Mid-Volzhsky complex biosphere reserve

The reserve was included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves on October 27, 2006 ^[1] . It was created on the basis of the nearby Zhiguli Reserve them. I. Sprygin and the Samarskaya Luka National Park ^[2] , thus becoming the first integrated biosphere reserve in Russia ^[3] .

The purpose of the reserve is to ensure the protection of landscapes of Zhiguli and forest-steppe complexes of the Middle Volga region , the organization of environmental monitoring, the development of a sustainable environmental management system ^[4] , the creation of a model area for sustainable development ^[3] . The total area of ​​the reserve is about 400 thousand hectares, of which the core is about 30.1 thousand hectares (7.5% of the total area), the security (buffer) zone is 97.1 thousand hectares (24.3%), and transitional ( zone of cooperation) - 272.8 thousand hectares (68.2%) ^[5] . Sources often contain much smaller, erroneous ^[6] figures (Core - 30 thousand ha, buffer zone - 50 thousand ha, transition - 70 thousand ha ^[7] ). The maximum height in the reserve is 382 meters above sea level, the minimum is 30 meters ^[7] .

The reserve is mainly located on the territory of the Samara Luka , in the center of the Samara-Togliatti agglomeration . Most of the territory of Luke is weakly affected by anthropogenic impact, for the first time a protective regime on part of the territories was established as early as 1927 ^[4] . In addition, the reserve seizes part of the left-bank areas of the Usa and the left-bank Volga - in the city forests of Tolyatti , thus covering parts of the territories of 4 municipal districts ( Volzhsky , Stavropol , Syzransky , Shigonsky ) and two urban districts ( Zhigulevsk and Tolyatti ). Estimates of the population in the reserve are only approximate, there are no permanent population in the core zone, in the buffer zone - about 20 thousand people, and in the transition zone - 40-80 thousand people, depending on the season ^[7] .

The landscapes and ecosystems of the reserve are used in varying degrees of exploitation from protected areas to agricultural, industrial and urban planning use ^[4] .

The territory of the Middle Volga Biological Reserve is distinguished for its high biological diversity . Here you can find both various unique ecosystems and typical forest-steppe ecosystems of the plateau of the Samara Luka, the valleys of the Volga and Usa rivers ^[4] . The unique communities of limestone mountains include: stony steppes, virgin steppe pine forests and mixed coniferous-deciduous forests on sod-calcareous and unique brown forest soils . In addition, on the plateau of the Samara Luka, there are preserved areas of meadow and real steppes, as well as indigenous forests: lindens, oak forests and birch forests, and derived communities (aspen, maple, birch, and elm forests ).

Ecosystems of the Volga floodplain are represented by floodplain oak forests, forests with predominantly sedge , willow , silver poplar and black alder , willow thickets and flood meadows ^[2] . Special natural communities formed in places of limestone mining, the most interesting of which are the adits , which became the mass, the largest in Eastern Europe ^[4] , bat wintering grounds ^[2] .

Degraded steppe and meadow communities, as well as plowing on chernozems and gray forest soils, occupy a significant part of the territory ^[8] .

Of particular value are the Zhiguli Mountains - a tectonic elevation along the line of a deep fault , stretched in the latitudinal direction, the highest part of the Russian Plain . Since the times of the Pliocene, the Zhiguli has never been covered with glaciers or flooded during the transgressions of the Caspian Sea , which reached their foot. As a result, Lada has become a kind of refugium , and still retain representatives of the flora and fauna characteristic of long-standing climatic epochs. Hence, a large number of endemic and relict species of fauna, with which some specific species of insects are associated ^[8] . In addition to individual relict species, relict communities are preserved in the reserve: mountain forests , oak forests and coniferous-deciduous forests with a combination of elements of the steppe and taiga flora, rocky vegetation and stony steppes ^[8]

The steppe areas that are fragmentary in the reserve, which are found only in small unplowed remnant sites on the Volga slopes, in the Zhiguli and Sengiley mountains are of great value. These are the remains of steppe vegetation, which once covered most of the plateau of the Samara Luka. And although at present these are only small areas of the steppes, they cover all types of steppes found in the Samara region: meadow (northern) steppes, real or feather-fescue (southern), as well as special types of steppes - shrub, stony and sandy ^{[ 8]} . Stony steppes are found on the open southern and south-western slopes of the Zhiguli Mountains, occupying plots ranging from several tens of square meters to several hectares, the largest of which are located on Strelna Mountain and Molodetsky Kurgan (up to 13 hectares), as well as in the southern part of Sengileevskaya hills - on the chalk hills stretching along the Volga from Podvalya to Klimovka . Shrub steppes are found in the Zhiguli, in the central, southern and southwestern parts of the Samara Luka, in the Shiryaevskaya, Askulskaya, Brusyanskaya valleys. In the central and southwestern part of the Samara Luka, some fragments of feather-fescue steppes remained in areas unsuitable for plowing. In the southeast of Samara Luka, meadow steppes have been preserved, several dozens of hectares have been preserved in the Levashovskaya forest-steppe, a smaller area near the village of Podgora , still smaller areas in the Shiryayevskaya, Kochkarskaya and Morkvashinskaya valleys. On the Usinsk coast, in the vicinity of the village of Novinki , in Stephensky Bor and on the islands there are sandy steppes ^[8] .

The high diversity of natural communities has led to a large species numbers of plants and animals. Thus, more than 1,500 species of flowering species found on the territory of the reserve, 4 species of gymnosperms , 21 species of fern , 9 species of horsetails , about 170 species of mosses , about 200 species of lichens and about 800 species of macromycetes have been studied . Vertebrates comprise more than 300 species, of which 62 are mammals , more than 200 species of birds , 8 species of amphibians , 9 species of reptiles , 68 species of fish . The studied invertebrate fauna is about 7 thousand species, of which about 5 thousand are insects ^[5] . Of particular interest are endemics (5 species of plants and 11 species of invertebrates), relicts (more than 60 species of plants and more than 80 invertebrates), as well as species that need special protection and are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation - 21 species of plants, 19 bird species and 37 invertebrate species ^[5] . For 12 species of plants, the Zhiguli Mountains are a classic place of growth, it was from here that the first systematic descriptions of these species were made ^[8] .

There are 22 nature monuments of the Samara region on the territory of the bioreserva ^[5] . The reserve also serves to preserve valuable evidence of extinct crops: the Savromat (VI – IV centuries BC), the Sarmatian (IV – II centuries BC), the log cabin (VI – III centuries BC.) ), Imenkovskaya (V cent .), Novinkovskaya (VII – VIII centuries), Bulgarian (VIII – IX centuries). There are about 200 archaeological sites in total ^[3] . Also preserved objects nobility estates mid XIX in ^[4] .

Some industrial enterprises remain a serious threat to the reserve, first of all, these are oil fields and limestone quarries .

In 2010, the reserve was badly damaged by fires: more than 1 thousand hectares of fire were covered in the reserve, both in unique and typical plant communities ^[5] , and 1057 hectares of forest were destroyed in the Togliatti urban forest in the transitional zone fully, another 792 hectares partially ^[9] .

No special reserve management structure has yet been created. The implementation of the functions of the reserve is carried out by the forces of the Zhiguli Reserve, a national park, research institutes and executive authorities ^[5] .

In 2010, grilles were installed at the entrances to the galleries of the Popova Mountain in the vicinity of the village of Shiryaevo - this is the most effective measure for preserving the wintering place of bats ^[5] .

As part of the regional program for the development of tourism in the territory of the Samara region, one of the priority areas is tourism in the territory of the Middle Volga Reserve, primarily on the Samara Luka. Samara Luka is the main object of ecological tourism in the region ^[5] . Already, at present, the number of unorganized visitors to the reserve area reaches, according to some estimates, 1 million people per year. About 500 thousand people are covered by activities on excursion routes and ecological paths ^[5] .

However, tourists are often unable to cope with such an invasion of tourists either by the staff of the protected areas or the natural resources themselves. First of all, all preserved steppe species are vulnerable to recreational impact ^[8] . In 2008, the administration of the national park "Samara Luka" was forced to completely close for a year to visit because of the critical situation with safety such as Molodetsky kurgan - for restoring slopes, cleaning territories, equipment ecotrope ^{[10] [11]}

Currently, there are several organized tourist routes on the reserve: “Molodetsky Kurgan and Devia Mountain”, “Shiryaevo Village and Verban Mountain”, “The Stone Bowl Trail ”, “Vedmino Lake”, “To the Stepan Razin Cave” and “Mordovinskaya floodplain” on the territory of the Samarskaya Luka national park ^[12] , as well as the Strelna Gora motor route and the Kamennaya Bowl pedestrian through the territory of the Zhiguli reserve ^[13] .

Also in the reserve is the eco-cultural festival “LukAmorye” ^[14] and there are a number of tourist centers: the Samara Luk historical museum, the Usolye history museum, the Shiryaevo historical museum complex, the Lukomorye educational complex.

Tourism development

The Ministry of Construction of the Samara Region has developed a project for the creation of a tourist and recreational complex “Zhigulevskaya Pearl” ^[15] . The project involves the creation of three all-season resorts in Shiryaevo , Podgorah and Rozhdestveno . Planned construction of hotel and recreational complexes, the creation of two ski resorts with toboggan runs and a snowboard park, golf courses and sports complexes, landscaping of the beach area, reconstruction of existing marinas and the creation of new marinas for yachts and private ships ^[16] . It is also planned to build a cableway “Samara-Rozhdestveno” across the Volga with a capacity of 900 people per hour and the Podgora-Shiryaevo highway, 15 km in length ^[17] .

The total area of ​​the tourist and recreational complex will be 701.8 hectares, capacity - up to 3298 people, and to ensure its work, 660 people will be needed ^[18] .

The project was coordinated with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation , appropriate changes were made to the draft plan of the territory of Rozhdestveno and the general plan of Zhigulevsk However, the project had many opponents.

It is noted that the project "Zhiguli Pearl" did not pass any public environmental impact assessment , it does not take into account the impact on protected natural areas of federal significance, there is no list of measures aimed at minimizing such impact. It is noted that even with the existing recreational load in the area of ​​the village of Shiryaevo, the reserve and national park have serious problems with the protection of the territory, and the expected increase in the number of visitors will only aggravate them ^[19] .

In addition, according to the draft, the areas of protected areas should be reduced by almost 7,000 hectares, which directly contradicts the federal law “On Specially Protected Natural Territories”. Against this change in protected areas, a number of environmental scientists supported the Russian branch of Greenpeace ^[20] . A public petition demanding to cancel the decision of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation on the construction project of the tourist and recreational complex “Zhigulevskaya Pearl” gathered more than 25,000 signatures ^[21]

There are alternative tourism development projects in the reserve. This is a project to create a tourist village "New Ryazan" on the territory of the Samarskaya Luka national park, in which a hotel complex, farms, greenhouse and pond farms, gardens, gardens, chicken coop, stable barn, etc. It is also planned to build a mooring complex. However, this project does not consider the need to preserve the natural complexes of the national park ^[22] .

The third existing idea of ​​tourism development in the reserve is the project of the tourism and recreation complex “Zhiguli Ark - Belogorie”. The project provides for the so-called sparing use of the resources of the national park. In this project, a museum and hotel complex, a children's park, an arboretum, a stable farm, a farm, a craft settlement, and a festival glade are planned to be located on an area of ​​35 hectares. This is the only project in the creation of which environmental scientists took part, it was developed jointly with the Institute of Ecology of the Volga Basin of the Russian Academy of Sciences ^[22]

The history of monumental scientific research of the Middle Volga Reserve is still small and includes ^[5] two volumes of the Red Book of the Samara Region and two monographs on the inventory of invertebrates ^[23] and the rare floristic reserve complex ^[24] . Other scientific studies are also being conducted, which are reflected in the form of separate scientific articles on the nature of the Middle Volga reserve ^{[25] [26] [27]} .

A separate area of ​​research is the study of the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems; trends in the reactions of wildlife to recreational impacts are identified, the results of which develop recommendations for optimizing environmental management, recommendations for neutralizing the negative effects of recreation ^[5] .

• Krasnobaev Yu. P. Sredne-Volzhsky complex biosphere reserve: characteristics and main tasks // Proceedings of the VI Intern. scientific practical conf. "Tatischev readings: actual problems of science and practice." - Togliatti : Volga University named after V.N. Tatishchev , 2009. - p . 296-304 .
• Sredne-Volzhsky complex biosphere reserve // Herald of UNESCO. Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO: Journal. - 2010. - № 12 . - p . 168-173 . - ISBN 5-901642-14-7 .

• Mid-Volzhsky Reserve on UNESCO website