ANNOTATION

The article discusses the availability of natural resources and their use in the Northern Ladoga region. The necessity for a comparative regional approach to the development of regional environmental management programs is argued. The analysis of geographical conditions determining the regional recreational potential has been carried out. Several options of effective use of tourist and recreational resources of the region are submitted. The need for further interdisciplinary research on projects to optimize regional environmental management is discussed.

Keywords: Effective Nature Management, Northern Ladoga Area, Ecological Tourism, Specially Protected Natural Areas (SPNA).

INTRODUCTION

         In recent years, the socio-economic importance of tourism as a factor of sustainable economic development of countries and regions of the world has been rapidly increasing. The relevance of tourist and recreational activities development in Russia has been emphasized by the government policy aimed at the evolvement of recreation and tourism. In particular, the “Concept of the SPNAs of Federal importance development system for the period up to 2020” was adopted, the Federal target program “Development of domestic and inbound tourism in the Russian Federation” (2011-2018) was implemented and the “Strategy of development and national security of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020”, providing for the development of Arctic tourism, was approved.

               Nevertheless, these programs, being of a framework nature, require scientific grounding.

               The emergence of these programs and their implementation show the importance of tourism in the life of Russian society recognized by the state. However, it is much more important to develop regional programs for the development of tourism, especially for Russia which has a vast and diverse territory. It is at the regional level that specific problems impeding tourism development arise, and, in turn, there are opportunities to effectively address these issues. Therefore, it is important to consider and analyze the experience of regional tourism development.

               The Northern and North-Western regions of Russia play a particularly important part in the country’s economic development. Currently, these are mainly raw materials areas focused on the development of extractive industries (oil and gas, mining, forestry), which are bound to cause destruction and pollution of natural environment, as well as degradation of natural landscapes. Therefore, an important strategic objective of the development is preservation of both natural landscapes and historical and cultural landscapes, formed over many centuries along the ancient waterways [3].

A particular part in the system of economic development of the region is given to a tourist and recreational sphere, which, unlike many other forms of environmental management, does not extract the resources but contributes to their preservation and development.

The literature review shows that a significant portion of publications on this topic can be divided into the following groups: textbooks on environmental management and environmental Economics (Bobylev & Khodzhaev, 2003; Lukyanchikov & Potravny, 2012), specialized publications showing the effectiveness of individual types of land use (Development management, 2008) and research works attempting to analyze and identify the most effective forms of natural resources use (Krasovskaya, 2008). The latter are of the greatest interest, but they are the rarest. Moreover, at the regional level, such works are almost non-existent.

Therefore, the purpose of the study consists in determining the role of tourism and recreation based on nature-cum-culture potential of the region and providing recommendations for its streamlining.

To achieve that, it is necessary to solve the following issues: to characterize the specifics of natural conditions and cultural characteristics, to highlight the main tourist attractions, and to demonstrate examples of the effective use of the recreational potential in the region worth disseminating.

The area of the considered region is located in the North of lake Ladoga and makes part of the drainage basin of the Baltic Sea. Administratively, it belongs to the Republic of Karelia and partly occupies some terrain in the North of the Leningrad region (Priozersky district).

Here lies a boundary between two major physical and geographical countries of Fennoscandia and the Russian plain, natural subzones of the middle and southern taiga, as well as Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe, with its unique landscapes of skerries.

In the Priladozhje, Ladoga area, cultural heritage of different peoples, such as Karelians, Finns and Russians, is well preserved. In the vast forests of modern Finland and the Republic of Karelia, they used to get furs which were later transported by waterways to the territory of Ancient Russia and further along the path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” [7].

Logging can be attributed to modern developed forms of nature management. At that, the most conflicting form of nature management is mining. Granite quarrying is carried out mainly by means of explosions, causing negative environmental impacts, such as seismic waves, dust emissions, etc. Also, in recent years, mass suburban construction carried out within both functioning and abandoned settlements has become another common form of nature management. Suburban development or country house construction reduces a possibility of developing socially important recreation zones and tourism in the region as the land valuable for the development of tourism gets lost.

A high degree of terrain mosaic, generated by both natural and human-induced factors, results in a high aesthetic quality of the landscapes. Major tourist attractions of the region are natural landscapes of the lake Ladoga area, including the archipelago of Ladoga skerries; architectural, historical, cultural and archaeological monuments, including a natural and cultural complex of the Valaam monastery; museums; a possibility to use diverse natural objects for practicing sports tourism, such as the rapids of the Tokhmayoki, Janisjoki, Kulismayoki, Kirjinyoki rivers; and objects of scientific and educational tourism, such as the Ruskeala mountain park.

The rugged terrain of the territory and numerous attractions contribute to the development of the following types of tourism: ecological, water sports, cultural, historical and pilgrimage.

The territory of Northern Ladoga area concentrates more than half a million people a year [6].

Specially protected natural territories (SPNT) of the North-Western Ladoga region are important not only as a way of preserving selga and hollow type, but also as a depository of unique skerry landscapes in the region. Also, they protect the ecosystems of Europe's largest water systems including Lake Onega, lake Ladoga, the Svir River, the Neva River, the Vuoksa river and part of the Finnish Gulf of the Baltic Sea [2]. They can be considered unified, in regards to the preservation of migratory sites of birds following the Belomoro-Baltijsky migration route.

The most significant specially protected natural area (SPNA) is the “Ladoga Skerries” National Park created on the order issued in December 2017. A great recreational value of the territory, as well as a high anthropogenic impact on it exercised by tourists, summer residents, local residents, timber producers and mining companies had necessitated the creation of this Park.

The area of the Northern Vuoksa district is most widely used by St. Petersburg residents for vacation and holidays. This factor calls for fundamental work in view of assessing an anthropogenic impact on the area. That is why a representative group of small business managers from Melnikovsky settlement, Priozersk district of Leningrad region, together with scientists of the Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, initiated a project aimed at creating the National Park “North Vuoksa.”

One of the most visited attractions in the region, not associated with the system of protected areas, is the mountain Park “Ruskeala” - a rare example of a new tourist object in the modern history of Russia. This all-season facility, the number of visits to which exceeds 300 thousand people a year, is once-well-equipped but now abandoned tunnels for marble extraction. Currently, it is evolving into a kind of center for tourism development and tourist infrastructure in the Sortavala district of the Republic of Karelia. One of the reasons accounting for success of this project lies in an integrated and phased development of the territory carried out in close cooperation with scientists and environmental organizations.

Also, there are interesting projects for the development of the territories neighboring on the projected national Park “Ladoga Skerries”. Thus, the “Center for environmental initiatives” ‘Nevo-Ekovil’ (Sortavala), comes up with a multifunctional project to create “Ladoga-1”, a sustainable development area, on the basis of the eponymous eco-settlement.

The following project objectives are under consideration:

- Creating a model of a new quality of life;

- Formation of new opportunities for socio-economic development on the basis of a new complex cultural, ecological and industrial structure;

- Reduction of rural poverty;

- Implementation of self-government mechanisms in rural areas.

A comprehensive solution to regional problems is associated with the implementation of interrelated and mutually supporting projects, such as:

- “Zemnomorje”, center of ecological tourism;

- “Materinsky Sad”, ecological and biological science and education project;

- “Derevnja Masterov”, manufacturing cultural and educational center.

As part of its operations, the Center of ecological tourism offers a whole range of different ecotourism products, such as educational, eventful, sportive, spiritual and domestic ones.

According to the authors of the project, ecological tourism is bound to stimulate the development of the construction sector, small-scale agricultural production, and handicrafts, social, scientific, environmental and cultural projects. Its attractiveness for tourists will permit not only selling the products but also carrying out diverse eco-educational activities.

It is obvious that within the space of an article it is impossible to consider all aspects and ways of optimization of tourist nature use of the region. Therefore, further research is needed. The most important objectives of the article could include the need for discussing the problems of effective use of natural resources and conflict resolution of regional types of environmental management; the development of criteria for assessing the optimization of recreational environmental management. All these studies can be carried out only by involving specialists from various fields of activities united by one common goal, i.e., optimization of environmental management, aimed at sustainable development of the region.

Bobylev, S.N. & Khodjaev, A.Sh. (2003). Economics of nature management. Textbook. M, 567.

Kovalev, D.N. & Noskov, G.A. (2012). The concept of formation of regional system of specially protected natural territories (based on St. Petersburg and Leningrad region), “Biosphere”. Interdisciplinary Scientific and Applied Journal, 4(4), 65-100.

Korostelev, E.M., Zelutkina, L.O. & Sevastyanov, D.V. (2014). Old portages as unique monuments of northern development. Priroda, 4(1184), 29-37.

Krasovskaya, T.M. (2008). Nature use of the North of Russia. M, 288.

Lukyanchikov, N.N. & Potravny, I.M. (2012) Economics and organization of nature management. Textbook for University students, M, 687.

Management of Tourism Development in the Region (2008). Experience in the implementation strategy of the Republic of Karelia/Institute of Economics of Karelian research center, Russian Academy of Sciences. Ed. by Savelyeva, J.V. & Tolstoguzov, O.V. - Petrozavodsk.

Sevastyanov, D.V., Korostelev, E.M., Mulyava, O.D., Shitova, L.F., Colpaert, A. & Lahteenmaki, M. (2013) Border recreation nature management in the North-Western region of Russia as a factor of sustainable territorial development. Bulletin of St. Petersburg University. Series 7. Geology. Geography, 2, 119-128.