Andrey Ershov
The lack of legislative regulation in creation, operation, management, and equipment of tourist trails hinders the development of tourism, including ecological tourism. This is the opinion of Tatyana Sakharova, Deputy Chairwoman of the Council of the Federation Committee for Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management. According to her, the senators recommend the government to speed up the submission of a bill to the parliament aimed at ensuring legal regulation of creating a system of tourist trails in Russia.
According to Tatyana Sakharova, the law should define, first of all, the concepts of a ‘tourist trail’ and ‘trail marking’, provide for the possibility of creating a network of trails of various difficulty levels, and ensure the route safety requirements. Ideally, each eco-trail is expected to have its own ‘certificate’. It is also necessary to take into account the aspects related to regulating the recreational load on natural and cultural complexes, as well as the issues of forming an eco-culture.
In addition, to attract investors in making the basic infrastructure facilities of tourist trails, it is important to regulate the specifics of their creation and operation on land plots of various categories, including state, municipal, and private properties.
Experts believe that the adoption of these measures will facilitate solving the problem of creating infrastructure facilities for ecotourism in all national parks of the country by 2030. The National Caucasian Trail - over 3,300 km long - is among the largest projects currently under development that will unite the natural, cultural and historical sites of the regions of the North Caucasus located from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.
The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia is currently working out a draft law aimed at simplifying the creation and equipping of tourist trails. The bill is expected to be submitted this summer to the Government for approval and the document should then be send to the Parliament to be discussed by deputies and senators.
In addition to forming the legislative framework for the development of ecological trails, the senators pay attention to the need to speed up the modification of the federal project ‘Preservation of Biodiversity and Development of Ecotourism for 2025-2030’, and to provide for the purchase of equipment for extinguishing fires, as well as the mechanisms to prevent the landfills in national parks.
For the safety of tourists, it is also important to regulate the construction of infrastructure facilities for air medical service, to ensure the convenient operation of the existing helipads; there are currently over twenty helipads in the national parks.
The development of the GOST ‘Green Standards. Green Criteria for National Parks’ is among other proposals made by the parliamentarians; it comprises a set of rules for visiting the national parks and instituting administrative action against the people who violate the rules of visiting the protected natural areas. The incentive mechanisms include the introduction of measures to stimulate the investors using ‘green standards’ and implementing solutions that allow maintaining a balance between the development of protected areas and the preservation of natural environment.
