"Our ice": how they decided to take money for visiting Lake Baikal

The National Park "Spring Baikalia" set a fee for walking on the ice of Lake Baikal and forbade driving by cars outside the laid routes. Inspectors of the National Park and employees of the State Inspectorate for Small Courts will catch those who do not have permission. Operators expect a fall in tourist flow. Taiga.info tells how in 2020 the bandwidth in one of the largest national parks in Russia will change.

Small sea

The leadership of the National Park "Preservation Baikalia" said that it would strengthen the safety of the location of tourists on ice. Since January 2020, patrolling the small sea (the plot between the western coast of Baikal and the island of Olkhon), in addition to the employees of the State Inspectorate for Small Courts, will be conducted by the inspectors of the national park. If the tourist does not have a pass with him, he faces a fine of 3-4 thousand rubles.

According to Irina Volkova, a specialist in tourism, the “reserve Baikalia”, the cost of permission to enter the ice in the “reserved Baikalia” will be 100 rubles. For local residents - 50 rubles. And the fare on the road by car from the village of Khuzhir to Cape Hoba will rise from 100 to 300 rubles.

“We lay a certain route along which tourists will walk. On ice, they will not be moved by cars, but only at the [airplane] Khivus or [all -terrain vehicle] bar, the exit to the ice will cost the same as visiting the national park. You do not have to pay for transport. If you, for example, go to Olkhon for a week, then pay once. The permission will be valid both in the south of Olkhon and Baikal, in the Small Sea, ”said Volkova Taiga.info.

Representatives of travel agencies and guides say that the initiative of the national park will hit winter tourism in Lake Baikal, because the financial part of the tours on the lake is laid in a year.

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“So take it and unexpectedly say that this year you will not travel on ice - this is a blow to tourism. I poorly imagine how the process of monitoring the ice can be organized. After all, this is a historically established practice that people drive on the ice of Baikal, - quoted the Siberian Information Agency as a guide to Baikal Tatyana Postnikova. - Therefore, I can’t imagine the situation that everywhere where there is a trip to the ice, it will become impossible. Baikal is too large, the size of Belgium, it is simply impossible to patrol such a lake. So, there will be incidents. ”

Postnikova believes that it is impossible to provide all tourists with Khivusa, because there is no such amount in the Baikalia.

“How is it all“ mounted ”with the development of tourism in our territory? With such actions we kill Baikal as tourist destinations! ”, - wrote Irina Urbanovich in the comments under the post on Facebook on the introduction of fees on Baikal.

“We do not provide Khivus,” said Irina Volkova, a tourism specialist in Tourism of the “reserved Transbaikalia”. - We were already called from travel agencies, travel agencies agree with local residents about the Khivus. People were afraid that Khivus would also have to be paid, but no: they would simply have a certain route. And Khivus, while he is not in the price list, will remain free. Cars and ATVs banned because dangerous cases have become more frequent when the transport goes under the ice. ”

The Baikal guide notes some infrastructure improvements at Cape Hoba, where flooring, fencing and amending stands appeared, but there are no materials themselves with information on them. “Despite this, there is not a single urn, the toilets are terrible! Why does the national park do this, although they collect money for entry? For me this is a mystery. After all, the creation of infrastructure is a direct duty of the national park. This is a painful topic, ”Postnikova shared from SIA.

The fines and money for entering the territory of the park, collected from tourists, the “reserved Baikal region” promises to be sent to the installation of toilets in Lake Baikal, to the veils along the highway and information signs. The funds will be laid down on constant patrolling, noted in the national park.

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Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation No. 174 (on approval of the procedure for determining the fee levied for visiting by individuals the territories of national parks for tourism and rest) of April 8, 2015 suggests that each national park independently determines the amount of entrance fee. The “reserved Baikal region” approved the fee from tourists for visiting back in 2017. The fee for residents of the Irkutsk region amounted to 50 rubles, for visitors - 100 rubles.

“The order is long. For two years now, everyone who wants to get to the north of the island of Olkhon is paying for two years beyond the village of Kharants. Why did he suddenly spread to the ice? Why right now? If the order has been operating since 2017, it is not clear. This contradicts the provisions of the Water Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the so -called surface water bodies, which include Lake Baikal, are general -use water bodies, that is, publicly available water bodies, ” said Alexei Cherkashin, director of the Legal Agency of Consult. - And every citizen has the right to have access to public water bodies and use them for free for personal and household needs. Another thing can be provided only by the Water Code of the Russian Federation or other federal laws. ”

According to Cherkashin, a person who enters the ice of the Small Sea, without leaving in the Baikal National Park, is not obliged to pay for his visit to the Water Code, whose legal force is higher than order No. 87: “So, it is impossible to attract it for violations of payment, therefore the promised fines are unlikely to be legal. And they must be appealed, which we will do as soon as possible. ”

But the ice of the Small Sea belonged to the national park according to the general scheme since 1989, and the fee is also charged under Federal Law No. 33 (on specially protected natural territories), said the representative of the park Irina Volkova.

“Now the Ministry of Natural Resources reminded us that we would not forget that our ice. We were told that he also needs to be followed. Since this territory refers to us by law, we have no right not to take money. Prices may change, but the main order is from 2017. We have changed the price since 2018, ”Volkova emphasized.

Settlements

Residents of the Irkutsk, Olkhonsky and Slyudyansky districts of the Irkutsk region will be able to go to the territory of the National Park for free, Volkova said. But for this they need to obtain permission.

For relatives of local residents who come to visit them, a visit will also be free. But then the person who lives near Baikal needs to submit an application in advance about their visit. The national park will give him a pass where he will enter the members of the family of a person and the number of their cars. But free travel, according to the tourism specialist, the national park applies only to family members, friends or acquaintances must acquire a pass.

The main tourist village of Listvyanka will remain free for visiting, but if tourists go to a large Baikal path , in the forest or just approached the territory of the national park, they will need to seek paid permission, Volkova says.

In early December 2019, a video appeared on the National Park page on Instagram on how to properly neutralize, put handcuffs and in what pose to put a person who did not receive permission to pass to the national park.

The video spread in social networks. Residents of Baikalia claim that everything can be solved "without stiffness, handcuffs, incidents on ice, scandals and loss of reputation." Another question that excites the locals, whether it will be possible to get into the territory of the national park at night.

“All the locals take water from the ice hole both for their own needs and for animals in winter. It is very interesting how they will take her at night? " - wrote on Facebook a resident of Irkutsk Albina Tarasenko.

Hard measures for visitors who are in the park without permission will be used in rare cases. At night, it is forbidden to go to the ice of the national park, the specialist in tourism of the “reserved Transbaikalia” explained.

“The state inspector has the right to use handcuffs, twist and deliver to the police department. But with such measures they will not approach, for example, to a family who did not know about permission. So they will come to those who will negatively react or provoke the incident, ”said Volkova. “The state inspectors will never attack the first, they always go to meet visitors and will always be sent to a point where you can buy permission, or will be forgiven for the first time.”

According to Irina Volkova, the salvation of tourists will still remain in the competence of the Ministry of Emergencies. But by order of the national park they will have to register there: “If something happens to them and they do not get in touch, then the Ministry of Emergencies goes to save them. Registration is not forced, but in the order of recommendation we tell them that we have an order between two organizations. If they refuse, then we note that they notified them. Of course, if our patrol sees that someone is in trouble, they will help and provide first aid, ”she said.

The project of paid ice in Lake Baikal will become pilot, it will be approved for 2020. The flow of tourists due to paid ice will not be less because of the popularity of the place, Volkov is sure: “At first, of course, because of 50 rubles, they will swear and say what are bad, but over time the rules are normalized, cars and ATVs will not go to the ice, people will walk more, and the Khivus will have a permanent track. Everything will remain only in the plus. And there will be less deaths, and safety is higher. ”

Irina Belyaeva