The ecotourism regions
We invite you to join our ecological trips to the world of protected nature. To the world of virgin forests and boiling rivers, magnificent mountains and bloomy steppes, the world where the animals and birds live in a free and happy atmosphere. Each is your little discovery. You will be able to listen to the Tuvinian guttural singing and visit the tribesmen of Dersu Uzala – Udege and Nanaians. To fall asleep accompanied with the cries of fish eagle-owl and follow the trace of the powerful Amur tiger. To cross the tundra of Taimir together with Nganasan people , to make a float along the precipitant Sayan river or ascend the Kamchatka-based acting volcano.
Ecological tourism is a kind of tourism when all the participants remember their responsibility for their each step in the world of virgin nature, for saving its original beauty and local traditions. The number of ecotourism dwellers has been recently increasing worldwide.
Ecological tourism is not a severe multiday trip with a rucksack. Our programs are very diverse and are intended for people of the most age and callisthenics level. They include excursion programs, family trips and day-off trips. But all of them have something in common, i.e.
• The most beautiful corners of protected nature "apart from worn paths".
• Interesting cognitive program (excursions shall be guided by the employees of conservation areas and national parks, professional archaeologists and other experts)
• Meetings with wild animals
• Communication with people close in spirit and possibility to find new friends
• And, finally, a possibility to bring one’s own contribution in preservation of protected corners of Russia (our tours will provide financial help to the protected natural areas and local settlements)
The region of Siberia spans 13,488,500 sq km (5,207,900 sq mi) and is even larger than Canada, which is the second largest country in the world after Russia. The region is divided into three major geographic areas. In the west, between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey River, is the West Siberian Plain, which contains large amounts of swampland. Between the Yenisey and Lena rivers is the Central Siberian Plateau, with elevations ranging between 300 and 1200 m (1000 and 4000 ft). And to the east is a complex system of mountain ranges and uplands extending from the Lena River to the Pacific coast.
Siberia has several major mountain ranges. The mountain chain composed of the Yablonovyy and Stanovoy ranges extends from just north of the Mongolian border northeast to the Sea of Okhotsk. Also on the Mongolian border, south of the Central Siberian Plateau, are the Sayan Mountains. The highest mountains in Siberia are generally in the Altay range, south of the West Siberian Plain. Spanning portions of Russia’s borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China, the Altay Mountains generally measure between 3000 and 4000 m (10,000 and 13,000 ft) in height, reaching their highest elevation at Mount Belukha (4,506 m/ 14,783 ft). At Siberia’s northeastern extreme, a chain of volcanic peaks—some of which are still active—extends along the entire length of the Kamchatka Peninsula. One volcano, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, is the tallest peak in Siberia at 4,750 m (15,584 ft).
Siberia is traversed from north to south by three great rivers, whose tributaries intersect like branches of huge spreading trees. From west to east, these rivers are the Ob’, the Yenisey, and the Lena, all of which flow north and drain into the Arctic Ocean. The three rivers are frozen from six to nine months of each year. Of Siberia's major rivers, only the Amur flows east, following a sharply winding course to the Pacific Ocean. Southeast of the Central Siberian Plateau, near the Mongolian border, is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake. Lake Baikal holds one-fifth of the earth's fresh surface water and contains a great diversity of plant and animal species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else on earth.
Except in the south, Siberia experiences long, cold winters that last for seven to eight months in most parts of the region and even longer in the far northeast. Summers in Siberia are short and generally moderate. The average temperature tends to rise as one moves south. In Tomsk, in the West Siberian Plain, the average temperature in January is -21њ C (-6њ F), and the average temperature in July is 18њ C (64њ F). Irkutsk, in central Siberia, has an average January temperature of -21њ C (-6њ F) and an average July temperature of 16њ C (61њ F). And Verkhoyansk, in the far northeast, averages -51њ C (-60њ F) in January and 14њ C (57њ F) in July. The vast Siberian interior receives scant snowfall. Precipitation is usually light, except along the Pacific coast.
Major vegetation zones extend in bands from east to west across all of Siberia. Extending south from the Arctic Ocean for a distance of about 430 km (about 270 mi) is the tundra, a belt of treeless marshy plains. Most of the tundra is in a permafrost condition, perpetually frozen to great depths; however, the top 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 ft) thaws enough in the summer to permit mosses, lichens, flowering plants, stunted shrubs, and hordes of mosquitoes to flourish. To the south, the tundra shades into the taiga, a vast belt of mainly coniferous forests, in which the most common trees are larch, pine, Siberian cedar, and fir. Along the southern edge of the taiga is a transitional forest belt with deciduous trees, such as birch, willow, and poplar. This area then shades into the steppe, or grasslands, of the southwest, which contains Siberia’s richest farmland.
Siberia is rich in animal life. Among its more common mammals are foxes, otters, wolves, hare, moose, reindeer, polar and brown bears, sable, seals, and walruses. Leopards, tigers, and antelope inhabit the Amur River region. Sturgeon, salmon, and rare freshwater seals inhabit Lake Baikal. |
