the Lake Baikal region? Can foreign national and international organisations and programmes coupled with the high quality of Russian expertise help to solve the region’s problems?

This paper describes the research underway at the Cambridge University MacArthur ECCIA project, which involves both social and environmental research in the comparative study of the Inner Asian steppe and its peoples. It summarises the research strategy, and goes on to mention some of the points that are emerging from the project at this stage. The paper compares the numbers of livestock supported by the pastoral economies of Inner Asiabefore and after collectivisation, and contrasts the pastoral sectors of Buryat and Chita with the more mobile pastoral systems of Mongolia and Tuva, which appear more sustainable. It notes that the case-studies carried out by the project in Buryatia and Chita suggest that the conditions for the emergence of a sustainable market economy are largely lacking, and that so far attempts to introduce one have been unsuccessful. It questions the wisdom of continued top-down planning in an attempt to apply inappropriate western economic models, and suggests locally-developed plans for pragmatic agricultural development, learning from the experiences of neighbouring regions of Inner Asia.

The paper gives information about the preparation of the 60-volume bilingual series “Folklore Monuments of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East”, a new type of folklore publication, carried out by the Institute of Philology of SB RAS with folklore specialists of RAS and humanitarian institutes of the peoples and ethnic groups of Siberia.

Lake Baikal, with its 31,500 sq. km surface and 560,000 sq. km catchment basin, its 1,800 endemic species and its high biological diversity, has been the focus of hundreds of meetings and thousands of scientific papers. Its future has been discussed on many occasions. Central to these discussions has been what type and how much use it can sustain without prejudicing its unique qualities.

The Wadden Sea National Park in Schleswig-Holstein is the largest national park in Central Europe. It is also a Man and Biosphere Reserve and Ramsar site. It covers an area of about 2,850 square kilometers on the the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany. It is directly subordinate to the Minister for Nature and Environment of Schleswig-Holstein and not to the Federal Government. The National Park Administration, which is situated in the region, is responsible for all types of nature-conservation measures, issuance of permits, public-relations work and environmental education.

We have already heard much about the wonders and the problems of Lake Baikal and its environs. There is little doubt that it qualifies as a World Heritage site. That will not be a subject of great debate.

The paper deals with the possibilities of integrating sustainable development and nature protection within a regional planning process. The results of the MAB6 project at Berchtesgaden and the guidelines for protection, management and development of biosphere reserves in Germany are used as basic information. The general approach is adapted to the Lake Baikal Region.

The Federal Republic of Germany in its present structure is comprised of 16 federal states, the “Länder” These Länder participate in the legislative process through the “Bundesrat”.

This conference is dedicated to the proposition that Lake Baikal is precious to Russians, and indeed, to the world, and that its future should be governed by principles of sustainable development. Lurking, though, in every presentation at this conference, implicit in the very premise of the conference, is a question not only relevant to the future of Lake Baikal, but to the future of all environmentally sensitive regions of the world where people coexist with nature and where resource conflicts are therefore inevitable. The question, of course, is simply “How in the world do we achieve sustainable development? How can we make it happen?” And how can we do it quickly, for, my friends, we have emergency conditions. Rome is burning.

The Law on Lake Baikal should become the basis of the concept and legal foundation of the sustainable development of the Lake Baikal Region. The draft law has been worked out on the principles of the UN Convention on World Heritage Sites. Its framework character implies that direct normative acts be passed at federal and regional levels.

The main principles of sustainable development in the Lake Baikal Region are revealed in the report. The dominant factors of sustainable development are the following: elaboration of an adaptive nature-management system in accordance with the natural conditions of the region;environmental education;ecological culture;calculation of the economic parameters of sustainable development while considering the interests of both economy and ecology.