Bear Shore – scientific expedition
June 2018
Promotion of sustainable tourism in the Baikal natural area is one of the directions of Lake Baikal Foundation. In this respect Lake Baikal Foundation turns to best practices existing in Russia and around the world. The team of Russian Travel Geek has proved that scientific tourism is not only possible but also useful, both for scientists and tourists, who want to broaden their horizons, receive unforgettable impressions, get acquainted with the world not just superficially, but by plunging into applied processes of its study. Russian Travel Geek arranges scientific tours around the world, this year Lake Baikal Foundation showed them the unexplored Baikal.
Goals:
- popularization of scientific tourism in the Baikal region;
- studying the unique Baikal’s flora and fauna.
Targets:
- to work out a route of popular scientific expedition together with Russian Travel Geek and specialists from Special Protected Natural Area «Zapovednoe Pribaikalye»;
- to organize a pilot expedition in summer 2018.
What was done:
- the organizers made the route «Bear Shore» together with the specialists from the reserve «Zapovednoe Pribaikalye»;
- 10-22 June 2018 Lake Baikal Foundation and Russian Travel Geek conducted a scientific expedition in the Baikal region. This was the first scientific expedition for brown bears counting in the reserve «Zapovednoe Pribaikalye», in which tourists took part. The expedition went through the territory of the largest intercontinental concentration of the brown bear – the Baikal National Park and the Baikal-Lensky Nature Reserve.
Results:
- the tourists immersed into the Baikal’s historical past and wildlife and were introduced to true scientific expeditionary life. It was proved that scientific tourism can be developed in the Baikal region;
- the tourists counted brown bears along the Baikal’s coastal line from motor boats, recorded and described bears’ pugmark activity in the forest, counted gophers and worked out a new method of contouring this small animal’s holes.
Lake Baikal Foundation gives big thanks to Russian Travel Geek team and to Svetlana Babina, deputy head of the reserve «Zapovednoe Pribaikalye».
As far as the pilot project of 2018 was successful, in 2019 the Russian Travel Geek team will organize two more expeditions in the Baikal region.