Scythian Culture - Preservation of The Frozen Tombs of The Altai Mountains (UNESCO)

CHAPTER III • CHALLENGE FOR CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
The Altai: Heartland of Asia
Yuri P. Badenkov
Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, Russian Federation
The outstanding Austrian geologist Edward
Suess (1831-1914) once called the Altai the
“ancient crown of Asia”, but for the modern world
the Altai’s central part, the Ukok Plateau in particular,
is better known as the meeting place of four
states: the Russian Federation, China, Kazakhstan
and Mongolia. These countries’ frontier areas are
economically underdeveloped and peripheral
mountain regions, and they are therefore only
marginally affected by human activities, having
no large-scale industry or big cities, for example,
and the local populations are made up of diverse
ethnic groups that maintain rural life patterns.
Due to the Altai’s geographical position,
mountain relief and severe climatic conditions,
the rich biological diversity of the region is still
intact, as are its many diverse landscapes.
UNESCO, in recognition of this, has awarded the
title of World Natural Heritage Site to a group of
five sites in the region, and the Altai’s cultural
heritage is of no lesser significance. Indeed, this
region, though small in area, is at the crossroads
of four of the world’s major religions – Buddhism,
Shamanism, Islam and Christianity – and this heritage
too must be protected and preserved. Today,
the time has come to implement a sustainable
regional development agenda for the preservation
of this region’s outstanding biological, landscape
and cultural heritage.
Of special relevance here is the Scythian civilization
that dates back 2,500 years and whose
remains, frozen in permafrost burial mounds, are
found in all four countries having territory in the
Altai. Judging by the abundance of these mounds,
civilization flourished in this region during the
prehistoric period, despite the harsh climatic conditions,
and archaeological research conducted
over several decades has shown that the region
was never isolated from the rest of Asia.
However, today in the current period of globalization
and climate change, the cross-border
Altai region is under threat both from human
pressures and from environmental factors.
Human pressures include the major infrastructure
development projects that are currently underway,
such as the construction of a transport corridor
and gas pipeline between China and the
Russian Federation across the Ukok Plateau, as
well as increasing tourism in the area that
requires the development of hotel infrastructure
and supporting communications and services.
The long-term social, economic and cultural
effects of such developments on the region are
not clear, and, what is more, they have not yet
been investigated. Even if the effects of these
developments are not yet fully known, the risk of
profound changes in life patterns and local
economies is obvious, including geopolitical and
demographic effects.
The second major threat to the Altai is environmental
in the shape of on-going climate
change. Studies have revealed warming trends,
the inevitable result of which will be the deterioration
of the permafrost, with associated impacts
on construction, changes in environmental conditions,
including animal habitats, vegetation cycles,
etc., and the need for adjustments to industrial
and agricultural patterns in the region. These
threats constitute major challenges for scientists
and politicians, who have been calling for an evaluation
to be carried out of the scope and nature of
the risks to the Altai and for preventive actions to
be carried out to ensure the conservation and
development of the region in the face of such natural,
economic and geopolitical uncertainties.
Actions that could help to preserve the Altai’s
natural and cultural heritage, while also being in
line with sustainable development strategies that
adequately respond to the existing risks, include
the framing of an international treaty, first
proposed in 1998 and to be called The Altai
Convention, which would guarantee the sustainable
development of the Altai and the conservation
of its natural and cultural heritage and would
be signed by the Russian Federation, China,
Kazakhstan and Mongolia. 1 Other activities
include the establishment of a cross-border Altai
Biosphere Reserve on the basis of proposals put
Left Terminal: Stag on
a Ball. Wood and
leather; carved.
H. 12 cm. Pazyryk
Culture. 5 th century bc
Inv. no. 1684/153.
© The State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg.
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