The Baikal or Baikalsky State Natural Biosphere Reserve was
established by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR
dated September 26, 1969 No. 571 on the basis of the resolution of
the Council of Ministers of the Buryat ASSR dated December 31, 1968
No. 461.
The creation of the reserve was preceded by a
discussion of scientists and public figures. In August 1958, the
Irkutsk conference outlined the need to create a reserve regime on
Lake Baikal. Then a group of specialists in the field of nature
conservation spoke to the press with an open letter, where they
substantiated the need to create a number of protected areas on Lake
Baikal and in its basin. The conference participants proposed to
declare the 15-kilometer zone of the lake's coast a protected area.
In 1961, O. K. Gusev and A. A. Nasimovich, to develop these
proposals, put forward the idea of organizing a national park on
Lake Baikal. Since 1965, I.P. Gerasimov and A.A. However, the
emphasis was on the fact that the creation of the reserve was
necessary for a purely practical purpose - to provide ultrapure
water for high-tech chemical production, and “natural complexes -
landscapes located in the Baikal basin, like Baikal itself, were
those complex and delicate systems, existence and dynamics which
ensures continuous replenishment of the volume and properties of
Baikal water."
The territory of the reserve covers the central watershed part of the Khamar-Daban ridge with the highest point of Mount Sokhor (2316 m). The northern macroslope is located along the southern coast of Lake Baikal within the Kaban region. On the southern slope, the border of the reserve runs along the right bank of the Temnik River on the territory of the Dzhida and Selenga regions.
The reserve was originally
designed as a complex ecosystem and became the second in the "chain"
of protected areas, covering almost the entire coast of Lake Baikal
by now. The creation of the reserve was the response of the USSR
ecologists to the beginning of the construction of the notorious
Baikal PPM. One of the most important tasks of the reserve is the
protection of undisturbed cedar forests. At present, the reserve
serves as a reference territory for assessing the impact of airborne
industrial emissions from Southern Siberia on forest ecosystems.
Area - 165,724 hectares, taking into account the changes
introduced by the order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR
dated June 20, 1973 No. 366-r. The number of clusters is 1.
The reserve is
surrounded by a strip of protection zone with a width of 0.5 to 4
kilometers with a total area of 34 788 hectares (formed by the
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Buryat ASSR No. 435 of
December 3, 1976).
In 1985, the territory of the Kabansky
federal reserve (12,100 ha) in the Selenga delta was transferred to
the jurisdiction of the reserve.
Since March 3, 2011, the
territory of the federal reserve "Altacheisky" (78 373 hectares) in
the Selenginsky midlands was transferred to the jurisdiction of the
reserve.
Since 1994, the Kabansky Wildlife Refuge has been classified as a wetland of international importance (Selenga delta, Ramsar Convention). In 1986, the reserve was included in the international network of biosphere reserves. Since 1996, the territory of the reserve and reserve has been part of the Lake Baikal site of the World Natural Heritage.
The reserve has a Museum of Nature, founded in 1971.
The ornithological collection is most fully represented in it - 104
exhibits. The exposition of the museum is constantly updated. So, in
April 2019, a new exhibit appeared - a stuffed seal baby that died
as a result of human criminal actions.
An ethno-town has been
created on the territory of the reserve. A number of excursions have
also been developed and special ecological paths have been arranged.
The promotion of tourist groups along the southern border of the
reserve is prohibited in accordance with the law on reserves (in the
old editions of the 1950s and early 1960s, published before the
establishment of the reserve, there are many references to
categorical tourist routes along this territory)
More than 1050 species of higher vascular plants grow in the reserve (as of 2014), about 70% of the territory is occupied by forests. Many of them are rare, endemic and relict species. The Red Book of Buryatia (2013) includes 45 species and 10 - in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. There are 49 species of mammals, 251 species are birds, amphibians and reptiles - 6, fish - 12.
Otter, wild boar, roe deer, elk, brown bear, sable, capercaillie, black kite, kiksha, tundra partridge, crested wasp eater, Far Eastern tree frog, sharp-faced frog, lenok, taimen, grayling, viviparous lizard.
hazel grouse dagan, kostenets Altai, calypso bulbous, lady's slipper large-flowered, neottianta nodule, anemone Baikal (Arsenyevia), Rhodiola rosea (Golden root), Swertia Baikal, raponticum safflower (safflower safflower stemmakant, safflower safflower)