Ecological problems Lake Baikal were fully formulated back in 1998 at a meeting scientific council on problems of the biosphere at the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation. Scientists at that time gave an exhaustive list of not only sources and types of pollution, but also suggested ways to solve them.

The deepest lake on the planet, containing almost 20% of all fresh water in the world, is located in the Asian part of Russia on the border Irkutsk region and Buryatia. It stretches for 690 km in the shape of a crescent and has a width of up to 79 km. The bottom of the Bakal is 1167 m below the level of the World Ocean, and the surface is 455 m higher in terms of the area of ​​the water surface, it ranks seventh in the world. The maximum depth is 1642 m, the average is about 744 m, the volume of water in Baikal is 23 thousand km3. The exact number of its tributaries is unknown. In the 19th century there were 336 of them. The largest of the existing ones are Selenga, Upper Angara, Barguzin, Turka, Snezhnaya and Samara. Only one river flows out of the lake - the Angara.

How the lake was formed is still a matter of scientific controversy. The etymology of the origin of its name is equally ambiguous.

According to one version, it was formed more than 35 million years ago and classifies it as a lake ice age. If this is so, then such a long period of existence of such a water body is unique, and its ecosystem requires heightened attention and caution. However, there is a theory that Bakal is much younger and no more than 150 thousand years old. Only one thing is absolutely certain, that changes in the lake are still taking place. Highly high seismicity in the area of ​​its location. Earthquakes are regular here. It is increasing at a rate of 2 cm per year, which is typical for the oceans. There is an assumption that Baikal is the future ocean. But we are unlikely to know.

The thickness of Baikal's bottom sediments suggests that in its place there were mountains over 7,000 meters high.

In its basin there were special climatic conditions. Winters are mild, summers are cool, and autumns are long. sunny days in a year as much as on the Black Sea coast. Winds have a special influence on the climate in the lake area. Their role is such that they received their own names among the people - Barguzin, Sarma or Kultuk.

The name of the lake refers to the languages ​​of the peoples who inhabited its shores in the past. These are Barguts, Buryats and others. In the 17th - 18th centuries, the first Russian settlers appeared here, who called it Lamu or the sea in Evenki. The Buryat name "Baigal" is most consonant with the current one.

Natural resources

Baikal is included in the List of objects world heritage UNESCO. The main natural resource is water. Its qualities practically correspond to the characteristics of distilled water. It contains very few minerals and organic impurities and a lot of oxygen. The temperature is quite cold and generally does not exceed +10 0 C. At a depth it is even lower. The temperature can reach its maximum in the bays. The recorded record is +23 0 C. The water transparency in the lake is also unique. Visibility can be up to 40 m in depth.

In winter, the waters of Lake Baikal turn into an ice cover up to 2 meters thick. Only a small section of the water surface in the area of ​​the source of the Angara River does not freeze. Under influence low temperatures the ice is cracking. The length of such cracks can reach tens of kilometers and up to 3 m wide. These cracks are formed, as a rule, in the same places. Such a natural phenomenon enables the water to be enriched with oxygen, which is favorable for the existence of all organisms living in the water. In addition, the Baikal ice is so transparent that Sun rays through it easily penetrate and supply the algae with sufficient energy to continue the process of photosynthesis.

Such quality of water in liquid and solid state became possible thanks to a unique microscopic crustacean - epishur, found only in Lake Baikal. It purifies water by passing it through itself. The size of this copepod planktonic crustacean is up to 1.5 mm. it makes up nearly 90% of the lake's biomass. Baikal epishur is the main food for the Baikal omul. The flora and fauna of the lake contains many more species of living organisms that are not found anywhere else.

In total, about 2,600 species of animals live in Baikal, half of which are exclusively "Baikal". This species diversity is due to high content oxygen in water.

Of exceptional interest is the viviparous golomyanka fish, which consists of 30% fat. In addition to it, omul, grayling, whitefish, sturgeon, burbot, pike, taimen and other fish species are found in Baikal.

Freshwater sponges live in the depths of the lake, also one of the “miracles” of the lake.

Problems and their sources

After the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences drew attention to the environmental problems of Lake Baikal, in 1999 a special the federal law"On the protection of Lake Baikal". He established a special economic activity and introduced some restrictions.

The unique nature of Baikal has not been studied enough to responsibly state what exactly can cause it the greatest damage. But there are three main, absolutely well-established sources of such problems. These are the waters carried into the lake by the Selenga River, hydraulic structures on the Angara River and the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. There are other ecological problems of Baikal. For example: poaching, illegal logging, untreated effluent discharges by businesses, settlements and water transport, household waste, and unorganized tourism. The maximum allowable concentrations of some types of substances have been exceeded. However, this cannot be compared with the damage caused to the lake's ecosystem by the plant.

Combine

The Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill has existed since 1966. It is a complex source of pollution environment. Its emissions of dust and waste gases led to the drying of the forest. For a long time, the plant used lake water for its technological needs, and dumped waste back into Baikal. Bottom sediments were significantly affected by this, which did not fail to tell on the animal and plant world of nearby places. The plant stores products and materials, and disposes of waste directly on the banks. The main struggle was with effluents and this part of the production activity was not under control and therefore led to the fact that substances contained in raw materials and production waste began to enter the water. The plant was stopped and again allowed to work, removing all restrictions. closed system water circulation, put into operation in 2008, was supposed to remove the problems with the ingress of toxic substances into the lake. But the measurements carried out showed a 40-50 times excess of the concentration of dioxins in the water in the area of ​​the plant. In 2013, the BPPM was stopped by the Government of the Russian Federation. It was announced that it would be closed. Stopped does not mean eliminated. Now nature has outweighed the economic benefits. But will it continue like this?

River

The largest tributary of the lake is the Selenga River. A tributary, that is, with the waters of the river, everything that enters the river upstream flows or enters Baikal. In a year, the Selenga brings 30 km 3 of water, into which such cities as Ulaanbaatar and Ulan-Ude dump waste and waste. Pollutants enter the Selenga, and with it the Baikal, from gold and other mining enterprises, industrial and construction enterprises, leather processing factories and steel mills in Mongolia and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia.

The settlements located along the banks of the tributaries of Lake Baikal, for the most part, do not have a sewer system, and all waste enters the rivers without any treatment. And where there is treatment facilities at the enterprises of the housing and communal sector, they have long failed to meet and do not cope with their functions. Not only household and industrial waste, but also oil products and pesticides, mineral fertilizers and other substances used in agriculture get into the water.

Hydraulic facilities

On the ecological problems of Baikal, like any other lake ecosystem, big influence has a water exchange, that is, the volume of incoming and outgoing water. Since 1956, Baikal has become part of the Irkutsk reservoir. As a result of the commissioning of a cascade of hydraulic structures, the water level in the lake rose by 1 m. According to scientists, this was the most swipe on natural system Baikal. The retaining dam of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station contributed to an even greater rise in the water level. As a result, more than 500 km 2 of land was flooded. But the most detrimental effect on the ecosystem of the lake basin has fluctuations in water levels. Spawning grounds for fish and nesting birds are being destroyed.

A unique animal lives on the lake, called the Baikal seal. Her cub - white pup - is the embodiment of gullibility, vulnerability and insecurity. His poaching, and there was no other, fishing is incredibly cruel. A small and completely white creature with trusting black eyes was killed with a blow to the head with a pickaxe. They didn’t even spend cartridges on the pup. The fur of the seal, because of its color, was very much appreciated, and the extraction was not difficult. The cub couldn't run away. He lay, crying plaintively, and waited for his blow to the head. Isn't it reminiscent of Baikal and what people do with it? The lake cannot answer, but lies so clean and defenseless before the "king of nature" and is waiting for a blow.

The ecological problems of Lake Baikal are a litmus test by which it is easy to determine the relationship of man to nature. Scientific and technical progress brings us new discoveries and opportunities every day. The much-needed paper, which, destroying the forest and the lake, was produced by the plant, was replaced by electronic systems. Trees, with a great desire, can be grown, but will it be possible to at least restore the unique flora and fauna of Baikal, the purity of its water and the bizarre landscapes of its ice?

Video - Baikal without borders

Badlueva E.B.,

teacher additional education

Essay "Human influence on the ecology of Lake Baikal"

What are you sad about, beloved Baikal?

What is your surf sighing about?

Or someone evil, relentless

Is he making fun of you again?

Natalia Kazulina

Lake Baikal ... How much is invested in this word. Baikal is history, it is a landmark, it is a pearl… Not only in Russia, but in the whole world. Anyone who has visited Baikal at least once never forgets it and always strives to return to it again. Baikal attracts the most people of different nationalities. Everyone admires him, worships him.

Lake Baikal is popularly called the Sacred Sea, paying tribute to its steep waves, high shores, endless expanses of the water surface, seeing how “by the power of the surf it tears the nets of the taiga deaf silence.” The well-known Buryat poet Damba Zhalsaraev writes about the same: “Baikal is rightfully the sea, look, what an expanse! He also likes the sea, ask the sailors!

In fact,Baikal is a huge natural reservoir and a factory for the production of clean water. And this, given the fact that the world is rapidly declining the amount of fresh water, has, of course, great value for our country.

Baikal is an unusual lake! This lake, in which there is a lot of amazing, mysterious and unknown. Its flora and fauna are so unique and inimitable, so many endemic species are not found anywhere else on the planet. The water of the lake impresses with its ability to self-purify and self-regulate. This Baikal reminds inner world a person with his uniqueness and the possibility of self-development and self-regulation.

But for last century due to human consumer intervention around Lake Baikal, changes are taking place that leave negative consequences, and each new generation of people aggravates and consolidates them. Thus, deforestation and fires, immoderate plowing of land and uprooting of forests led to the development of wind and water erosion. This has led to the fact that the lands around Baikal are gradually turning into deserts and this is found everywhere. Thus, the climate of the area is changing, and the internal balance of Baikal water, which has developed over time, is disturbed. thousand years of history existence of the lake. This leads to the fact that the streams and rivers that feed Baikal dry up, their biological productivity decreases, which ultimately affects the conservation natural resources Baikal.

At present, the historical balance in aquatic environment Lake Baikal, which, according to scientists, could provide clean water to all mankind for almost half a century. Over the past 15 years alone, more than 100 km3 of Baikal water has been polluted. More than 8500 tons of oil products, 750 tons of nitrates, 13 thousand tons of chlorides and other pollutants enter the water area of ​​the lake annually. The Baikal hydroelectric power station takes the energy of Lake Baikal from the Angara. Growing settlements, camp sites and the Selenginsky CCC pour waste into it. In Mongolia, a project is planned to build a hydroelectric power station on the Selenga, in China they dream of driving through pipes Baikal waters, and local lumberjacks are stripping forests, thereby destroying natural bonds. We say that the water cycle in the Baikal basin has been disrupted. The dry ground does not provide enough moisture for precipitation to form and fires start. Tourists throw out garbage, poachers destroy living creatures ... In 2014, a new problem- a dangerous algae, spirogyra, was found in coastal waters, which soon covered more than 60 percent of the lake's coast. And the cause of almost all the troubles of Baikal is vigorous activity human, waste industrial enterprises. The lake and its basin continue to be polluted with industrial household and agricultural waste, herbicides, pesticides and various chemicals. Subsequently, these factors of pollution and emissions into the atmosphere are restructuring the ecosystem in the lake basin. So, in particular, under the influence of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill, harmful chemicals released during the production process are released into the air, which subsequently settle to the bottom of the lake.

The long-standing dispute about how much BPPM emissions affect Baikal is at least inappropriate, since the shores of Lake Baikal are not a place to place any industrial facilities on them. AT modern conditions when on state level the protection of nature is sacrificed for "economic gain", the ecological situation is even more aggravated. Every year more and more people began to show interest in Lake Baikal, thereby exacerbating its ecology. Logging along the coastal zones of the lake and developing tourism have led to forest fires. The scope of poaching can be judged by the number of detained violators - about 10,000 people per year, despite the fact that the fish inspection is not able to conduct daily control throughout the lake.

Thus, unfortunately, our generation is losing its age-old traditions.

Outstanding Soviet poet A. Voznesensky wrote back in 1956: “When you are sick, we are all sick. Baikal, you are the crystal liver of the country! And someone added from the depths: "Baikal is the protected conscience of the country." The poet writes with great anxiety that it is necessary to protect this lake, says that people who do not understand the impending threat are like murderers and calls on us to never say: "The Dead Sea is sacred Baikal." In the poem by A. Voznesensky, they touched me for living words: “And will we really be in history - these, Baikal ruined that”? I really hope we don't!

Unlike many other lakes on our planet, Baikal has been preserved in a state close to its original state, largely due to the fact that its drainage basin is still sparsely populated. About 2 million people live on its territory, industry and agriculture in given time have not yet been extensively developed. Therefore, the pollution of Lake Baikal has a local character and is mainly associated with individual large sources of industrial emissions. This is confirmed by numerous data obtained in recent years by Russian and foreign scientists.

We all the world must save Baikal, and not exploit it thoughtlessly. I believe that Baikal is in trouble today. Baikal should become for us a symbol of unity in overcoming a common misfortune. In order to save Baikal, it is necessary, first of all, to close the Angara hydroelectric power stations, pulp and paper mills and the Central Control Commission, located in the Central zone of Baikal, stop mass logging and start reforestation, determine the directions for rational nature management in this region, and develop a state program for the protection and rescue of Baikal. After all, the preservation of the Baikal ecosystem is not only economically feasible, meaning high value water of such purity, but also our obligation to humanity. Baikal is a treasury of the world's fresh water reserves, its geological, hydrological and biological features are of interest as an object scientific research, and as an unconditional aesthetic value.

It is important that everyone realizes the greatness of Baikal, its significance, its inextricable connection with nature, realizes that without real living nature, humanity simply has no future...

In Irkutsk, the summing up of the results of the studies of Lake Baikal, which took place in the summer and autumn of 2017 as part of the Baikal Expedition project, began, Irkutsk Online news agency reports. The candidate spoke about the first results and the current state of the lake at a press conference biological sciences, employee of Moscow State University Mikhail Kolobov, head of the Baikal Expedition project Marina Rikhvanova and president of the youth charitable foundation"Revival of the Siberian Land" Elena Tvorogova.

What is happening with Baikal?

The lake consists of two parts: the "core" and the coast. Inner part the Baikal flora inhabits, the coast - the Siberian flora, what can be found in the rivers. Farther coastal zone it doesn't come in. Biologists are primarily concerned about the "core".

Baikal is still a very clean lake, says Mikhail Kolobov. However, the impression general condition The specialists remained ambiguous about the reservoir - processes take place in it that did not exist before. What it depends on, scientists have yet to find out.

The danger is that when environmental conditions change, the central endemic part becomes capricious, says the candidate of sciences. - If they (endemics. - Approx. ed.) die, there is nowhere to take new ones. As a result, this place is quickly populated by other, non-endemic species. In the end, this may lead to the fact that Baikal, its internal flora and fauna will perish, that is, cease to exist in such large numbers as they are now.

Is spirogyra dangerous?

Experts note: clearly negative attitude to spirogyra can not be called fair. Algae in itself is not pollution, it is only a reflection of the processes taking place in the lake.

Spirogyra consumes what appeared in the water. Why did it appear in the water? No one was able to use it before her, or was it brought in from outside? It is necessary to find out, but in any case, this is a signal, - Mikhail Kolobov notes.

According to him, the spread of spirogyra is a kind of leukocytes of the lake, a healthy reaction of Baikal to the fact that an excessive amount of minerals began to enter it. Therefore, this algae does not need to be fought. Attention should be paid to the creation of treatment plants, to teach tourists and local residents to use phosphate-free products.

What's new in the lake?

On the east coast Lake Baikal, in the area where the Selenga River and Cape Tankhoi flow into it, exceeded the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of heavy metals - zinc, copper, lead - by two to three times.

These substances are taken out into the lake and mixed with water, they are present in a fairly high concentration, even exceeding the maximum allowable, which is sad. And with the current it is carried away to the Angara, - the specialist notes.

In the area of ​​the Ushkany Islands, an increased concentration of ammonium was found. The attention of scientists was also attracted by an increase in the content of silicates in water - this is sand, silicic acids. In the area of ​​the Barguzinsky Bay, elevated concentrations potassium and ammonia, which are not critical, in some places do not exceed the MPC, but they are higher than the background values ​​for the rest of Baikal. Somewhere there is a change radiation background, although the level of radiation is still ten times lower than normal.

What is the MPC level and why is it dangerous to exceed it?

People still live and work on Lake Baikal, who continue to pollute it, referring to the fact that the maximum allowable concentration harmful substances not yet reached. At the same time, not all users of the lake know that there are several MPCs: there is a maximum allowable concentration for water that is used to water green spaces, there is a separate MPC for drinking water, Mikhail Kolobov draws attention.

There are MPCs for fishery reservoirs. These are the most sensitive standards, here the concentration of substances should be 10 times less than in the water used for drinking. MPC is calculated from the ratios that affect the weakest link in the ecosystem: phytoplankton, the smallest algae, zooplankton, - says Mikhail Kolobov.

If we take into account the identified elements, then zinc acts as an inhibitor of photosynthesis, which can cause phytoplankton to die. At the same time, zooplankton can suffer from large amounts of copper. Together, zinc and copper can cause more destructive effect than individually.

If the upper link of the ecosystem - phytoplankton, zooplankton - is destroyed in Baikal, this will become a point for further collapse of the ecosystem. There are endemics in the lake that will not recover. For example, the Baikal epishura, the basis of nutrition for fish fry, accounts for up to 90% of all zooplankton.

Who is to blame for everything?

Mikhail Kolobov does not exclude that a large number of toxic substances enters the Selenga from Mongolia. However, according to the expert, if at the outlet in the river delta the indicator is 2-3 times higher than the MPC, then in Mongolia they should be prohibitive, because a significant part of the heavy metals should settle in the Selenga channel on the way to the lake.

Maybe the pollution did not come from there, but something affects us here, - he argues. - The presence of ammonia is an indicator that fresh processes of decay are taking place somewhere. Or, for example, potassium in the water indicates that logging or woodworking has become more active in the immediate vicinity of the lake. Exceeding the level of heavy metals in the area of ​​the Selenga delta may indicate the extraction of metal ores.

Where did the radiation come from? Somewhere they dug up something. Substances that are contained in ores, in the soil, got into the water. It's all washed away. On Baikal you can see where they "heaped up". We looked at the concentration of silicates in water. Initially, there are many of them in Baikal, but in comparison with the background values, an excess was revealed. A sign that active earthworks are taking place near the lake.

What happened to the omul?

Experts name many reasons that could affect the decline in the omul population in Baikal. The main version is considered to be excessive uncontrolled fishing, which has occurred since the early 1990s. Mikhail Kolobov, however, does not exclude that the reduction in the number of omul can be explained by natural phenomena, and where less degree- influence of harmful substances:

Associate the decline in the omul population with the excess of indicators for heavy metals I don't want to, I can only guess. There are normal natural cycles, population decline or increase. Jumps always exist. They can be for a year or two, and for decades and even centuries.

If you fantasize, you can say about the influence of zinc and copper: copper kills epishura, zinc makes phytoplankton grow slowly. The amount of food decreases, the amount of omul also decreases. The same situation could occur both due to outliers and due to tectonic shifts- Released chemicals. Finally, it may be overfishing, and it was.

Why do seals die?

Similar natural processes could cause mass deaths of seals. In particular, infections that may have spread due to a population that is too large. The infection can be either introduced by a person or internal, Mikhail Kolobov believes.

There is such a thing, when too many animals are born in a population, they, firstly, begin to compete with each other, he says. - But this is unlikely to happen with seals - not such a high density. Secondly, there is a risk of internal epizootic (widespread infectious disease among animals. - Approx. ed.). The higher the density, the higher the incidence.

What is happening near the BPPM?

According to Marina Rikhvanova, head of the Baikal Expedition project, after the closing of the BPPM, the pollution of the lake continues. In addition to sludge collectors, where hazardous production wastes are still located, the industrial site of the closed plant itself poses a danger to Baikal.

Sludge accumulators of the BPPM are overflowing, people are threatened with flows of chemistry. - It has not been recultivated, it has not been conserved hazardous substances. There was no closure project. Even during the operation of the plant, pollution seeped into the ground and accumulated. Previously, wells were constantly working there, which pumped out this pollution, and it was sent to treatment facilities.

After the closure of production, the contaminated water was no longer pumped out. Toxic waters continue to accumulate.

Who is responsible for the cleanliness of the lake?

Public initiatives and scientific and educational projects remain the main engines for studying Baikal's problems. It was with their help that work began for several years on the shortcomings in the organization of the protection of the lake, says Elena Tvorogova, president of the youth charitable foundation "Revival of the Siberian Land".

Baikal is a world, all-Russian heritage. But no matter what you take on, for a specific place or topic, no one is responsible for anything. Example: when the question arose about algae, it turned out that in shallow water none of our scientific centers I didn’t do it, but it was there that the problem of eutrophication and the growth of spirogyra came to light.

When we began to think about what to do with what Baikal throws ashore, the question also arose - who is responsible for the cleanliness of the coast? There is no one responsible. The level of ecological knowledge among the people living on Baikal, especially those who simply arrive, a guest or a tourist, is catastrophically low. Who is responsible for making sure people know and understand this? Still not developed uniform rules the behavior of tourists on Baikal, and during our expedition we constantly come across this.

What to do?

A large amount of pollutants are introduced into Baikal through rivers, especially as a result of uncontrolled mining of metals and minerals. In this regard, Mikhail Kolobov notes, in order to prevent the growth of toxic substances, attention should be paid to industries working with land, soil, and the development of minerals.

If these are large enterprises, environmental services will probably work there, but questions arise for small enterprises. What is washed into Baikal as a result of uncontrolled development is a question. This must be registered, without this future life Lake Baikal and the people who live near it is impossible.

"Baikal is a miracle of nature" - Baikal was included in the List natural heritage UNESCO. Angara. Nature of Baikal. Baikal water. Epishura crustacean. Pleasure pristine nature. Baikal seal. Fishing. Baikal. Opportunity to watch wild animals. Explore Lake Baikal. Waves and wind. Origin of name. What is Baikal.

"Baikal" - Pollution of Lake Baikal with air emissions. Pollution of Lake Baikal with household settlements coastal zone. Baikal needs special care. Major environmental issues. Baikal contains 20% of the world's reserves of surface fresh water. Baikal is in Eastern Siberia and is rightfully considered one of the wonders of nature.

"Sagan-Zaba" - Sagan-Zaba cliff - one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Cliff "Sagan-Zaba". The drawings in the lower part have been smoothed over by waves, other compositions have been destroyed by vandals. AT summer period, in rays rising sun Sagan-3aba is especially beautiful. The drawings are world famous. The figures are made with dotted stuffing, scratched on the stone or painted with paint - ocher.

"Nature of Baikal" - Uniques and problems. Plan for studying the topic. Baikal in the works of poets and artists. Lesson goals. Stage 1. Baikal - "A miracle of nature in every respect" L.S. Berg. Geology and relief. "Baikal is a priceless gift of nature - may it be eternal on Earth." Sinkwain - Lake Baikal. Climate. Baikal Animal and plant world.

"Geography of Lake Baikal" - Spring on the coast of Lake Baikal. Baikal is the pearl of Siberia. Golomyanka is a viviparous fish. Topic: "Baikal - the pearl of Siberia." Barguzinsky Reserve. Wind Sarma. Geography Biology. educate careful attitude to natural wealth. introduction geography teacher. subject areas. Barguzinsky sable.

"Lake Baikal" - Every year, the Baikal ecosystem reproduces about 60 cubic kilometers of clear, oxygenated water. Lesson - geography. The climate of Baikal. The only river flowing from Baikal is the Angara. "Animal world of Baikal". Wind intensification to a maximum is observed during the first hour. Izubr. The age of the lake is usually given in the literature as 20-25 million years.

There are 15 presentations in total in the topic

Modern tourism, no matter how bitter it may sound, harms the environment. There is a change in natural conditions, especially deterioration living conditions people, flora and fauna.

In the late 70s - early 80s. researchers “talked about the negative impact of tourism on the environment tourist centers. All over the world, a discussion has begun about the benefits and harms of tourism for the economy, ecology and society, while previously it was only about the economy. This was largely facilitated by the "greening" of public consciousness, speeches in defense of the environment. It is obvious that environmental issues in the future will excite people even more than they do today. Increasing environmental sensitivity is driving significant efforts to protect and conserve natural resources.

In the process of tourism activity, there is inevitably a change in the environment. natural environment. At the same time, negative changes prevail, causing significant and ever-increasing damage to it.

At present, the problem of environmental protection and its improvement occupy important place in many studies.

The impact of tourism on the environment can be direct, indirect and incentive, as well as positive and negative.

Unfortunately, the negative impacts of tourism often outweigh the positive ones. In particular, this is the impact on the quality of water in rivers, seas, lakes and air quality due to the use of Vehicle with engine internal combustion on oil fuel; noise from the activities of various entertainment establishments; destruction of local and wild fauna by tourists; destruction historical monuments vandals leaving their inscriptions on the monuments, etc. These are examples of only minor environmental damage.

Since the tourism industry uses products from many other industries that are not related to tourism products, their impact on the environment should also be taken into account.

Environmental policy should be aimed at the long term to ensure the continuity of tourism activities. However, many ignore this, preferring commercial and financial immediate gain.

To assess the impact of tourism on the environment adopted different models. In some tourist places, regulations are weakly enforced, and environmental services are practically non-existent. However, the absence regulatory framework that ensures the protection of the environment should not stop the process of tourism development planning. Specialists in this field should conduct their own environmental impact assessment. It should be noted that protecting the environment is a simpler and cheaper measure than correcting the harm done in the future.

Tourism development policy taking into account environmental impact is becoming more relevant, and the world tourism organization offers many programs for environmental protection.

The negative impact of tourism affects, first of all, the natural resources of areas of mass recreation and travel. Untouched forest landscapes have a special attraction for tourists. Certainly, Forest fires bonfires are mainly related to domestic tourism and not international tourism, since the comfortably inserted routes of foreign tourists are usually not accompanied by cooking on bonfires. However, deforestation, caused by the creation of tourist complexes that require clearing of sites for construction, has become an accompaniment to the development of international tourism.

Today we must be very clear that nature needs to be protected from tourism. Many violations of the ecological balance are recognized too late. emergence irreversible processes as a result of the destruction of the natural environment during its uncontrolled use for tourism purposes, it often leads to its extinction. It becomes lost to future generations. Tourists who satisfy their individual needs in the short term put them above the long-term use of natural resources. A serious risk is posed by those places of stay of tourists where there is no necessary and unsuitable infrastructure has been created.

Often, when tourism interacts with the environment, priority is given to the economy. It is believed that the problems of environmental protection should be solved after economic ones. In fact, everything should be just the opposite. Tourists are attracted by ecologically clean regions, where they can get a full-fledged healthy vacation and aesthetic impressions from communicating with nature. Its destruction sooner or later leads to the disappearance of tourism as a branch of the economy in the region. attractive landscape, fresh air, clean water in reservoirs, spacious beaches, an abundance of forest plantations - all these are tourist values. And they must be preserved by setting the limits of loads at which the ability is not lost. natural complexes to self-healing, intensive recreational exploitation of territories is achieved with the obligatory improvement of the territorial structure, as well as minimization of undesirable anthropogenic impact.

If we turn to the history of tourism, we can establish that the original basis of its occurrence was precisely the natural conditions. The first groups of tourists made trips to those countries where there were favorable climate and healing springs. In its untouched state, nature has been preserved under the protection of rangers only in Northern Baikal in the territories of nature reserves, in any other places where unorganized vacationers enter by car, littering of the coast is rampant. Environmental degradation is visible to the naked eye and this summer season it clearly demonstrates what will happen to the shores of Lake Baikal if the flow of wild tourists increases in the future. The bays of the Small Sea in the places of favorite mass recreation of the Irkutsk people are disfigured to such an extent that one no longer wants to return to these shores with dying nature in some places.

Already, the coast is experiencing colossal anthropogenic pressures from the invasion of townspeople in the summer. The nature of Baikal is being destroyed literally before our eyes. You don't have to be an expert and scientist to see that with the connivance of local authorities, an unregulated flow of wild tourists literally overwhelmed the shores of all the warm bays of the Small Sea. The tents are close to each other, the beaches are crowded with vacationers and this is not the same Baikal as it was just a few years ago. It's time to beat the alarm bells so that the barbaric littering of the beach area does not lead to sad consequences. The shores of the most beautiful bays for the sake of momentary profit are rapidly and thoughtlessly built up with primitive barrack-type tourist bases, so much so that their buildings are already close to each other next to the beaches, leaving no free space for the greenery of wild plants. Today, 32 tourist bases have already been built on the shores of the warmest small-sea bay of Mukhora, of which only one Gostiny Dvor "Bayar" is equipped with all the amenities in the rooms, up to a shower with hot water, and meets modern requirements for receiving tourists. Isn't ecological expertise necessary for the construction of a tourist base? How come that most of of these barracks built in recent years with primitive amenities on the street adjoins close to the beaches of Lake Baikal?

A typical unsightly picture on the banks, once sacred to local population lakes, today they have become: trampled relict grass, scorched blackened earth, dried up streams, barbarously cut down forest, mountains of ugly garbage on unique sandy beaches, a grandiose gathering of vacationers with their cars and pets, and everywhere a continuous garbage dump of scattered glass bottles and fluttering on the wind of multi-colored torn plastic bags. Who will need such Baikal after a couple of years of such a tourist boom and rapid desecration? Is it possible that a person has become hardened and stupid enough to pollute the shores of Lake Baikal without a twinge of conscience, as if nature will not take revenge on him with subsequent soil degradation, drought, the invasion of silkworms and encephalitic mites, and the deterioration of the properties of water in a reservoir. Why do local authorities and environmental structures remain indifferent to the rapid degradation of the coast and the barbaric behavior of vacationers on its shores?

Many years of talk about tourism on the shores of Lake Baikal as a blessing and a locomotive for the development of the territory, in fact, turned into trampled down unique natural landscapes and barbaric destruction of the natural environment. The natural beauty of the shores of the unique Siberian lake, which our “Glorious Sea - Sacred Baikal” was so famous for before, has been irretrievably ruined in many places. The coast of the lake in the most attractive places has been fully inhabited and equipped by man, so there is no longer any exotic, but The Last Frontier wildlife moved far to the north - close to the protected protected areas of reserves.

The reality is that civilized and purely ecological tourism has turned out to be a drop in the swollen wave of unorganized vacationers and amateur tourists, literally falling on the coast of Lake Baikal every summer. According to calculations, from each such savage, only after a short Sunday rest, up to one bucket of garbage remains, and for a year from one person on the coast accumulates about 1.8 cubic meter household waste. Today there is an urgent need to regulate the flow of unorganized tourists, from which mountains of garbage and only tree stumps remain, in development legislative framework to collect money from vacationers to restore order on the coast of Baikal.

These measures, which are not popular among vacationers, who are accustomed only to taking everything for nothing from nature, cannot be dispensed with today, otherwise the coast of Baikal will end up in a continuous ring of landfills.

The efforts of small number of volunteers to clean up the shores after the summer season become futile, the resulting multi-ton deposits of garbage in one summer season now need to be removed by KAMAZ vehicles. For some reason, vacationers believe that garbage can be buried or left in a plastic bag so that someone can take it out later. No one conducts explanatory work with vacationers, they do not force self-collection of garbage, the system for collecting garbage on the road is not established, so everything buried on sandy beaches after strong winds reappears on the surface, plastic bags peck at seagulls in search of food and garbage scatters far around.

A similar picture is also observed on the eastern coast in Buryatia, where it is extremely rare for vacationers to find a clean beach without traces of a previous stay here. The littering of the coast is visible along its entire length from Gremyachinsk to Ust-Barguzin.

From the consideration of the relationship between tourism and ecology, it follows that they cannot exist without each other, since natural resources are part of tourism resources along with other components of the tourism business, such as capital, technology, personnel. But at the same time, it is impossible not to take decisive measures aimed at preventing damage to nature in the process of tourism activities. After all, the rejection of tourism is fraught with economic losses, and ignoring the associated environmental aspect entails the destruction of the natural environment, which sometimes has much greater consequences for society than the receipt of taxes from tourism by the state budget.

One of the effective directions of such a decision would be the development of ecological tourism - this is a type of tourism in which the service of nature lovers does not violate the ecological balance; this is travel in ecologically clean areas, and sometimes the provision of all possible assistance in the study of nature. Ecotourism pays serious attention to the ecological education of tourists. Some travel companies conduct special training for their customers in environmentally literate behavior. The main goal of popular activities is to teach people not to leave traces of being in the wild.