UNESCO, WWF and my Daurian steppe

This is the "Stone Herd".

The nature that surrounds my house is increasingly becoming an object of protection and even a World Heritage site. My land is no longer a land, but an object. In general, everything that gets in the field of vision of a person, in the second half of my life becomes an object and a goal. Having achieved one goal in the XX century, that is, destroying and destroying everything that is possible, a person in the 21st century engaged in the protection of the destroyed.

July 7, 2017 landscapes Dauria, the destruction of which occurred before my eyes, are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In Russia there are already eleven such objects.

I was born and live in these very landscapes and, of course, I myself will become a part of this landscape, like all my ancestors. Today, my land is called the Russian-Mongolian natural site "Landscapes of Dauria".

Here it is - the country of Dauria! Photo of my friend A. Lesnyansky.

So be it. Maybe it's even good. It will be even better if tourists flow here.

My land needs electricity, water and nomad livestock. It is desirable using only high technologies. My land needs tourism and enlightenment. My land is needed - finance and socio-cultural development.

Such development is possible with state financing and development of tourism.

My land does not need industry and extractive industries. My land does not need a raw material economy. Destruction of my land becomes possible with the existing power of gangsters.

Flowers and horses...

Kamchatka volcanoes, Altai mountains, amazing forests of Komi, wonderful pillars on the Lena, the Sikhote-Alin reserve, the Wrangel Island, the pit of Ubsunur, the Putoran plateau, the entire territory of the Western Caucasus and my Daurskaya steppe are eleven sites that are listed in UNESCO as the world heritage of mankind . I really want to ask: can not the whole Earth become such a heritage? Can not we in Russia treat our own land, as a legacy that is destined for the descendants? After all, we will all become a landscape on which others will live? Can not we treat ourselves more carefully?

My Daurian steppes are the expanses at the borders of China, Mongolia and Russia. This is the place about which PS Pallas wrote: "On the beautiful steppes of Dauria, between the rivers Onon and Argun ..." I know these words by heart. My steppes are still beautiful.

Since the 1990s, I have met travelers in my steppes and on the shores of the Toreian lakes, I myself organized travels of my friends-artists. The results of our trips are paintings in illustrated albums, in the halls of stations, in art museums. And I also met with different foreigners, sometimes even on foot, who looked around in my steppe in mute astonishment or collected precious stones on the shores of lakes.

I'm not annoyed when they say and write that the World Wildlife Fund has brought my Daurian steppe into the ecological region, which is of global importance. What is this significance? To save life on our planet. WWF counts 200 such places, but my steppe is the only steppe in Russia that entered this list. Why is it unique? It's too early to be happy. The only reason is that the steppe disappears ...

497 square kilometers have already become strictly protected areas that are under the control of the State Nature Biosphere Reserve "Daursky".

The total territory of the Daurian steppe is almost 100 thousand square kilometers. About 70 thousand square meters. km - this is actually a steppe, a huge area, which can accommodate more than 10 administrative districts.

Photo by Vadim Kirilyuk. Daursky Reserve.

Of course, in my Daurskaya steppe sooner or later tourists will be drawn. First of all, they will be attracted by the stunning history of my steppe and only then - by biological diversity and unobstructed view of the expanses where they will see herds of steppe antelope gazelles.

The great steppe, which more than once shook humanity and changed the map of the world, is here. The history of the whole Eurasia is concluded here. The birth of Russia as an empire was laid here. The entire Eurasian superethnos will find its cradle here. Hunnu began their movement from here. The Mongolian empire was born in this steppe. Genghis Khan was born here.

This legacy can not be betrayed and sold, accepting lightweight theories, ignorant historians, unproven and illogical versions only because the authors judge them "by the right of blood." And I assert by the same right that almost 80 percent of the length of the Onon River falls on the territory of Russia (fact!), Which means that this area accounts for the same percentage of historical events of world significance related to Onon. Naturally, this is the Hun, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire.

This legacy is lost opportunities and future incomes that will take advantage of the disappearing steppe and strengthen our descendants in this steppe.

Photo by Oleg Korsun

The entire Daurian steppe is dotted with tile and barrow cemeteries of the conquerors of the world against which the Great Wall of China was built. All the defensive structures that are outside the Great Steppe witness the existence of a formidable force that inhabited these lands.

There was no other force.

This same force is, in fact, in the genes of everyone living in Eurasia. Awake her! And return to the Daurian steppe by tourists and travelers!