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TOURISM AS A SOURCE OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
FOR RUSSIA'S NATIONAL PARKS

Tourism is currently one of Russia’s most profitable industries and the fastest growing (at roughly 5% a year). It is also an index of society’s welfare. The economic effect of investments in tourism exceeds that of investments in any other industry. Nowadays tourism is an independent industry consisting of groups of enterprises that aim to satisfy the diverse and constantly increasing demand for all manner of recreation and entertainment. One form of recreation that is new for Russia is visiting national parks.

There are 36 national parks in Russia today. Some are small, like the Kurshskaya Kosa National Park in the Kaliningrad Region (6,600 hectares); others are enormous, like the Yugyd-Va National Park in the Komi Republic (2 million hectares). According to the Federal Law “On Natural Protected Territories”, one of the main tasks of National Parks is to enable controlled tourism and recreation. “To enable” means to organize activities aimed at attracting tourists, tour operators and travel agents to the Natural Protected Territory, and to create all the services that tourists require. In other words, the aim of the national park is to promote rational (and sustainable) exploitation of the park’s resources. These include natural, historic, social and cultural sites of federal, regional and local importance within the park.

The current state of tourism in Russia’s national parks is unsatisfactory. The existing services do not bring in as much money as they should to the national parks, more than a third of which have no income from tourism at all. There are several reasons for this. First of all, few specialists dealing with nature conservation and tourism are aware of the existence of the national parks in Russia. Most tour operators and travel agents know nothing about the possibilities for recreation in Russia’s national parks. Second, the staffs of Russia’s parks have had little or no experience in dealing with tourists and managing tours. Third, those national parks which evolved from forestries tend to look to “salvage cutting” for income, rather than to tourism. Fourth, national parks wishing receive tourists must negotiate with the local bureaucracy first. Fifth, the laws governing relations between national parks and other enterprises are mostly ineffective. Moreover, the low salaries at national parks mean that their staffs tend to be less motivated and less professional. The existing tourist facilities, too, are poorly financed.

Rational exploitation is one of the principles of sustainable development. Meanwhile, one of the main criteria for sustainable development is the living standard of the local community. If that standard is low, there can be no sustainable exploitation. One way to raise the standard of living is to involve the local community in the tourist activities of the national park. The potential role of such tourism in regional economies should not be underestimated: it can buoy local budgets and create new jobs; it can help to solve both economic and the social problems.

In 1996, Russia announced its decision to make the transition to a rational exploitation of national parks. This transition is strategically important for all concerned: the national parks, the regional councils, and the local populations.

The national park is, by law, a non-profit organization devoted to nature conservation. Yet tourist and recreational facilities can generate badly needed income. Our aim here is finding the line between the non-rational (non-sustainable) and rational (sustainable) use of national parks for tourists’ purposes. To do this, we must first identify the rights and responsibilities of the various parties involved (the national park, the regional councils, the local community). But first we must understand who is in charge of tourist activities within the territory of a national park?

In our view, it is unacceptable and detrimental to turn a national park into a tourist-oriented business. Tourism in national parks should be managed by local small businesses working in cooperation with the park management in a rational way that does no harm to the reserve and benefits the local community. The national park’s role in tourism should be confined to the following:

1. Management of recreational loads. Acceptable recreational loads for national parks should be determined on an individual basis and taking into account the park’s natural, historical and cultural features. A maximum acceptable recreational load should be determined on the basis of the applied scientific research, corrected in accordance with the results of ecological monitoring, and reflected in the park’s management and development plan*. The research data should also be used to determine the least invasive locations for tourist routes and facilities within the park.

^* Note: The park’s management plan should be approved by the local authorities; it should also benefit both the park and the local community.

2. Planning, organizing and controlling tourism in the national park. By this we mean determining the optimal number of visitors to the park; setting up the necessary services (to be staffed by locals) for that number of tourists; and keeping the number of tourists to that optimal or sustainable level. In order to regulate the flow of tourists, one must first monitor the duration of the average stay in park (e.g., less than 2 hours, more than 24 hours, etc.), object of visit, routes use, sex and age of visitors, etc.

3. Organizing services. Services should satisfy tourists’ demands and they should be provided by members of the local community working on contract for the park. The park should determine which groups of tourists are the best from the point of view of conservation.

4. Attracting tourists to the national park. The national park should work with local tour operators to attract tourists in a way that is competitive both in Russia and abroad.

5. Maintaining tourist facilities. The national park manages the development of the tourist facilities, working with interested local enterprises, organizations and individuals.

6. Educating the local community. Ecological education should be a way of attracting members of the local community to participate in the work of the national park. By this we mean not only teaching ecology to school-age children and college students, but also learning how the park can best communicate with the local community. Given that the regional communities are mostly inert and unambitious, it will take a lot of effort on the part of the part to interest most locals in its activities.

The local authorities have a greater interest in the development of tourism and recreation than do the national parks since tourism will lead to the creation of new jobs. The local authorities can provide legal and economic support for members of the community interested in setting up tourist services in the national park. The contradictions between the conservation activity of the national park and the agricultural activity of the local community are typical and often subjective. They can be solved by integrating the national park into the social and economic structure of the region, by specifying the powers of the national park, of the local councils, of the users and owners of the lands within the borders of the park, of the regional authorities and the local community. Such integration will make the development of the park more sustainable.

The search for common interests can lead to the creation of a formal or informal park support group consisting of park staffers, tour operators, and local authorities and business interested in the development of tourism. The main purpose of such a group is to assess the need for construction or reconstruction of tourist facilities, for changes in the park’s zoning, for greater efforts to attract local tourists, etc.

Cooperation at the federal level is also possible and could have a salutary effect on the development of sustainable tourism Russia’s national parks across the board. At the regional level, cooperation could lead to the inclusion of the national park’s plan to develop tourism in the regional program for tourism; this, in turn, would give the additional funding for tourist facilities.

Local councils can support the development of a modern system of managing tourism both within the national park and in the region as a whole by:

• researching the tourist market and regional demand;
• developing projects for new tourist facilities;
• becoming involved in publicity and promotion;
• interesting the local community in working at the park’s tourist facilities.

The population in and around the national park is primarily rural. The process of involving this community in the park’s tourist activities is complex. Most of these people live on their own plots of land and will only get involved with the park if it affords them additional income and the legal status they currently lack. Moreover, these locals have mostly poor educations and have none of the business acumen and ambitions needed to succeed in tourism. Finally, the local councils and national parks, as a rule, do not have the necessary skills for working with the local community to promote sustainable exploitation.

Tourism, however, could benefit the local community economically, politically, culturally and socially effect. Most tourist sites serve the locals as well by providing seasonal or part-time employment. Local interest could further stimulated by announcing competitions for the right to do business in the park; by giving preferential credits to projects in environmentally sustainable agriculture or services; etc. Meanwhile, locals could earn money by:

• improving tourist routes in the national park;
• equipping and servicing camping sites;
• giving guided tours;
• transporting tourists;
• accompanying hunters and sport fisherman;
• renting equipment;
• accommodating tourists;
• catering;
• organizing cultural programs (folk songs and traditions);
• teaching and selling traditional handicrafts;
• producing whole food products for tourists;
• collecting and preparing mushrooms and berries to be sold to tourists; etc.

Individuals involved in these kinds of businesses would need to have a licence from and an agreement with the national park. For the broad introduction of leasing and concessions, the national park would need to find locals capable of keeping their agreements. The local councils could act as their guarantors, e.g., by training them in the basics of visitor accommodations and services.

The main principles of a sustainable development of tourism in national parks are as follows:

1. employing people from the local community to work in the park’s tourist facilities;
2. gearing these facilities to tourist demand and making them profitable;
3. informing the local authorities, community and tour operators of the park’s plans and projects for the development of tourism;
4. involving regional and national tour operators in tourism management activities;
5. training the local population to work with the park’s visitors;
6. relying on local councils when introducing the sustainable exploitation;
7. Coordinating activities connected with sustainable exploitation of the park through public co-ordination centres.

Sustainable exploitation depends on the shared interests of people in business, conservation and the local community.

E. V. Levkin,
Biodiversity Conservation Center

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