Scenarios of Practically Implementing Standards of Recreational Pressure on Specially Protected Natural Areas: A Case Study of the Lake Dus-Khol Natural Monument (Tyva)

This study is devoted to the practical application of standards of recreational pressure on specially protected natural areas. Results of research into determining permissible recreational pressure on the ecosystems of the Lake Dus-Khol natural monument in the Republic of Tyva are presented. A brief critical analysis of the methodological foundation for determining recreational pressure on Russian protected areas is provided, and the methods used to calculate pressure standards for the study area are given. The established pressure standards are analyzed by functional zones of the considered protected area, recreation facilities and the undeveloped coast, and landscapes. It is concluded that currently the coast is considerably overburdened by tourists; the current recreation development level does not correspond to the potential of the lake; and the reasons for the low recreation standards and the popularity of “wild” independent tourism lie in the material inadequacy of the infrastructure, the extremely low level of service, and the lack of plan-based management. The scenario method is used to establish potential paths of development of the natural monument and the entire resort area, in particular, to describe vectors of interaction between factors and images of the most likely versions of the condition of the lake coast. The results of a structural analysis of the three most likely scenarios (inertial development of the coast (preservation of the currently established trends), the development of basic infrastructure on the coast (compliance with sanitary and epidemiological standards), and innovative development (the creation of a special economic zone of the tourism and recreation type of national status)) are used to identify the key stages of managerial decision-making that the ensure systematic monitoring of compliance with the standards in practice. Each stage—the establishment of laws and regulations, R&D support for management decisions, examination of project documentation, and monitoring of project decisions—is represented by basic standard functions of state institutions of science, environmental conservation, and management and administration. The synthesis of functions results in a system of state control that eliminates the need to monitor individual visits and behavior of individual tourists. A standardization and monitoring algorithm for recreational pressure on protected areas is proposed as a discussion topic for researchers in the fiel