G4T #53: Ecotourism Concerns in Russia's Altay - with Kathleen Braden

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation made at April's Association of American Geographers Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Braden points out the pressures to develop ecotourism for economic purposes, challenges of corruption, and concern over policies of international organizations such as WWF. Below is the abstract from her paper as posted in the conference program.

(Length: 26min 33sec)

The Impact of Nature Tourism on Biodiversity Change in the Russian Federation
scheduled on Tuesday, 4/17/07 at 16:00 PM.

Author: Kathleen E. Braden, Ph.D. Geography - Seattle Pacific University

Abstract:
With more than twelve percent of the earth's land area, the Russian Federation's situation for species conservation will inevitably impact the biodiversity of the planet. Since the devolution of the Soviet state, biodiversity has been poorly maintained in Russia, with an increasing number of species under threat of extinction. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, international environmental NGOs, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank Global Environmental Facility have all earmarked the tourism sector to provide alternative incomes and alleviate some of the stress on biological resources. These plans are examined, particularly related to nature tourism, the Russian system of zapovedniki (reserves), the ability of the Russian state to attract foreign tourists, and the role of the wealthy tourist class emerging within the Russian elite.
Keywords: tourism, Russia, biodiversity, nature reserve

FYI - I state in the podcast that it is Tuesday, May 15th, which is when I planned to post this. Life got in the way, however, and so it is actually May 17th that this is going up.

Cheers, Alan
http://TravelGeography.info