Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2019 number 5S

The article discusses the possibility of organizing the “ Sayan Cross ” transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site in the East Sayan mountainous region. The object includes the following territories: part of the Khuvsgul aimak in Mongolia, and in Russia - part of the Nizhneudinsky district of the Irkutsk region, part of the Tojinsky kozhuun of the Tyva Republic and the Okinsky district of the Buryatia Republic. Each of these sectors of the Sayan Cross with a large area is sparsely populated and inaccessible. The design of the Sayan Cross includes the formation of the structure of a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site, namely the planning of various categories new specially protected natural areas and territories of traditional nature used of native small turkic-speaking peoples with mountainous reindeer herding - Dukha (Tsaatans), Tofalars, Sojots and Tojins. In most cases, protected areas of national importance are included in World Heritage Sites. But in order to combine the natural and cultural components of the Sayan Cross object, it is also necessary to take into account the protected natural areas of regional significance and the territories of traditional nature used. Territorial planning for the conservation of natural areas and inhabited sites by native Sayan peoples is a complex and lengthy process. The main problem is related to the contradiction between the extremely clear task of preserving the nature at the global level and environment of small ethnic groups and the task of intensive development of the territory associated with the extraction of natural resources at the regional level. Therefore, the creation of a World Heritage Site will solve the problem of the contradiction between the priority of conservation of the natural environment at the global level and the priority of intensive development of the territory at the regional and local levels.